Shark Out of Water (Grab Your Pole, #3) (20 page)

The devil you know ~ Tristan

I took my shower and although I was intending to use every last drop of hot water, I had to cut it short. I kept having flashbacks to that outrageous shower Camie and I took. It was completely ridiculous and it was completely perfect. Yeah, I was still sorta dealing with the aftermath of her almost dying on the fuckin’ blue stage at school, but she was completely alive and she was completely mine. There wasn’t anything dramatic goin’ on, there wasn’t anything to be worried about…for that little bit, we were just us and we were together…laughing. So I’m sure you can imagine that I wasn’t one hundred percent thrilled when I came back downstairs to discover that Jeff wanted to talk some more. All I can say is that I’m so fucking relieved he was done needing to talk about his Lima Bean. Er…Peanut. Fuck it, they’re both legumes.

“So, what’s your plan?” He asked as he handed me a sandwich and took the chair next to me in front of the glass wall where I was looking out at the storm on the lake.

“The plan is to eat this and then get a decent night’s sleep for a change.”

“Dude. That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

I sighed and then answered him honestly. “I don’t have one.”

“You don—bullshit…you always have a plan!”

“Well, I’ve come to realize that I’m kind of a shitty strategist when it comes to her so now I’m wingin’ it.” Jesus…you’d think that should be more than abundantly clear. I mean aside from my Lloyd Dobler strategy on Halloween, every time I’ve tried to make a plan and be in control where it involves Camie it’s fuckin’ blown up in my goddamned face, so now I’m thinking that maybe I should just give it up altogether.

“Yeah, uh-huh…does wingin’ it involve working on your car with her dad, obsessively staring at her and trying to decipher how she feels about you? Oh, and that look you gave her the other day that was overtly erotic in nature had even
me
blushing…just so you know,” he told me and chuckled to himself when I shifted uncomfortably in my goddamned chair, making me consider throwing him through the fuckin’ window and then taking a cold shower. The fuckin’ prick. Good to know we’re back to normal, though.

“Honestly, man, I don’t know what the fuck I’m gonna do about her or how the fuck to go about doin’ it…and seriously, you gotta watch it with the teasing for a while. I’m unstable.”

“Yeah, I know…sorry. If I get too out of line, you’re more than welcome to use me as your personal punching bag, just do me a favor though and stay above the belt and below the neck…I want kids and Katy makes me wear bandages.”

“Deal.” Of course I’d really rather not lose control at all…certainly not on him but definitely not anywhere
near
Camie.

“Okay, so where’s your head at? You might not have an actual plan, but I know you well enough to know when you’re trying to make up your mind…” The little assmonkey…I
knew
he’d been watching me and trying to figure out what I was up to on his own.

“Well, right now I’m just trying to decide what I want. Or, I guess not what I want really, but whether or not Camie and I should even be together.”

“Dude. You love her. How can you even consider
not
being with her?”

It’s a good question, one that makes me wonder if what I feel for her is actually love, and then there are her feelings about me to take into consideration too, not to mention all the shit we seem unable to keep from putting each other through. “I don’t know, man, we keep hurting each other and even if we do honestly love each other…well, that’s just not right, you know? I don’t wanna hurt her anymore, I want her to be happy.”

“Okay, now I’m only gonna tell you this because I think you should know, and I know you’ve got a lot of fuckin’ nasty shit goin’ on in your head and you don’t need anything else to worry about when it comes to this whole thing, but, she’s
really
fucked up right now. I’m afraid that if you take your sweet time trying to make up your mind, your decision isn’t gonna mean shit because she’ll go be happy with someone else. Well, she won’t really be happy, but you know what I mean. You’ve basically left her up for grabs…she’s ripe for the pickin’ and the scavengers have already picked up the scent.”

“You weren’t bein’ fucking serious when you told me she left that party with a guy, right?” Praying, praying…

“Sorry, Trist, but yeah, I was,” he admitted quietly and waited for me to explode.

