“No, I don’t.” I climb out of bed too because I don’t want to be the only one not standing. I’m tempted to take my shirt off as well so that I’m not the only one fully dressed, but that would probably be weird. I think. Yeah, definitely weird.
“Well, you don’t exactly seem calm, do you?” Oskar points out.
“Because you’re stealing my best friend.”
He shrugs. “Sorry, boyfriend trumps best friend.”
“Well, husband trumps boyfriend! Ha!” I point my finger in his face to really drive the point home.
Then Tripp curses, and I realize I’ve just messed up.
Oskar’s eyes flash. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“It was a joke,” Tripp quickly says, right as I reply with, “Fake husband. I mean. Obviously.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Sorry, Tripp.” I rub the back of my neck. “I … I didn’t mean …”
Oskar pinches the bridge of his nose. “Please tell me you didn’t actually get married.”
“The whole wedding was a joke,” Tripp says. “It’s not even legal.”
“You’re married?” His deep voice echoes off the damn walls, he’s so loud.
“No,” Tripp says, sounding a thousand times more patient than I would. “Dex didn’t think he could get married, so we were proving that he could. It was all fake. Calm your tits. Dex suggested it, and I—”
Oskar whirls on me. “I like you, Dex, but Jesus Christ you would have to be the world’s biggest dumbass. What is wrong with you? How could you make him do that?” Does Oskar sound … hurt?
I can’t even answer him. My annoyance from earlier dries up because yeah, I’ve been called dumb a lot in my life, but never like that. “I … I …”
“I can’t with you two.” Oskar throws up his hands and leaves.
“Shit.” Tripp shoots a look at me. “What happened to it being a secret?” he hisses before chasing after his boyfriend.
Well, I did what I wanted.
I got one over on Oskar.
It just doesn’t feel as good as I thought it was going to, especially when I’m left standing here alone.
Eight
TRIPP
“Oskar, wait.”
He was so fast to run out of there, he’s already storming down the beach by the time I get outside, and I have to run after him. Though I shouldn’t have to explain myself.
Oskar isn’t actually my boyfriend.
I’m just about to reach him when he whirls around on me.
“You let him talk you into marrying him?”
“No. Not exactly. I didn’t think he’d go through with it. I was there as a supportive friend.”
“How …” Oskar can’t seem to get his words out.
“How, what?”
“How do you do it to yourself, man? I’ve never loved someone before, but I’ve been interested in guys who haven’t been interested in me, and that was bad enough. How do you put up with him being so insensitive to you?”
“He’s not insensitive. He legitimately thinks we feel the same way about each other.”
“Then why do I seem to fight for your heart more than you do?”
“It’s complicated.”
A voice sounds behind me. “What’s complicated?”
I don’t need to turn to know it’s Ezra, and probably Anton too.
“Tripp here got married,” Oskar says. “Did either of you know that?”
“Uh, Oskar, I think getting fake married to Tripp is taking your ridiculous charade too far,” Ezra says.
“No, no. Not to me.” Oskar levels me with a serious stare—one I rarely see from the manwhore playboy that he is. “You want to tell them, or should I?”
“You’re making this out to be a bigger deal than it really is.”
“Why don’t we see what they think?” Oskar nods behind me.
I take a deep breath and slowly turn. “Okay, here’s the deal. Dex was contemplating marrying Jessica, but—”
“Somehow Tripp and Dex ended up getting married,” Oskar finishes. “Maybe Dex is so dumb he mistook him for her? I mean, they both have boobs, so maybe?”
I turn back to him. “I do not have boobs. My chest is pure muscle. And also, quit with the dumb Dex jokes, okay? He really hates it, and he doesn’t deserve it.”
“Doesn’t he?” Anton asks.
I put my back to the water so I can see Oskar and Anton at the same time. “You’re joining in on it too? Look, it’s one thing to joke about it, and hell, most of the time Dex is in on the joke because he knows when it comes to the media and talking stats that he gets tongue-tied, but he’s not actually dumb. The jokes are getting too …”
“Real?” Oskar asks. “Do you think I like being mean to Dex? Every time I’ve had to point out this week that you and I need alone time to be a couple and he’s given me those puppy dog eyes, it’s felt like I just kicked Bambi repeatedly. He doesn’t see how much he hurts you because you don’t let him. We’re trying to protect you.”
“You don’t need to protect me from Dex!” I yell. Myself, sure, but not from him. “He’s done nothing wrong. And the way you guys have been treating him … I want it to stop.”