Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 114211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Once they’re gone, Trey goes straight to his bedroom, leaving us all be, and after a short attempt to have fun with us, Cody asks us to excuse him before going to check on his husband. We don’t hear from them for the rest of the night.
The remaining four of us lounge around the TV, Pete and Juni cuddled up making faces at each other, and Bridger and I on the floor. Bridger’s back is against the couch. I’m sprawled out like a ragdoll with my head resting on his lap. He keeps gazing down at me and stroking my hair, making me feel pampered.
“Y’all,” says Juni, sitting on Pete’s lap, “like, I was thinking, we could just do this every weekend.”
“Could we now?” laughs Pete.
“Yes, every single weekend. Why not?” She looks at me on the floor, then at Pete. “I don’t see why we couldn’t.”
It’s me, of all people, who rolls my eyes. “Alright, let me know how that goes for you, Dream World Barbie.”
She frowns. “I’m being serious.”
Now my eye roll turns into a laugh. “Some of us have lives.”
“I have a life, too.”
“Yeah, but yours never involves looking for a job, or making money, or handling real world issues like paying rent and worryin’ about your dad’s stupid pest control business.” When she doesn’t respond, I lift my head and look at her. “What?”
Her whole face has collapsed. “I don’t like how you’re talking to me, Anthony. It isn’t nice.”
“Isn’t nice? I’m just bein’ real. Shit. Is that such an innovation for us? Bein’ real with each other?”
“I was just saying it’d be fun.”
“To have no responsibilities? Go clubbing every weekend? Of course it’d be fun. But it ain’t realistic.”
“I-It could be,” she stammers, annoyed.
“You’re livin’ in a dream world, Juni. Real people don’t get to have dreams. We gotta grind every day for scraps of pleasure. You gotta wake up and see how life’s like for the rest of us sometimes.”
“I am awake!” she cries.
“Hey,” interjects Pete, voice firm. “There’s no need for talking like that to her. She was just saying she had fun this weekend. I’d love to do this every weekend, wouldn’t you? Sounds like a blast.”
“And you’ve known her for all of three days,” I throw back at Pete. “I wouldn’t call you an expert in Dream World Barbie’s free way of thinking.”
“Stop with the Barbie jokes,” says Juni.
“What? Now you have a problem with them? You love them.”
“When you say it in a certain way, I don’t like it.” She rises off of Pete’s lap. “You never had a problem with me before.”
I sit up. “I don’t have a problem with you now. I’m just statin’ the obvious. Everyone in this room except you needs to work for a living. We don’t have a lottery ticket nest egg to live on.”
“Lottery—What?” Pete turns to Juni questioningly. “You won a lottery or something?”
Juni looks at him, blinking, then at me, appearing bewildered.
It hits me a second too late that maybe she was enjoying Pete not looking at her the way everyone else in this town does: a rich girl who doesn’t deserve her overnight riches, who wastes it away, who has no responsibilities or worries in the world, who can do whatever she pleases without any concern for the consequences.
I guess I’m an idiot yet again, because the apology won’t leave my lips, and Juni looks like she’s trying not to cry. “I need a little air. It’s like I’m gagging on my own tongue or … something.” She stumbles as she turns away, tripping over her own heels, then sees herself out the front door.
Pete rises, goes to the door, then looks back at me. “The hell was all that about?” he asks me accusingly, then follows her out.
I stare ahead at the TV blankly, feeling guilty and stupid and angry all at once.
Bridger’s hand touches my back, rubbing me soothingly.
I peer over my shoulder, regretting he witnessed any of that. “I’m a shitty friend, I know.”
“No, you’re not.”
“I don’t know why I went into all a’ that. I think it started with Mrs. Tucker at Biggie’s. She thinks Juniper’s been ruining my life. Then with me bein’ trapped in my own mind all damned day about you guys leaving soon … and then me wonderin’ what the hell I’m gonna do after you leave.”
“After I leave?”
“I’m gonna fall the fuck apart, that’s what.” I let out a sigh and hang my head. “Sorry I’m a mess.”
“You’re not a mess.”
“Uh, yeah, I am.”
Bridger brings his arms around me, his face closer. “You and Juni are both good people. You’re just trying to figure yourself out. Maybe she is, too. It’s okay, Anthony.”
“She’s been nothin’ but nice to me.” I fall back against Bridger with my head lolled onto his shoulder. “But don’t I got a point? I can’t just play around forever.”