Complicate Me (The Good Ol' Boys #1) (22 page)

“I am—”

“You’re not,” he scornfully interrupted. “You haven’t been for a long time.”

“That’s not fair.”

“I never said life was fair.”

I hated when he said that to me. Now more than ever, but I let him continue with what he needed to say. If he was opening up to me, I wasn’t going to begrudge him that.

“I’m not going to lie to you, I see you sometimes and I have no idea who you are anymore. I mean you’re still my Half-Pint but at the same time you aren’t. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but it was so much easier when I didn’t have to look at you. I fucking hated it. I still hate it, but it was easier in some ways and harder in others.”

“Do you not want me to grow up?”

“I never really thought about it. When it started happening it was like taking a knife to the heart, it still is. I’m sorry I don’t have a better explanation for you. That’s all I got.”

“So now what? What happens now?”

He shrugged still not looking at me, even though he could feel my intense stare on his face. It’s almost like he feared if he said anymore it would change the calm that was placed in between us.

“Cole and I are friends. We’re just friends,” I found myself saying.

His jaw clenched. “For now. Cole will always have you in a way that I can’t. There’s no history there. No baggage. It’s new and untainted. We have so many barriers placed in between us and I don’t know how to remove them.” He finally peered back over at me with a sad smile that I’m sure I mirrored. “Do you?”

I bowed my head. I didn’t.

“Yeah,” he added.

We sat there in silence for I don’t know how long. This was the most we had spoken to one another in a year. There was still so much that was left unsaid between us.

How long would it go on like this?

“I love you, Bo.”

He reached over and grabbed my hand, bringing it up to his lips to tenderly kiss my knuckles. “I love you, Half-Pint.”

I didn’t know what the future held for us.

But, at that moment I didn’t care.

We were trying to find our way again and that’s all that mattered.

Summer was almost over.

After our talk on the beach, I took Alex home from work a few times. It helped us. I wanted so badly to take her to our abandoned house. A part of me knew she wanted that, too. I was terrified that if we went there, our complicated relationship would follow us. I didn’t want to ruin whatever progress we had made.

Our friendship wasn’t anywhere near what it used to be, but it was something for now.

She and Cole spent a lot of time together. I saw them everywhere. My eyes tended to gravitate toward her, even when I willed them not too. I never talked to him, even though the boys did. We ate lunch with him a few times and I played nice.

Not for him.

For her.

I spent the morning arguing with my parents over the fact I still hadn’t decided on what college to attend. If I didn’t respond soon, I would lose the opportunity to attend. I’d end up at Wilmington University.

Would that be so bad? I didn’t know…

By the time I made it out to the beach, it was after lunch. I saw the boys as soon as I placed my board on the sand. They had been out there for hours already. Alex was on the restaurant deck with Cole standing in front of her, caging her in with his arms against the wall. She looked so tiny, gazing up at him. She seemed completely comfortable in her own skin. From Cole’s body language, it was obvious what he wanted.

Her.

He said something that lit up her entire face, the same way it used to for me. The glimmer of her lip-gloss reflected against the sun, making her mouth appear more inviting and enticing. I gripped my surfboard so fucking hard that my knuckles turned white. Jealously quickly escalated through my entire body in response. He may have a lot over me that I couldn’t compete with, but I did have one thing going for me that he never would.

She was mine first.

I must have made a loud noise when I picked up my board because our eyes locked despite the distance between us. Cole rapidly followed her stare. He scowled at me but shook it off pretty fast and tugged her face back to him with his thumb and forefinger. 

I gripped my board, making my way to the ocean. I would take out my frustration on the waves. I paddled out a few yards and found a steady rhythm as always. Nothing compared to the feeling I got riding the water with skill and stride that I acquired throughout the years. As I caught my first wave, I saw pretty boy out of the corner of my eyes, paddling into it and cutting me off. I rode the wave as close as possible to him, made a firm left turn and sprayed him as hard as I possibly could. Narrowly dodging him, making him fall back into the wave, as I continued riding on.

The fucker did it on purpose.

That much I was sure of.

“What the fuck is your problem?” I yelled out, paddling up to the tail of his board.

“Can’t handle some healthy competition, Lucas? I already stole your girl, so I guess not.”

“Fuck you!” I roared.

“Ooohhh, touchy subject.”

I turned to face him as we both paddled out past the break. “Not at all, seeing as you’re just friends. At least that’s what Alex keeps reminding me of,” I maliciously spewed.

He narrowed his eyes at me and didn’t falter. “At least I’m something to her. Can’t say the same for you.”

I jerked back and he saw it. Grinning he said, “It’s about time someone puts you in your place, I don’t mind being the man that does so. Pick a wave. I’ll meet it. I’ll pick another and we’ll see if you can. Let’s see who can really ride better.” I could tell he was sore from me spraying him and making him drop back out of the wave.

I shook my head in disbelief. “Fuck that. That’s dangerous, there’s too many surfers out here today,” I reasoned, looking around us.

He snickered not looking around us at all. “Always knew you were a pussy, no wonder Alexandra came to me.”

