CHAPTER FIFTY

CHAPTER FIFTY
BLAKE’S POV

“I think I like Anthony a little...or maybe a lot.”

If she had liquid in her mouth, it would have been spilling everywhere on the table. If she hadn’t already gotten enough detention to last her a lifetime, she would have screamed right there and then. If she wasn’t dumbstruck, she would have done more than gape at me like a fish out of water.

Since our current position didn’t allow for her to react in the way I know she so desperately wanted, she had no choice but to do the one thing she was certain would work – she passed out. Or at least pretended to.

“I’ll get her to the clinic Mr. Bradley.”

Claire fainting during class was something that he was used to because everyone knew she messed up her doses even though in reality she hadn’t done that in a while now. She didn’t wait for me to get outside the school when she ‘awakened’ and made me let go of her.

“What the actual hell, Blake Lindell? What the hell did you just say to me?”

She was yelling, as she should rightfully do so given the circumstance, but we were currently skipping class and I had plans on seeing Anthony after school so I couldn’t do detention.

“Do you mind keeping your voice down?” I whispered as we hurried towards the pool. We practically had to run all the way there because Claire couldn’t keep a cool head.

“Tell me everything,” she said as soon as the doors closed behind us.

“Okay, so we had thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and my parents weren’t around because...well they’ve decided to stop being parents and not tell me where the hell they were going. My mom hasn’t been around for a while now and my dad left home way before she did and I can’t help but feel there was something going on but they wouldn’t talk to me and...” She gave me a look that said “I care about you a lot but do not deviate and focus on your love life.”

“Yeah, anyways, I ended up having dinner with the Pearces and his mom made me sit beside him while the rest of the family sat on the opposite side.”

“Ooh,” she gasped. “I can only imagine how Crystal must have felt and what she thought about the whole thing.”

Shit!

I was so focused on Tony that night I didn’t even have time to think about my girlfriend. And I’ve sorta been avoiding her since then, so I don't even have a sense of what she’s thinking. Well, no, I did know one thing for sure – she was furious. The multiple texts and voice mail she had sent me these last few days that I was skilfully ignoring her were a testament to that.

“Unfortunately, I was too busy trying to navigate my hand up Tony’s thigh to think of what my GIRLFRIEND would think about the whole thing!”

“Scandalous!” Claire was way too excited about this than I had imagined she would be. We were standing by the pool, and as my words echoed through the empty space, I felt a bit sick at what I had done.

I was a horrible, horrible person. I didn’t even know why I did that. It was like I had absolutely no control of my limbs and my hands just wanted to go where it wanted to go. Even when I was talking to Bonnie about my mother’s disappearance and my father’s reluctance to pick up when I called him, I was still trying to find my way up his legs! There was something obviously wrong with me!

“He choked twice on his dinner. I’m guessing Crystal guessed what was going on, although I couldn’t be too sure. I felt like shit! Why did I do that, Claire?” I groaned and squatted, berating myself internally for being such an asshole.

“This is great! This is absolutely wonderful news, Blake Lindell!”

I didn't know why I thought that meeting with Claire and talking to her about this would make me feel better. She was obviously pro-Anthony and whatever news I had regarding him would always be received gladly, regardless of the fact that it meant I was a cheating, lying asshole.

“I am basically cheating on my girlfriend with her older brother and you think this is great news?”

“It’s not really cheating if all you did was hold on to his thigh. I can do that to you right now, but that wouldn’t be considered infidelity.” I looked away from her shyly, feeling my face heat up.

“Oh my god!” She bent down to my level and grabbed my arm. “There’s more you haven’t told me yet. This Thanksgiving dinner isn’t even the main thing that happened. I can see it in your eyes and by the look on your face!”

She was right. I was thinking about the night he spent in my room last week. How my hands kept wandering all over his body. How I tried to place an elusive kiss on his neck for some unknown reason but ended up turning myself on. How I told him to take off his shirt because I wanted to see him shirtless and have free roam of his body. How I kissed his chest and put his nipple in my mouth...

“Oh my! Look how red you’ve gotten. It’s something huge, isn’t it?”

I didn’t answer her. Instead, I sat down on the floor and laid back down, staring up at the ceiling and thinking about what the hell was going on with my body.

I was reacting to Anthony in ways that I have never reacted to anyone before.

“I keep thinking of doing things to him I’ve never even thought of doing to a girl.”

Claire’s deafening screech made me realize that I had said that out loud.

