Would You Rather

16 - WYR: get read like a book or kill the mood

FIDAN

The second we get outside of city limits, Finley's friend Darius, a huge dude that looks strikingly like what might happen if PK Subban did a round of human growth hormones, spins to me in the passenger seat of my shitbox car that I have an emotional attachment to.

"Are you dating Fin? Is that what's going on there?"

I lock my elbows on the wheel, taking a deep breath, "no."

"Okay, so what were you two doing stuck to each other like dried oatmeal on a bowl last night?"

I give him a sideways glance and when his glare is leveled on me, I turn immediately back to the road. "We haven't fucked in a week. It was hormones."

"Okay? And how do I know you're not going to be a dick to my best friend?"

"Because she's very disinterested in dating me and I'm very disinterested in dating her and that's the agreement."

"I have no doubt that Finley can pull that off," he sits forward again, crossing his arms. "But you? I'm less sure."

"Why does everyone keep coming to this conclusion?" I ask. "What about me gives off unable to maintain a friends with benefits arrangement."

Darius gives me a once-over. "It's the vaguely needy demeanor."

I sit with that for a second. "We were bros last night and now you're calling me needy? I can see why the girl needs an external stress relief."

"Bronson is in love with her."

I nod, "yes."

"You knew?"

"Anyone with a brain knows."

"So he's probably going to tell you to fuck off."

I shrug, "and I'm probably going to tell him to deal with it. She's not looking for a boyfriend. I doubt she'll be looking for a boyfriend until she's thirty. She's got plans. Too bad so sad, she's fucking me and not him. He needs to get over it or make his move."

Darius is frowning. "You're kind of an ass."

"You just called me needy." I turn onto a provincial highway. "And yeah, I've got a sincerely fucked up home life and I'm a professional athlete. That's a pretty good two-step plan to becoming an asshole."

"You don't have a sincerely fucked up home life. Your parents managed to get you into pro sports. That takes so much goddamn effort and money."

"Having a sincerely fucked up ass home life doesn't discriminate based on wealth bracket," I'm frowning, confused as to how we even got here. "I just want you to put together these details in your head because I'm trying to be nice to you so that Finley keeps me around. My older brother and I were born ten months apart and he's fully Finnish and I'm not. He broke my nose last season and cut my fucking eye socket open this season and I haven't even played him the second time. My Dad used to be on the show and now doles out attention based on which one of us is doing better. Connect your goddamn dots."

Darius is quiet for a moment.

"Listen, dude," I say. "You're cool. I like you. Finley can handle herself and if she decides to drop me, who gives a fuck. I really kind of don't care about your opinion of me-"

"But you do."

I squint, "what?"

"You wouldn't have given me dots to connect if you didn't," he's inspecting me now, like I'm some sort of experiment. "You like her."