“I’m not killing it,” I disagreed.
“Well, that’s just dumb.” He walked away.
I thought I’d gotten off easy, but I heard him pause in the grass and say, “How’s your eraser doing?”
I growled under my breath. “It’s fucking fine.”
CHAPTER 5
I’m not so good at advice. Can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?
-Coreline to Tide
CORELINE
Later that night, as I sat with my brother, Reuben, Alison, and Toddy in the bar, watching my dad play “Freebird” on the guitar as the opening band for the night, I remembered my day.
It made me smile.
Which I then had to explain, seeing as Alison was telling a sad story of her new teacher having an autoimmune disease called Raynaud’s disease, and how badly she thought it sucked because her hands looked ‘awful when they’re blue.’
“… and sometimes, her hands are blue and her hands go numb. Last week, she dropped her cup of tea in the middle of class.” Alison paused. “Why the hell are you smiling, freak?”
I felt my eye twitch as the table looked at me.
“What?” I asked, blinking innocently.
“You have a creepy, freak smile on your face while I’m telling you about my poor teacher who has a disease. It’s fucking weird,” Alison snarled.
God, what was with the attitude?
I mean, one day she was fine, and the next, she was a complete and utter asshole.
Hopefully Toddy didn’t start acting like Alison. I’d have to move away, no matter how much our father needed me.
“I was laughing inwardly as I thought about what happened this morning,” I admitted.
“And what happened this morning, Elvis?”
I froze at the sound of that voice behind me.
Chills raced down my spine as Alison cooed and smiled at the man I’d been avoiding all night.
“Holy shit,” Reuben called out, standing up as if he’d just seen his best friend after fifteen years. And, honestly, he had. Reuben and Tide had been the best of friends, regardless of what kind of asshole Tide was to me. It was honestly quite disgusting the way the two of them were thick as thieves when we were younger. But, I had a feeling, that was by design on Tide’s part. He knew that it would annoy the absolute crap out of me. And poor, dumb Reuben had no clue how he was being used.
Tide smiled genuinely at Reuben, offering his hand.
Alison batted her eyelashes in only the way a teenager sure of her beauty could.
Toddy stared at Tide with barely concealed contempt, because she was the only loyal person in the family—I was so buying her whatever she wanted from the store tomorrow.
“How are you, Reuben?” Tide asked. “You just visiting?”
Unlike Tide and me, Reuben had moved to Austin permanently, which was a normal thing for people that attended A&M to do. From what I’d once heard, Austin, Texas had the most degree-holding fast-food workers in the nation because of graduated college students unwilling to leave, and unable to find a job in their field.
“Tried to make it down for Toddy’s game last weekend, but only ended up being able to get today off,” Reuben said. “So I’m down to visit, then headed back to work day after tomorrow. It’s good to see you.”
I rolled my eyes.
I hadn’t even gotten that enthusiastic of a greeting, and he was my own brother.
“That’s good,” Tide said. “You still working down there at the same place?”
Reuben shrugged. “Yeah, still manager.”
As in, my brother, with his four-year business degree from A&M, still worked at Whataburger. Not that working at a fast-food joint was a bad thing or anything. Mainly, my problem with it all was that my brother had over five job offers all around the state of Texas and refused them all because of how much he loved the city of Austin.
He had two babies by two different women, and he could be providing them a better life had he just utilized his degree.
Clearly, I wasn’t bitter at all about not seeing my niece and nephew since their mothers had moved out of state for ‘a better life’ for their kids.
“That’s cool,” Tide lied, his eyes sliding to me. “Your sister tell you about the snake that she was blowing out of her yard with a leaf blower today?”
Toddy snorted.
Reuben shook his head as if I was a failure at life.
“One day, sis,” Reuben grumbled. “You better not have used that new leaf blower I bought for Dad.”
That was bullshit to say seeing as it was a new leaf blower that we’d bought for Dad.
It wasn’t my fault that Dad refused to use it because it was corded. Who knew ‘corded’ meant ‘less power?’ I guess I probably should have. Reuben, being a man, definitely should have.
Dad was all about instant gratification and power. The bigger and more badass, the better.
“Are you here on a date, man?” Reuben asked, changing the subject.