“You like Anthony Pearce, oh my God! I knew it.”

“Claire, I need you to help me out here. How can I get out of this mess? I can’t stop thinking about him. I can’t stop feeling things for him. I’m straight! I’m not supposed to like him!”

“Sweetie.” Her voice took a softer tone and she was by my side, holding on to my arm while she stared at the ceiling and rested her head on my shoulder.

“Labels don't matter, Blake. I really wish a lot of people realized that. It’s okay to be straight and it’s okay to not be. It’s okay to be bi and it’s okay to not have a label attached to your sexuality. What is not okay is lying to yourself about your feelings and making yourself suffer unnecessarily when you know fully well what you want.”

She turned my face to face hers and held my chin in her tiny hand. “If you like Anthony Pearce, then you like him. And those who can’t deal with can go to hell. Crystal included.”

I snickered at her comment and looked away. After a beat I asked; “Why do you even hate Crystal? I don't think she has done anything wrong to you before.”

“No,” she said and sighed. “And I don't hate her. I just don't like her for you. Plus, she just rubs me the wrong way. I saw her yelling at her brother one time in the parking lot and I think it was about you. They were really mad at each other, that I could tell.”

I looked at Claire again, this time with my brows furrowed in confusion.

“What?”

“Yeah. Well, a couple weeks back I skipped class and I went to the parking lot cause I was hoping you’d be there too. I saw them arguing and Crystal Pearce said something about Anthony...” She paused here. It was a brief pause but I noticed it still and I knew when she continued with her story, it wasn’t what she wanted to say earlier. “And she told him to stay away from you but he didn’t listen and they had this huge argument. I didn’t stay to listen to the whole thing cause I don't really like to listen to people’s private conversation, plus the sound of her voice was like nail on a chalkboard to my ears, so.”

Anthony and Crystal had an argument. I knew there was something off with them ever since despite the fact that they both denied it. But now, hearing that it was about me, I couldn’t help but be even more curious as to what it was they argued about concerning me and why Crystal wouldn’t want her brother anywhere near me.

“You know you have to break up with Crystal, right?” Claire’s statement brought me out of my thoughts. She was right though. I couldn’t keep dating Crystal when I felt what I felt for her brother. But the thing was, I didn’t want to break up with her. I liked her a lot and I didn’t want to see her get hurt. I knew she liked me more than I liked her, but I wasn’t going to use that against her. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Then there was the thing with Anthony liking someone else. Even while I was fawning over him during dinner, I couldn’t get his words out of my head. He said he liked someone else and that was the reason he broke up with Michael. That really broke me. I wondered who that person was all throughout the rest of the week.

“What are you thinking about Blake?”

“Just...Tony probably doesn’t like me.”

“And what makes you say that?” I’ve known Claire for approximately a month now and I could tell when she wanted to scream and yell and berate but was just holding herself back from coming off like a mad woman. This was one of those times.

“He said he liked someone else. That was why he broke up with Michael.”

I liked the calm of the pool house despite the cold that accompanied it. I liked the fact that when we spoke, the water seemed to move in rhythm with our voices and when the sounds we made fell on our ears, it was like a heavenly, tranquil tune, pleasing and soothing to the soul.

Claire shuddered beside me.

“Did he tell you about this mystery person?”

“He said he was cool and he was handsome and that he made him laugh like no one else could but at the same time he was annoying as hell and that he pissed him off more than anyone else in the world.”

“What else?”

“He has a great personality, apparently, and everyone likes him because of it. To be honest, he sounds like a snub to me. An insufferable, egoistical and annoying bastard. I’d probably hate the guy.”

If someone had told me I’d be jealous of someone, not to talk of one I had never even met before, I would have laughed at their face and called them silly or ridiculous. Look what Anthony Pearce was turning me into!

“You are so ridiculously adorable, Blake Lindell, being jealous of your own self like that.”

I sat up straight and crossed my legs and looked at Claire that had a teasing smile on her pretty face.

“What the hell are you talking?”

Sighing exasperatedly and rolling her eyes, she sat up straight as well and looked me dead in the eye.

“You are such a stereotype, Blake Lindell. I expected more from you.” Then she muttered, “Pretty boy with no brains. Can’t even decipher a simple statement,” while she stood on her feet and dusted off her clothes. “Can we get out of here, Blake? My tits are frozen and I can’t feel my ass.”

She left me behind wondering what the hell she meant by what she said. She didn’t look back when I called to her and asked her to wait for me.