Page 41 of June: Jess' Story
“Hey, E.” I quickly turn away from the window.
“What are you doing here?” She asks with excitement. She’s just like Damian. Looks like him, too. It’s funny to see my best friend reincarnated as a kid. Not both kids are like this, though. Caroline looks just like my sister. Elodie looks just like him. Acts like him, too. Just happy, and charming all the fucking time.
“Liam asked me to come over for a bit. Hey, you got a minute?” She nods with a smile. “Can you go help Jess? I think she needs a couple extra hands.”
“Aye Aye, captain!” she says, then bounds out the back door and down the deck. I go back to watching, making sure Elodie helps, but what I see next wrenches my heart.
It’s Elodie embracing Jess as she cries, baby still perched on her hip. I don’t know if she’s crying for me? Or about Tommy? But being the sick fuck I am, I hope it’s for me.
They break apart a moment later, when Liam, Caroline, and some other teenager make their way down the back steps hauling paddle boards. I was trying to leave Brit alone. Liam said she had “the talk” with Matt today, which thank christ for that. But does she know her best friend is out there crying by herself?
It’s not really my place to say anything, I don’t think. Also feel like maybe Jess and Tommy splitting up isn’t common knowledge. Damian would’ve told me if he knew. I think.
“Hey, man.” Liam comes through the door that leads out to the deck. “Thanks for coming.”
I nod. “Yeah, sure.”
Liam sort of bounces his palm against a leg.Nervous.
“Think you could stick around a bit longer? Just have a…let’s call it a…bad feeling.” Wasn’t really planning on staying here any longer than necessary. Not good for my mental health being around Jess, but bad feelings tend to actually mean shit to me. Whenever I’ve gotten one, there’s usually something pretty fucking shitty on the other side.
“Yeah, I’ll be here.” I take a seat in the great room, in a deep club chair that gives me a clear view of the back deck and dock. I’ll just burn the view of Jess in that bikini into my brain and accept that I’ll never sleep again.
The banging on the door instantly has the hair rising on the back of my neck. I was just about ready to leave, too. Something about sitting here, watching this sort of idyllic summer day unfold in front of me was unnerving. I’m still not in it. I’m just sort of existing on the outside, looking in. I know it’s my family, too, but it’s notmyfamily.Make sense?
Bang. Bang.There it is again. Seven paces to the front door and I open it, already pissed off.
Matt looks fucking drunk.
“You made her cry, didn’t you?” I ask him
“If I haven’t yet, I will,” he spits back in a sadistic tone. For that alone, I could kill him. But I know how these things go. Can’t be the first to throw a punch, can’t actually kill him either. At least not right here, right now. Too many witnesses. Too many liabilities.
“Your daddy know you’re here?” I ask him, and his eyes practically bulge. “Should I give him a call?” I pull my phone out of my pocket, and taunt him with it.
“Fuck you, Alex.”
“Sick comeback,bro.”Bro. It’s a taunt. His dad treats me like the son he never had, and Matt knows it. “You about done here?” I ask. When he doesn’t immediately respond, because he’s moving slow, high on something, I slam the door on his face and lock it.
I hedge my bets with a quick call to the sheriffs, then send off a quick text to Constantine about his son just as the banging picks back up again. Just like I knew it would.
This time I open the door and slip outside. Could get ugly.Kind of hope it does, need to take out the self loathing on something.I back Matt up and away from the front porch so what I say doesn’t make it onto the doorbell cam.
“I fucking dare you, Matt. You have no idea how much you’d make my goddamn day by attempting to lay a finger on me. But you won’t do it…can’t, can you?”
He spits on the ground.Weak.
“You’re gonna beat the shit out of me? Just like your dad did to your mom?” His retort is a low blow.
“Nah, I won’t have to hit you that many times,” I say back coolly. Not letting him see how much that comment actually hits and hurts. I’ve tried so hard to be everything Ray couldn’t be.
“What happens when my daddy finds out you hit his preciousson?”
“He’ll probably give me a pat on the back for sticking up for hisdaughter.” He didn’t like that one. It sounds incestuous, but I promise, it’s not. Constantine just thinks of me and my sister like his kids. I don’t think I’d be lying if I said he loved us more.
Liam comes flying down the front steps, looking out for blood, but I can’t let him take this moment from me. I need it. Matt’s close to cracking, so I get between the two of them when Matt goes off. He really loses his crap this time. Spewing shit about my mom and my sister being whores and white trash. I let it go. Most of it rolling off my back.
Before I let Liam get a word in edgewise, I respond. “The only reason you’re not already unconscious is because you’re too fucking weak to take a swing,” I say viciously. “Your ass would be fucking toasted and you know it. But if you really wanna talk about scum of the earth, it’s you, bud. I should’ve fucking ended you 17 years ago. You’ve grown to be such a big man, talking about women like this.” I practically spit, “Pathetic. You are your mother’s son,Matt.”