“Yeah. I’m okay.” I wrap my arms around his neck, spreading my legs. “I have you. How could I not be okay?” That earns me one of his sexy smiles. No wonder women throw their panties at him. I can’t blame them. Too bad for all of them he is mine.
Chapter Five
Linc
Cherry is still sleeping when I crawl out of bed the next morning. My parents will be home this afternoon, so it’s the last time for a while that we’ll have the place to ourselves. Once I get a job, though, and an apartment, we’ll have this every day. I’d been hoping to jump start our life together when we graduated, but if the factory’s not hiring, I’m not sure what my plans will be.
The factory is the only big employer in town. The rest of the jobs around here are part-time gigs that wouldn’t pay enough to feed a bird, let alone Cherry. Maybe I can get work over at the local college—even if it’s cleaning floors or some shit like that. It’s not like I care what I do to make money as long as there is time for Cherry and my music.
I push all of that out of my head and get the fixings for breakfast. Today’s menu is waffles with whipped cream and sugared strawberries. I turn on the waffle iron and start mixing up the batter. My phone buzzes before I can pour out the first waffle. A glance at it says it’s from Nick.
You making breakfast yet? We’re outside.
Both my boys look like they haven’t gone to bed yet.
“Good night out?” I smirk, letting them in.
“Yeah. I’m starved. What’s for brekkie?” Nick walks by and arrows for the kitchen. Benjy follows slowly behind. His hoodie is up and the strings are pulled tight so there’s nothing but a small hole for him to peer through.
“Rough night?” I revise.
“I had a few,” he mumbles and stumbles over to the sofa where he throws himself onto the couch.
“We should write a song about a hangover. We could title it ‘the long goodbye’ and all the lyrics would be about that asshole in your life that ruins all the good things, won’t leave, and then you die,” Nick suggests. He pops some of the sugared strawberries into his mouth before I can reach him.
“Those are for the waffles,” I scowl.
“I’ll cut some more up. Where’s the container?”
I point to the fridge. While Nick preps more fruit, I start pouring out the batter. “How many do you want?”
Benjy holds up a fist.
“Yo, Ben, you’re still drunk. Your fingers aren’t up,” Nick yells out.
Benjy pulls his hand down and then raises it again. This time three fingers are showing.
“Where’d you two go?”
“The lake. Tate Lulzman was having an end of the year bash.” Nick sprinkles about a half a bag of sugar onto the strawberries. I guess it’s a good thing his old man’s a dentist.
“It’s not end of the year.”
“It’s an aspirational thing.”
“Anything interesting go down?”
“Lulzman’s ex showed up with a guy from Sailor Lake and the two almost killed each other.”
“The guy and Lulzman or Marie and Lulzman?” Marie has always been quick with a fist. I admire that about her.
“Ha. Marie and Lulzman. He could not believe she showed up with a guy to his party.” Nick mimics Lulzman’s high-pitched tone. Lulzman is a big dude with a small voice. Weird how things work out. “Anyway, he tried to get the two to leave and Marie was having none of it. Eventually the two got into a fight. Lulzman was throwing cups at her and Marie found a stick and wacked him across the back. We had to step in then because, you know, it was Lulzman’s party and it didn’t seem right that we allow him to get offed right by the keg he bought.”
“What’d Marie’s new man do?”
“Nothing. Stood there and held his dick. I think he might’ve been for show.”
“Gee, I wonder.” I flip a golden waffle onto a plate. Nick ladles on three tons of strawberries and then sprays a mountain of whip cream on top. “Is that for you, Benjy, or Cherry because if it’s for Cherry, she’d probably want a little less of all of it.”
“This is for Benjy. We got to get some food in his gut before he decides to barf up all the beer he drank.” Nick digs around for a fork and then carries his concoction over to the couch. “Eat up, old man. We’ve got practice today.” Nick glances over his shoulder at me. “We’re practicing, right?”
“We are.” We’ve got a gig Wednesday night. “Coincidentally it’s Sailor Lake.”
“I know. I was trying to chat up the new guy for intel about the crowd there, but he was out of it. Think he was stoned before they came.”