My phone buzzes on my nightstand and I pick it up and see a text from Johnny: Nobody's home. Come over?
I roll my eyes at his horrible attempt at being subtle and text him back: Can't. Time of the month
His reply is quick and exactly what I expected from him: Gross. See you whenever that ends
I put my phone down and let out a groan. He always disappears when I have my period.
I venture out into the living room and see Grandma on the couch.
"You break up with Johnny yet?" she asks.
"No. I'm gonna do it in person one day next week."
"You say that now."
"He's a psychopath, okay? I have to be careful with how I go about this."
"You should just do it fast and get it over with."
"That's not how Johnny works. Fast to him means impulsive. He needs to know that I thought it over and that it's what I want and there's no changing my mind."
"He'll know it's what you want if you start dating someone new right after."
"I don't want him to know when I move on. That would just hurt him and make him spiral again."
"He's gonna spiral anyway."
"He might." I admit. "But at least this way, he can't question what I want."
"He'll still question it."
I let out a sigh and shrug. "Probably. Where's mom?"
"How the hell should I know?"
"No need for the attitude." I laugh.
I make my way back to my room and see a text from Bryce as I flop down onto my bed.
Come over?
What is with both of the boys in my life wanting a booty call today?
I text him back quickly. Can't today sorry :(
Are you with Johnny?
I roll my eyes as I type my reply. No
His response is fast and only mildly pisses me off. Then what gives?
I groan as I text him back. I just can't
My phone buzzes and I roll my eyes as I read his response.
But why? Alex, what's going on?
I scream inside as I press send. If you must know, I have my period.
His text back makes up for all the frustration his previous ones caused: Can I bring you anything?
Oh, I'm gonna have fun with this.
I smile as I text him back. Brownies would be nice
His response makes me smile. Do you want me to make them for you or bring over a box of brownie mix and we can make them together?
I text him back with the biggest smile still on my face. Second option please
You got it, babe
I set my phone down and roll over in my bed. A few minutes go by before a knock on the front door finally comes. I jump up and lay my comforter over my bed to make it look a bit neater before heading to the front door to let Bryce in. I stop at the top of the stairs when I notice Grandma sitting on the couch.
"You weren't gonna get that?" I ask.
"Do I look like I was gonna get that?"
I laugh and head down the stairs. My fingers grab the cool metal of the doorknob and I open the door to let Bryce in. "Hey." I smile.
"Hi." He pulls me in for a hug. "How are you feeling? Do you have cramps or anything?"
"Not really." I shake my head and notice the box of brownie mix in his hands. "You're the best."
He smiles and takes his shoes off and I lead him up the stairs to the kitchen.
"What do we need for those? Just an egg?" I ask.
"And oil."
"Can you grab the oil from that cabinet?" I point to the cabinet next to the fridge.
"Sure." Bryce grabs the oil while I grab an egg.
I open the cabinet above the fridge so I can grab the glass pan but I don't see it. "Where did it go?"
"Where did what go?" Bryce asks.
"The glass square pan I always use for brownies." I open the next cabinet, above the pantry, and don't see it there either. "Grandma, do you know where the glass pan for brownies is?"
"Nope."
"You don't?"
"Nope."
"But you know where everything is."
"Nope."
"Grandma!"
"What?"
"Where is the pan?"
"I don't know."
"Do you actually not know?" I ask.
"Why does it matter?"
"Well, are you losing it or do you just not give a shit?"
"I just don't give a shit." She laughs.
I shake my head with a smile.
"I think I found it!" Bryce calls from the kitchen.
I walk in and see him holding it.
"Where was it?" I ask.
"That cabinet." He points to the cabinet across from the fridge. "This is it?"
"Yeah."
He sets the pan on the counter and wraps his arms around me.
"What?" I ask.
"Nothing. I just like holding you."
Johnny never holds me like this.
I smile and pull away. "Should we start baking?" I don't wait for an answer before I grab the mixing bowl. "Could you preheat the oven to three hundred?"
"Sure." He walks over to the oven and presses a few buttons while I open the box of brownie mix.
I dump the mix in the bowl and unscrew the cap on the bottle of oil. Bryce cracks the egg and drops it in the bowl while I fill the tablespoon measure with oil. I dump it in while he throws out the shell and washes his hands.