And I almost did. I came
very
close to not only throwing Jeff out of the fucking window in a rage for letting it happen in the first place, but I also had to force myself from stealing his Jeep so I could hunt the mother fucking walking dead down and effectively bury him in the fucking ground permanently for putting his hands and God knows what else on
MY
fucking girlfriend! I was mentally laying it all out… I’d mount the dead guy to the hood of Jeff’s Jeep like a goddamned deer and drive over to Camie’s to show her exactly how well I took the news that she’d cheated on me. But then I shook myself and realized it wasn’t Jeff’s fault and she wouldn’t think of it as cheating because we’re supposedly broken up. The jury’s still out on the fuckin’ dead guy though, and I couldn’t quite manage to unclench my teeth or keep the fury out of my voice when I growled, “Tell me everything.”

“It really wasn’t a big deal, dude, I swear, I made it sound a lot worse than it was. He was some guy she’d met at the bowling alley that night we all went before Thanksgiving…shit, she couldn’t even remember his name and told him so…anyway, he came up to her and Katy and me, I assessed him as a very minor possible threat, but a major douche bag, then she introduced us…the moron
actually
asked where you were, seriously, I couldn’t believe it…she didn’t even tell him you guys are broken up, she just said she didn’t know where you were and didn’t care, then she
completely
freaked the second you showed up and he drove her home. That’s it. Absolutely nothing happened.”

Have you ever heard the expression better the devil you know than the devil you don’t? Well, it means that even if they’re not ideal, it’s often better to deal with someone or something you’re familiar with and know than to take a risk with an unknown person or thing and in my opinion, that’s entirely true. Only in this case, I already knew a little bit about the scavenger that Jeff aptly qualified as a major douche bag and so I breathed out a sigh of relief, not being aware that my intelligence was
severely
limited in regard to what kind of predator he really is. Had I known just a teensy, tiny bit more, I might’ve been able to see it coming and do something about it.
But
, I didn’t…

Twelve.

Friday, Week Two

Without proof, a rumor is just that…a rumor. ~ Brandon

“Hey Bran…are ya even gonna
try
to not look like an insane stalker today?”

“Huh?” I asked Derek when his question infiltrated my preoccupation. I heard him but I didn’t hear him, you know what I mean?

“Dude, you’ve been staring at that group for three days now…which chick is it?”

“Oh fuck no! I’m not staring at a chick!” I said all defensively. Jesus, I guess I should be grateful that I don’t go to school with Melissa…she’d fucking go ballistic if it looked like I was staring at another chick for even a minute let alone three goddamned days.

“Uh-huh…”

He doesn’t believe me and I guess I can’t blame him; my track record with girls might not be quite as long as Tristan’s is, however we definitely ride in the same race. But whatever. I don’t need to defend myself to him or anyone else.

“Hey, what did Skeevy Scott want the other day?”
That’s
what I’ve been obsessed with if you want the truth. I’ve been watching him ever since he talked to Derek on Wednesday. The dirtbag just happens to hang out in a group that contains some chicks. And okay, yeah, if it wasn’t for Melissa I’d probably have been doing the stalker staring at them,
but
I would’ve admitted it.

“Oh, him? He had the fuckin’ audacity to ask me for Camie’s number.”

Quite honestly, I’m pretty happy with Melissa. She’s a giant, insecure pain in my ass, but, she gets me. Besides, none of those girls can hold a candle to her and for the life of me, I have serious doubts that I’ll ever get stiff for any other chick again because I just don’t find any other chicks as attractive as her. Plus, there’s this thing she does with her—Wait, what the fuck did he just say?! I have
got
to learn how to pay attention to shit around me and not fantasize my spare time away… Sorry, Sexy, as much as I enjoy letting you give me a mental boner, I can’t think about you right now…

“Uh, I seriously hope you didn’t fuckin’ give it to him…” But you know what this means, right? I guess it basically means I’m fuckin’ whipped. That’s just fuckin’ great…

“Hell no! I wouldn’t even give
you
her number unless she told me it was okay.”

“Did he say why he wanted it?” I know why he fuckin’ wants it…

“Yeah, he said she lost a lip gloss or something like that in his car when he drove her home from that party and wanted to get it back to her…but big fuckin’ deal, right? I’m sure her world won’t crumble if she has to go out and buy some lip gloss…” Exactly, but I’ll bet you my best Taylor guitar there was no lost lip gloss…

“Yeah, right…chicks love shopping so I’m sure she’s thrilled. Hey, did you ever hear for sure if he was one of the guys involved in that thing last year?” I want proof…I can’t really say shit until I have proof…

“No, I didn’t. He was good buddies with one of the guys who got arrested though, remember?”

