“Everything okay?” Esteban asked as he saw us making our way back to the counter.
She put her arm around me in a comforting gesture. “Everything is perfectly fine. It’s nice of you to help your sister out, we don’t see that often, it’s usually the moms that deal with these kind of situations,” she said.
“He’s not my—”
“No problem,” he cut me off.
I didn’t give any thought on why he interrupted me. I’d had enough drama in the previous few hours. I took a long, hot shower when I got home, threw away my ruined underwear and used the dreaded tampon. Wanting to forget about the day from Hell.
Wishing my mom was there with me.
I gasped, placing my hand over my heart when I walked back into my bedroom. My uncle was sitting on the armchair in the corner of my room.
“Don’t you knock?”
“It’s my home,” he simply stated.
“Yeah, well it’s my bedroom,” I responded while holding onto my towel for dear life.
He was over to me in three strides, almost knocking me over.
“I’m going to overlook that you’re acting like a disrespectful puta because of the changes you’re going through.” He leaned in close to my face. “But if you speak to me like that again, I have no problem letting you meet the man behind the expensive suit.”
I jerked back, swallowing hard. Immediately understanding his subtle threat.
“Now,” he stepped back and I let out the breath I didn’t realize I held, “Esteban says everything was taken care of.”
I bit my tongue and just nodded.
“I’ve made an appointment with the female doctor for you.”
My eyebrows lowered. “How did you—”
“It’s next week. After you’re done with that bitch-causing thing.”
With that he turned and left.
I changed into some sweatpants and a t-shirt, getting ready to climb into bed when I saw a glass of water and two Ibuprofens sitting on my nightstand next to my book.
I chuckled, shaking my head in amazement.
Chapter 6
<>Austin<>
The boys, Alex, and I sat around the fire pit on the beach, bullshitting and shooting the breeze. It was the annual Fourth of July festival in Southport. The entire street closed down for the parade and firework display.
After the festivities there was always a party happening down at the beach. We were spending our last night together before the boys left for Ohio State in the morning, leaving Alex and I behind.
“I can’t believe you boys are leaving me,” Alex whispered in a sad voice.
She was sitting between Lucas and Aubrey, Dylan’s girlfriend. Normally Lucas would have pulled her to his side, comforting her and she would have leaned into his embrace. Appreciating his comfort and loving his warmth, except too much had happened between them now.
A lot changed in the last two years, including Alex having a new guy friend.
His name was Cole Hayes. He was from California, vacationing with his parents in Oak Island for the past two summers. Alex started working at her parents’ restaurant the summer before she entered high school, and as luck would have it, he happened to sit in Half-Pint’s section one afternoon, while we were surfing. He’d been a pain in the ass ever since.
She chose to work, for reasons that I already knew, but she never voiced.
When I saw Alex walking down the beach with Cole beside her an hour prior, I was shocked to say the least. She never went to these things. Parties weren’t her thing.
“You still have me, Half-Pint,” I reminded her, sitting on the other side of the pit.
“Thank God for that,” she breathed out, “or else I would be completely losing it.”
She crawled her way over to me, wrapping her arms around my waist. Her face tucked securely against my chest. I kissed the top of her head as she lay in my arms. I could sense Lucas’ glare, but still felt the need to look up at him. To my surprise it wasn’t a look of jealousy or anger like I expected.
There was longing.
As if I held his entire world in my arms.
For the first time we were on opposite sides of the fence, and I would be lying if I said it didn’t make me feel good to finally be the one that wasn’t standing on the wrong side.
I never imagined anyone could break Lucas and Alex’s bond. I would have bet my life on it. There were plenty of boys that were interested in Half-Pint throughout the years, but they all knew she came with baggage.
Four of them.
Cole showed up out of the blue one day, making it known that he was interested in our girl and not giving a shit what we thought about it. I didn’t know whether to beat the shit out of him like the boys wanted to or shake his goddamn hand.
He was in love with Alex. It didn’t surprise me. Alex was hard not to love. He put up with all of us boys because she didn’t give him a choice.
At the end of the day we would always be her good ol’ boys and for some reason…