Bryce mixes everything together and pours it into the pan as the oven beeps to let us know it's up to temperature. I go to grab the pan but he stops me.
"I got it," he says and picks up the pan. "I don't want you to risk burning your hand putting it into the hot oven."
That's actually kind of sweet.
I smile as I set the timer. "Want to go watch a movie in my room?"
"Sure."
I lead him to my room and sit on the edge of my bed and grab the remote.
"What kind of movies do you like?" he asks.
"Anything scary."
"Had you pegged as a romance fan." He smiles.
"I'm dating Johnny." I laugh with an eye roll.
"For now." He bends down and kisses my forehead. "Pretty soon you'll know what it's like to have a real boyfriend who values you."
I can't wait.
"You okay with watching something scary?" I ask.
"Yeah, put on whatever you want to watch."
Johnny rarely lets me pick and when he does, I still have to run it by him.
I put on a horror movie and set my remote on my nightstand before laying down. "Come lay with me."
He smiles and climbs into bed with me. I lay my right arm over his chest and rest my head on his shoulder. We make it about three minutes into the movie when my phone goes off.
"Your mom texted me. She wants me to babysit next weekend."
"What day?"
"Saturday."
"Great. Date night." He rolls his eyes.
"Don't like this one?"
"It's a new one. She dropped that last bum."
"That's rough. Where are you gonna be Saturday?"
"I got a job, so working."
"You got a job?"
"Gotta make money to take my future girl on cute dates."
I can't help but smile. "Where do you work?"
"JT's autobody shop."
"Oh boy."
"What?"
"Johnny's dad owns that place."
"Are you fucking kidding me?"
"I wish."
"Fuck."
"Johnny never goes there, it'll be fine."
"Alex, I will hit him with somebody's car if he shows up."
"I don't doubt that." I laugh.
"Of all the fucking places I could've gotten hired." He rolls his eyes.
"It'll be fine."
"Yeah, I'm sure." He rolls his eyes. "What time are you babysitting Lay?"
"Your mom asked me to be over at seven. What time are you working until?"
"Eight. We can hang out when I get home."
"Sounds perfect."
The timer we set for the brownies goes off so I pause the movie we're barely watching and climb over Bryce to get up.
"You could've let me get up first." He laughs.
"And where's the fun in that?" I grab his hand and yank him up and lead him to the kitchen. I see Grandma sitting on the couch. "Were you gonna turn the timer off?"
"It's not my timer." She shrugs.
"Were you gonna tell me it went off or were you just gonna let it beep?"
"You heard it, why would I have told you?"
Attitude.
I hit the button on the microwave to silence the timer's perpetual beeps.
Bryce grabs the red oven mitt off its hook and slides it onto his right hand as he opens the door to the oven with his left. He pulls the brownies out as I open the cabinet next to the microwave and pull out a toothpick to stick into them. I push the toothpick in and pull it out and inspect it for any batter.
"Perfect," I say.
Bryce sets the brownies on the stove top as I turn off the oven.
"Can you grab a knife out of that drawer?" I point to the drawer beside the sink.
"Sure." He opens the drawer and grabs a knife as I slide the oven mitt off of his hand and onto my left hand.
I take the knife from him and hold the glass pan still with my left hand as I cut into the brownies.
The smell of brownies must finally reach Grandma's nose as she comes into the kitchen and goes right to the pan.
"Need a taste tester?" she asks.
"Sure." I use the knife to lift the first brownie from the pan and I set it on a napkin for her.
She picks the brownie up and brings it to her mouth. After a few seconds of chewing she finally
smiles. "These are great! Could you make some for me to bring to poker next week?"
"I thought you played bingo." Bryce chimes in.
"Only when Tara makes me." She rolls her eyes. "Now that I'm not allowed to play darts anymore."
"You used to play darts?"
I take one look at Bryce's face and can't help but laugh.
"You didn't mention that your grandma used to play darts?" he asks me.
"I didn't think you'd believe me."
"Well, if you told me, probably not. But hearing it from her?"
"Why are you surprised that I used to play darts?"
"My grandma sits at home baking cookies all day, not playing darts or poker."
"Or pool." I add.
"You play pool too?"
