The Twenty Year Triangle

Chapter Fourteen

"Brandi, I guess we don't know if the real him is the one with you or the one with his friends, but it doesn't matter. He should treat you well all the time, in public and alone, and he doesn't. He is a bad guy, and he doesn't deserve you." My words bring on a fresh bout of tears, and I hug her again as she cries it out.

"That's very close to what Olly said," she sniffles as we part.

"You told Olly all this?" I ask.

"Yeah, I've been keeping it all in so long, and once I started talking Olly just sat and listened, made it so easy to keep going, and so I did. I just blurted it all out." She wipes her eyes and takes a breath, calming herself again.

That must've been weird for him. I'm the only one that unloads emotional drama on him, although I try not to do it too much. My unrequited crush on Hunter makes Olly uncomfortable, even though he is a good comforter about it. I get why though; it puts him in a weird spot with me and Hunter.

"Billy heard and came in and said, Wade's been playin' you? I had to say yeah and Kinz, he looked so mad. I think he's going to go fight Wade."

"He is," I tell her. "Billy does love you, and you know what? I'm glad he's going to beat Wade up. I should've gone with him."

Where does he even get off? Playing with her emotions like that? There's plenty of girls that would just want fun, girls his age too, why not mess with them instead of a fifteen-year-old girl?

"Oh, Kinsey," she laughs shortly.

She's laughing and I may be short and skinny but I'm pretty mad right now. I think I could take that pretty boy.

"But I wish Hunter had. Wade's going to be a senior, and he has a ton of jock friends," Brandi worries. "What if Billy gets hurt?"

"He was calling Gabe and telling him to get others too."

"Why does that make me all worried about him," she sighs miserably.

"Billy?"

"No Wade," she spits out. "It sucks, Kinsey, love sucks. It makes you so stupid. I have to get over him, but I don't know how."

"If I knew how to get over a guy, I'd tell you, believe me," I say with a sigh and she gives me a knowing smile.

"Still into Hunter?" she guesses.

"Yeah," I sigh."

"He never got another girl after Mary Beth dumped him," Brandi points out.

He really hasn't, hasn't even hung out with anyone or gone on dates. He skipped the spring dance this year too, so Olly and I went as friends. "It makes me think he's probably not over her," I comment.

"We'll see about that," Brandi muses in a sing song voice. "You two have a whole summer together."

***

4th Of July

Why are we going to your house?" I ask as we head towards Hunter's duplex.

"You'll see."

He pulls me around to the side of his house instead of the driveway. It's just been me and Hunter hanging out almost every day when he' s done working on the farm. For now, anyway, soon he'll be back to working on the house with Judd. We walk past the little backyard area where Shar sits and smokes to the other side of the house, where a big oak tree sits.

"We can climb this tree and get on the roof," Hunter explains.

"Is it safe?" I ask nervously.

"Course it is! I go up here all the time," Hunter says. "I'll help you; come here."