Yeah, I remember. It was all the entire fuckin’ school could talk about for two months. This poor girl, she was a freshman and I can’t remember her name, went to a party with her sister who was a senior and from what people were saying, she did a group of like six guys at one time. A few days later though, the cops showed up and arrested Scott’s buddy who was the girl’s sister’s abusive ex-boyfriend, along with one other guy that he hangs with for gang raping her. The band was playing that party and I didn’t hear anything that night, but Sarah, one of my ex-girlfriends, was at that party too and was with the girl’s sister when they found her abandoned on the bed of an empty bedroom in the fetal position and crying about how five guys held her down and took turns goin’ at her. Sarah told Samantha and she told Josh who told me and the rest of the guys in the band that the chick was anything but a willing participant, plus, she wasn’t the type if you know what I mean. The charges didn’t stick, though, because there was no DNA. Also, rumor had it that she’d been drugged so she wasn’t a “reliable witness” or even really able to identify anyone or give the cops any other details so the guys came back to school. They kept their mouths shut and weren’t assholes about it at all, but the girl’s family ended up having to move because of all the vicious rumors and shit. Scott was with his buddies that night too…I thought it then and I still think it. He was one of those five fucksticks. I
know
it.

I just can’t fucking prove it…

Paranoia ~ Pete

“Hey Pete! Come here a sec!” MaryAnn hollered at me in the parking lot after school on Friday. She was standing next to her car with Jillian and Jillian’s expression did not bode well…

“What’s up?” I asked, trying to ignore the blonde hair being blown around me by the wind. It’s making my palms itch like mad.

“We were just talking about you…” MaryAnn said in that way girls and parents have that makes it sound like they know what you’ve done and are trying to get you to out yourself even when you haven’t done anything to hide. Not that I fall into the nothing to hide category, but still. I didn’t bite. I just stood there and looked at her. “Can you do me an enormous favor?”

Oh. Well, that’s not accusatory at all. I think I might be getting paranoid. “Sure, what do you need?”

Jillian went to pull her hair back out of her face and I had to dig my hands into my pockets to keep from doing it for her. I really think I would’ve if I hadn’t caught her mildly sour expression.

Shit, this isn’t good. I have to get away from here…

“Can you run Jillian and all this stuff to her house and then pick her back up after tryouts for the party?”

YES!
I would absolutely love nothing more! Well,
that’s
not exactly true. Oh, ahem, I mean…if I
have
to.

“Oh, well, I guess so.” I tried to make it sound like driving my girlfriend home from school and then to a party was a massively annoying inconvenience. I think I pulled it off pretty well, though, because I was then the recipient of a grateful smile and four boxes from MaryAnn, and an eye-roll that quite clearly and sarcastically said, “Subtle, honey,” from Jillian whose hair was swirling in the wind again.

Of course I’m not quite out of the woods yet because what I really wanna do is dump the boxes on the asphalt, pull Jillian to me and kiss her in front of God, the captain of the Varsity Cheerleading Squad, and everyone else we’re hiding our relationship from, which is essentially the entire fucking world.

Yeah, she’d eviscerate me no question. But I can’t help it! Stupid provocative wind…

“What’s in the boxes?” I asked instead of committing secret relationship suicide. Stupid clandestine rules…

“Camie’s uniforms, pom poms, and letterman’s jacket…they came in today. Jillian’s gonna wrap ‘em up and we’re gonna give them to her tonight at the party. Jillian, can you make sure it’s okay with your parents that she stays the night and pack her a bag? If you want, you can stay the night too,” MaryAnn said and I noticed that Jillian’s “look” was back.

“You know there’s a chance she won’t make it, right? My sister has an unfortunate tendency to choke under pressure.” Ain’t that the truth…

At least Tristan hasn’t done anything to freak her out today. Well, aside from being a little friendlier and not biting her head off. Actually, he’s been in a good mood today, which I think has a lot to do with the fact that he had a sleepover with Jeff and they seem to have patched things up rather nicely. I know it doesn’t have a
thing
to do with cheer tryouts, though. At lunch Jeff told him how good she is and that it’s his educated opinion that we’re just going through the motions with holding the auditions. Tristan wasn’t happy to hear that, nor was the orange that turned into pulp when upon hearing the news, Tristan launched it about seventy-five yards into the street from the front lawn of campus.