"We've got a pool table downstairs, wanna watch me kick your next girlfriend's ass?"
"Grandma!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, sweetie. Did you not want me to tell him you stink at pool?"
"Yeah, that's the part of that sentence I'm correcting you on." I roll my eyes.
"We all know you're gonna date him after you finally dump Johnny."
"And what makes you think Bryce even has feelings for me?"
"Why don't you ask me yourself?" Bryce laughs.
"No. We are not having this conversation with my grandmother."
"Alex, you're a damn moron." Grandma shakes her head.
"Thank you," I say.
"You are dating a piece of crap boy, putting up with way less than what you deserve, when you could be dating Bryce."
"You're getting in my business again."
"Somebody has to, you can't figure it out for yourself."
"Thank you, Grandma. Here's another brownie, go enjoy it in the living room." I hand her the napkin with another brownie on it.
"You can give me all the brownies you want, I'm still right." She exits the kitchen.
I wordlessly set brownies for me and Bryce on napkins and hand him his. We eat them in silence and I consider asking him to go home.
"Do you want to go back to your room?" he asks.
"Sure." I throw away our napkins and press the lid onto the brownie pan.
Bryce grabs my hand and leads me down the hall. I follow him into my room and he stops in the middle of my floor.
"What?" I ask.
He places a hand on each of my cheeks and leans in and kisses me. I kiss him back for a few seconds before I pull away.
"Bryce."
"You okay?"
"I just..." I let out a sigh.
"What is it?"
"I didn't want to catch feelings for you yet."
"Yet?"
"Well, I knew I was going to. I just figured it could wait until I was single."
"Alex, I'm not Johnny. I get he's gone crazy when you've dumped him in the past, but at some point you have to realize that what he does isn't your problem."
"Even though I'd rather be with you, I still care about him. I don't want him to hurt himself, especially over me."
"He doesn't hurt himself, he pretends."
"And what if that changes over me?"
"Alex, it wouldn't be over you. He has issues he needs to work out and it's not your job to make him see that. You say you know you deserve better and you can have it."
"I can't leave him until I know he's gonna be okay."
"The only way he'd be okay would be if he left you."
I look down because I know he's right. "Can you and me just focus on you and me?"
"Sure." He nods. "Let's finish our movie."
I take his hand and lead him back into my bed. Once we're settled I hit the play button on the remote and lay my head back on his chest. He runs his fingers through my hair and I want to stay here forever.
Being in Bryce's arms feels so safe. I don't have to worry about a random fight starting, or about him being rude to my family.
"Bryce?"
"Yeah?"
"I want to be with you."
"I know."
My phone buzzes on my nightstand and Bryce grabs it for me. "It's Johnny."
I force a small smile and answer the call. "Hey."
"Guess what I just did," he says and slurs his words.
"Johnny, have you been drinking?" I ask.
"Just a tiny bit."
"You're drunk."
"No, you are!"
"Okay, I'm gonna go."
"No, you didn't guess yet."
"Guess what?" I ask.
"You need to guess what I just did."
"Jesus, Johnny, I don't know."
"I just had the best sex of my life with Jessica Myers."
My stomach turns and my heart drops.
"Did you hear me? Best sex ever!" he yells.
"I heard," I whisper as a tear falls down my cheek. "Please don't ever call me again. We're done."
I hang up my phone and toss it onto the floor.
"What happened?" Bryce asks. "You okay?"
"He was drunk."
"I got that much, but what's wrong?" Bryce gets up and picks my phone up, setting it on my nightstand.
"He cheated on me. Again. Worse this time."
"He what? Alex, are you okay? I never liked him. I know you've heard it from me enough, but I never liked him."
"I know," I whisper.
"What did he do? Did he get caught on a date or kissing someone?"
"He fucked a girl. Jessica Myers, remember her?"
"Shit. Alex, I'm sorry."
"She's got a real talent for getting with the guys in my life. She'd probably ride my dad if he weren't locked up."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm so angry."
"He's fucking garbage, Alex. He's worse than garbage."
I grab a tissue and wipe my eyes as Bryce pulls me in for a hug.
"It's okay."
"I can't even be mad at him because I'm doing the same thing but worse. Imagine how he'd feel if he found out. Imagine what he'd do."
