“Don’t say fag,” Anna tells him. “It’s rude.”
He rolls his eyes as he shoves a Jolly Rancher in his mouth. “He’s my brother. Besides, you know what they call us?”
“What?”
He leans forward and whispers, “Breeders.”
“Creed,” I say, “you’re a moron.”
“Yeah, what can you do? But seriously, Josh or Jacob messed him up. You guys break up all the time, and you don’t pout.”
“Just because you’ve never had anything long-term in your life, doesn’t mean you can take it out on those that do,” Anna snaps at him.
He scoffs. “I could if I wanted to. But do you know how many easy girls there are at ASU? And that’s just on my street.”
“You’re a pig, Creed.”
He smirks at her. “You love it.” He glances at me casually. “Why don’t you talk to Otter?”
“About what?” I mutter, trying to tie a rubber band around a finished party bag.
“You know, about his problems and stuff. For some reason, he’d always listen to you even though your advice was less than stellar.”
The rubber band breaks and snaps against my fingers. Rubbing them, I glare at Creed. “‘Less than stellar’? I give great advice.”
“You told me that girls like it when we were mean to them!”
“We were in the third grade! And I didn’t tell you to kick Suzy March in the stomach!”
He laughs. “It worked, didn’t it? Six years later she took my budding flower.”
“Creed!” Anna screeches as I laugh.
He smiles and looks like Otter. “Well?” he asks me.
“Well, what?”
“Talk to Otter for me. You haven’t even seen him since you yelled at him.”
Anna looks at me funny. “When did you yell at Otter?”
“I didn’t,” I growl, even though I sort of did. “Creed has it in his head that I told Otter off the night you saw him.” Another rubber band breaks, and I throw it down on the table.
“Did you?” Anna asks.
“No!” I almost shout.
“Whatever,” Creed says. “Anna, you should have seen the way Otter looked when they got back. I swear to God, Otter was about to cry, and Bear looked all pissed off. I don’t know why nobody tells me anything anymore.”
“Why tell you when you automatically know anyways?” I retort.
Anna looks at me and then back at Creed. “Would you go get the rest of the stuff from my car?” she asks him. He groans and holds his hands out for the keys. She hands them to him.
“Talk to him, Bear,” he calls out over his shoulder as he heads for the door. “Someone has to, and it’s evidently not going to be me. Who else is there besides you?”
Why doesn’t he just call Josh or Jacob? I think darkly before I can stop myself. I’m sure he can talk to him just fine.
“Bear?” Anna says softly.