“Please don’t yell. I don’t want you to wake up Brooklyn,” I say in a small, yet defending voice. That seems to take the wind out of his sails a little bit, but I can tell he’s still ready to snap like a caged animal.
“You’ve been seeing Maddox this whole time? Behind my back? Hiding it from me?”
I stand up and go to him, touching his arm, but he recoils from my touch. “I can’t…I can’t even begin to figure out why the hell you would do this behind my back.”
“It’s not about you, Jake.”
“The hell it’s not! He knows that you are off limits, Avery! He fucking knows, and he’s been sleeping with you behind my back!”
“This was both of our decision, Jake. He didn’t pursue this. If anything, he tried to fight it.”
“And that’s supposed to make me feel better? You’re…you’re…”
“What?!” I yell back.
“You’re my little sister! And he’s…he’s not good enough for you! Damn it! I’ve seen him chase skirts his whole life. He isn’t good enough for you, Avery. Not even close.”
“Jake,” I say in a quiet, pleading voice.
“I can’t believe this,” he says as he walks to the front door.
“Where are you going?” I ask as he swings open the door.
“Right now, I need to go deal with the fact that my best friend was screwing my baby sister behind my back, and neither could be adult enough to tell me about it.” With a slam of the door, he’s gone too.
I sit back down on the couch as I hear Jake’s truck tear out of my driveway. The tears start to fall again. Well done, Avery. Well done. I’ve managed to push away two of the most important people in my life in the span of a week. I have nowhere to go tonight but into the dark recesses of my mind, alone and unwanted.
It’s almost midnight on Sunday night and I’m still up watching TV and drinking a beer. I’ve had pretty much the worst week of my life this past week without Avery. I’ve picked up my phone several times to call her and had to force myself to put it down. She doesn’t trust me enough to talk to me before jumping to conclusions, so why do I care about trying to talk this out with her. God, do I just want to hear her voice and find out how she’s doing.
Jake knows something’s up with me. I’ve been a jerk all week, but I can’t help it. He invited me to his parents tonight for dinner, but I knew there was no way in hell I could go and risk seeing Avery. I know I’ll run into her someday, but today was not going to be that day.
I hear a truck pull in the drive, and I look out the window to see who could be here at midnight. Jake.
I get up off the couch and meet him at the front door. As I open it, I don’t even have time to process what is happening. His fist slams into my left eye, completely catching me off guard and sending me flying back. Jake walks in, not even shutting the door behind him. He charges at me, throwing his weight into my chest, knocking us both back into the wall. I try to get him off me, but he’s obviously pissed off about something. Shit. Avery.
“How could you?” he growls. “She’s my sister!” He throws another punch and lands it straight in my jaw. Damn, he can hit. It’s like a lead brick slamming into my face. I touch my throbbing jaw, wincing at the pain of the slightest touch. I just stare at him, not knowing what to say; knowing that whatever punishment he’s about to shell out, I deserve. We were so busy this weekend in the squad car that I never brought it up. Hell, maybe I was thankful for a busy weekend so I didn’t have to tell him yet until I figured out what I was going to say.
When he gets to the door, panting, his nostrils flaring and his face angrier than I’ve ever seen it, he turns his cold eyes on me. “You destroyed twenty years of friendship. You broke the only rule we have as friends, as brothers. You did this. Now I’m ending it.” He turns and walks out the door, slamming it behind him as he goes.
I stand there for what could be two minutes or twenty, I really don’t know. All I know is that my whole face is on fire. I wipe the blood from my busted lip and head into the kitchen to get ice. I fill up two small baggies and head back into my living room.
I sit in the dark, quiet room with a bag of ice on my eye and one on my jaw and lip. I did this, and I deserve it. I’ve lost my girls and now my best friend. I lean forward and grab my beer bottle, taking a long, painful pull. Maybe if I get drunk enough, I can forget about the pain; the pain of my busted up face and the pain of my broken heart.
*****
I did something on Monday morning that I’ve never done before in the ten years of being a police officer and that was call in sick. My face is swollen and hurts, and I really don’t feel like going to work today looking like Jake’s punching bag. I’m not sure what I’d say to him anyway. So I sit at home all day by myself wallowing in my own misery.