"Alex, this is just more of a reason to leave. He doesn't have to know about us, he doesn't have to even be told you lost feelings. You can just blame it all on him cheating and then he'll only be mad at himself."
"I can't blame him, he'll hurt himself."
"Alex, you can't stay with him after this."
"I need to know that he'll be okay after a breakup. I'm just gonna take a few days to not talk to him and then I'll reach out and if he's fine, I'll leave."
"Alex."
"Please drop it."
"Do you at least know you deserve better?"
I nod.
"Okay." He kisses the top of my head. "It'll be okay."
My attempts at watching the movie are futile and the way Bryce keeps rubbing my back tells me he can sense that.
"You can go home, if you're bored," I say.
"I'm not bored."
"Are you sure? Because if you trace the alphabet on my back one more time we might both go crazy."
"I'm just worried about you. I figured distracting you from the movie you aren't watching would be a good thing." My phone goes off again and Bryce grabs it. "Johnny."
"I don't want to talk to him right now."
"Okay." He sends it to voicemail so it stops ringing.
At some point during the movie that I'm barely acknowledging as background noise, my eyes close and I fall asleep.
"Alex," Bryce says and gently shakes my shoulder to wake me. "Your mom is calling you."
I yawn and hold my hand out for him and he places my phone in it for me. I answer the call and put it on speaker. "What?"
"Hello, to you too." She laughs.
"What do you want, Mom?"
"What's wrong?"
"Johnny. Why'd you call?"
"Your grandmother told me Bryce is over, I'm ordering a pizza for dinner if you want to ask him to stay."
"Wanna stay?" I ask Bryce.
"Sure."
"He'll stay."
"Okay. Now what happened with Johnny?"
As if on cue, he starts beeping in. I send him to voicemail before filling my mother in.
"Oh my gosh. Are you okay?" she asks.
I let out a sigh.
"I know. At least it's over now and you can move on."
I don't say anything.
"Oh, Alex, you have to leave him. You're both clearly interested in other people. You can both go and be happy now."
"I don't want to talk about this." I hang up and reach over Bryce to put my phone on my nightstand.
"Come here," he says and pulls me down onto his chest.
"Bryce?"
"Yeah?"
"I want to be with you."
"You can have me whenever you want."
"Now?"
"Do you want me now?"
"I always wanted you. But Johnny messed up and that's on him. So he can't be mad that he lost me."
"So you really want to do this?"
I take a deep breath and nod.
"Okay. Then it's official."
"It's not official until you ask me to be your girlfriend."
"I don't know, you sound a bit high maintenance. I might want to rethink this."
"Shut up!" I laugh.
"Well, I can't ask you to be my girlfriend if I have to shut up."
"Okay, I take it back. Don't shut up."
He leans in and kisses me. "You wanna be my girlfriend?"
"That'd be nice." I smile.
He kisses me again and I pull away and yawn.
"Still tired?" he asks.
I nod.
"You can go back to sleep and if you're not awake by the time we have pizza I can wake you."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. Aren't girls usually more tired when they have their period anyway?"
"How do you know that?"
"I did some research during your first nap."
Johnny would never.
"What else did you find out?"
"That you're superhuman."
I laugh and kiss his cheek. "Remember that."
"Of course, babe."
I lay my head on his shoulder and kiss his neck.
"I can't believe this is finally happening."
"What? A relationship?" I ask.
"A relationship with you."
I smile and close my eyes.
~*~
"Alex," Bryce says and wakes me. "Your mom is home with pizza."
"How long did I sleep?"
"Couple hours."
"Sorry."
"Don't be."
My phone starts vibrating on my nightstand again and Bryce grabs it for me.
"Who's Carla?" he asks.
"Johnny's mom." I roll my eyes and take my phone from Bryce's hand. "Hi, Carla."
She's in tears and I can barely understand a word she's saying.
"Carla, slow down. Take a deep breath, I can't understand you."
"It's Johnny. He's in the hospital."
My heart pounds in my chest and I forget to breathe for a moment.
"He tried to kill himself."
Again. Except he didn't.
"What hospital is he at?"
"Saint Mary's."
"I'll be there in twenty."
•Thoughts on that ending?
~SS💘