"You love me!"
"No, I tolerate you."
"There isn't a difference!"
"Have you read the dictionary?"
"No because unlike you I have a life."
"Do you see any part of me that looks dead?"
"Only your soul."
"Honestly, I give up." Brooklynn throws her hands in the air, turning away from Tanner to Edna and I. "Who wants to help me throw him over the boardwalk?"
I laugh. "He's too heavy."
"I am not! I am a lean, mean, fighting machine!" Tanner cries out.
Edna chuckles patting his arm. "Whatever you say."
"There is a reason I'm beating Colton so far in the rankings, you know."
"You mean your team is beating Colton." Brooklynn states.
"Technicalities." Tanner waves her away.
I grin leaning back into my arms and kicking my legs over the edge of the walk relishing at the fact no children were to be seen or heard. Paradise is what this is, if you didn't count Tanner and Brooklynn squabbling just like little kids. But recently where you found those two; tension brewed. Which just led to more squabbling and Brooklynn currently shoving Tanner into the water with an almighty splash.
He resurfaces spluttering water and shocked, water drenches him from head to toe. "What was that for?"
"I felt like it." Brooklynn smirks, flipping her long, blonde hair over her shoulder.
I wipe at the speckle of water that has landed on my leg, sharing a look with Edna. There's definitely something going on between them.
Tanner clambers out of the lake, pulling himself onto the wooden slats not very graceful and leaving a puddle under him. "Your just jealous I'm going to win the prize."
"Again, your team is winning. And the prizes are for the children dumbass."
Tanner pouts. "Whatever, if I was still a child I'd get to come back next year for free and not have to feel guilty about it."
"Why would you feel guilty?" I ask, scratching my temple.
"No reason."
"Yeah, that doesn't make sense?" Edna prods.
He squirms but says nothing.
"Tanner..."
"Okay fine! But you can't tell anyone I told you, Colton will kill me!"
"Just spit it out already," Brooklyn's grunts.
"Right well there's a reason Colton won every year, the boys set it up that so that we would let him win," he mutters, looking away.
"But what about the girls?" I persist.
"Most of them knew too but it was kinda an unspoken rule to not talk about it."
"And the whole camp knew this?"
"Pretty much."
"But why?"
"Jesus, what's up with all the questions? It's not like I'm on trial."
"Shut up and answer." Brooklyn glares, her blue eyes icy. "For now you are on trial."
Tanner smirks, his eyes twinkling. "Yes officer."
"Stop being a pervert and answer the question before I push you back into the lake and this time you don't reappear like a bad magic trick."
"You have anger issues." He shivers, inching away from Brooklyn's. "But Colton's dad was abusive and a drunk. Not only would he not pay for Colton to return but it was safer Colton spent the summer away as a child."
"But how did he afford it in the first place? Plus, he never looked like a child of abuse." Edna asks quietly.
"What does abuse look like?" He sighs. "And his mom payed for the first couple of summers when she was still around before running off with another man and taking Colton's unborn brother with him."
"That sucks."
Tanner turns to Brooklynn. "It does. Worst thing? Colton never even blamed his mom for leaving. Said he couldn't imagine why she would stay to live a life as a punching bag. Even as a ten year old he only felt hurt she didn't bring him with her, but accounts that to him being a fuck up. Which he's not by the way, he has some issues, sure, but he's a decent guy. I wouldn't be friends with him if he wasn't."
Seeing Tanner so serious isn't natural. His lips not quirked upwards in a grin and his eyes lifeless. Even the drops of water still trickling down his tan body didn't seem to glisten in the sun anymore. It broke my heart. For Tanner, for Colton, for the world and for finally understanding just a little bit more why Colton acted the way he did. The world sucks.
"Colton teased Alexis way worse the summer when we were ten and from there it grew." Brooklynn crosses her arms.
"It was stupid of him. But he had so much anger and he didn't know what to do with it. Alexis was an easy target and his fucked up coping strategy. It's only one of the reasons, the rest not my place to say, but it doesn't excuse it."
"Hell yes it doesn't."
"Brooke you've got to understand that he wasn't coping... at all. Everything he did wasn't out of spite, or hate towards Alexis but more like hate towards himself."
"Most people hate themselves in different ways."
"He was ten! He didn't know about the other ways, and thank god he didn't." Tanner glowers.
"But then he was eleven, twelve, thirteen! And then he was nineteen and here."
"And better. He's nineteen and better."
"Alexis isn't!"
Tanner turns to me where I sit quietly with Edna, having faded into the background of this conversation, and tracing the intricate lines in the wood. "But that isn't his fault..."
Brooklynn glares at him before standing up. "She wouldn't have needed to get better if Colton didn't use her in the first place. Okay, yes it sucks, Colton didn't deserve it and he was obviously messed up. But neither did my best friend and now she's messed up and she didn't need to be. She didn't need to think that she was a problem or had a problem. And she definitely didn't need to lose all confidence in herself and still not have it back, not realising just how fucking amazing she was. So, yes, it sucks for Colton but it didn't need to suck for Alexis too."
We watch in silence as she storms off. And all I can think is: It's too much. There's too much to think about. Too much too deal with. Just too much.
"She's right you know." Edna says, rubbing my shoulder. "But so is Peyton, and you need to answer that text of hers. She's not happy."
"I will."
i updated chapter 23 too. please vote/comment.
qotc: what do you think of colton's parents?