I scoffed in disgust not backing down now more than ever. “I’ll go first.”

He smiled, a big toothy grin showing his stupid fucking dimples that I wanted to fuck up. “Lead the way,
Bo
,” he triggered with wide eyes.

It took a few minutes before I found the wave and nodded toward it. He didn’t miss a beat, immediately paddling out. We both rode the waves with perfection and precision of an experienced surfer, except at the last second he cut me off again. I realized right then and there he played dirty. We went back and forth a few more times, each wave bigger than the last. Since I knew how he competed, I kept my distance so that he couldn’t get close enough to cut me off again. It didn’t take long for the other surfers to grasp what we had going on and they swiftly made their way out of the ocean.

Before we knew it, it was just the two of us. I looked out toward the beach and saw a crowd had gathered. We were too far out for me to see if Alex was among them, but something in my gut told me she was. It just gave me more determination to make Cole look like the asshole I knew he was.

We played this back and forth for what seemed like forever with neither one of us backing down. The waves were getting bigger and heavier. Clouds began to form above our heads. Rain was fast approaching, with high winds only inciting the seas.

Cole’s turn was up and when he nodded toward the pier it took me a second to understand what he suggested.

He must have seen my trepidation. “Aww! Come on, Lucas, if I can do it, you can.”

“You’re insane. The waves are too rough. It’s too dangerous.”

“No shit. That’s the point. Whoever rides the wave under the pier the slowest stays away from Alex.”

I shook my head. “I’m not agreeing to that.”

“Scared you’ll lose then? Come on, I know you want me gone. I’ll back off if you win.”

“She means that little to you?”

He smiled. “I know I won’t lose. She means that much to me. Can you say the same?”

I knew in the back of my mind it was a bad idea. I also knew that I wouldn’t back off even if I lost, though he didn’t need to know that. If there were a chance that winning would make Cole go away, then I would fucking jump on it.

I cocked my head to the side and then nodded for him to lead the way. He did. My heart beat out of my chest with every wave we had to duck dive. In a matter of minutes, the winds picked up. The wash off the back of the waves sprayed hard into our eyes, making it that much more difficult to reach our destination.

Once we arrived, my skin felt chills due to the wind and rain that mercifully pounded into my flesh. I was ready to get the fuck out of the water. By the look on Cole’s face, he was too. “First one to make it under the pier the fastest wins,” he reminded.

All I did in response was nod my head. My lips felt chapped and dry.

We jockey for the wave trying to find the best break spot. We both managed to catch the wave, but Cole was in the best position. I didn’t let that deter what I needed to do, even though I knew I might get fucked. As I approached the pier, I strategically laid out how I would avoid the pylons as I chased Cole under the pier. At the last second, he purposely cut back and stalled, leaving me with nowhere to go.

I tried to bail off the back of the wave but clipped the pier on my way out, catching my right foot on the barnacles. Immediate pain rushed through me, burning like hell. I had no time to contemplate how bad my foot was because I needed to get the fuck out of the way of danger before the next set of waves took me underneath the pier.

I jumped on my board, using all my strength to paddle my way out from under the pier and let the white water drag me back. By the time I reached the shoreline everyone had ran toward me to help. As panic and chaos ignited all around me, all I wanted to do was pass the fuck out from the blinding pain in my foot.

I didn’t even wait until I reached the sand before I rolled onto my back, desperately trying to catch my breath and govern the burning sensation that elevated from my foot through my entire body.

“Oh my God! What the fuck were you thinking, Lucas?” Jacob yelled, kneeling beside me and placing my head on his lap. The rest of the boys gathered around me, but I didn’t see the one person I wanted to.

Alex.

“Have you lost your goddamn mind? Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? Jesus Christ, Lucas, you could have died,” Dylan scolded, lifting my foot, that was now drenched in blood.

“I’m a doctor,” some man chimed in, pushing aside Austin and Dylan.

Thank God.

After he checked my foot, he called 911 stating I needed stitches. Dylan was able to get pain medication from the restaurant. I swallowed them whole and with no water. The crowd tapered after several minutes and it was then that I saw Cole hovering above me, looking down at me with worry and guilt all wrapped up in one on his face.

Not even a second later I saw Cole literally being shoved sideways and into the sand, his big, bulky frame falling over into a patch of water. I immediately turned my neck to find its source of strength.

“Are you freaking kidding me?” Alex barked at him with her hands out in front of her. I had never seen her so pissed before. It took me a few moments to realize that she was the one who knocked him over.

“Darlin’—”

“Don’t, Darlin’ me. I saw you, Cole! I saw you provoke him. You knew! You knew what he would do! Why? Why would you provoke him into something that could get him killed!”

“That’s not—”

“I’m not stupid! You stopped! You stopped right in front of him and he had to jump off his board to miss you or even worse hit the pier! Oh my God, Cole! How could you?” she wallowed with tears falling down the sides of her beautiful face.

I looked back at Cole who had his hands up in a surrendering gesture and for the first time I felt bad for him. I don’t know why I did, I just did.

Love makes you do crazy things. I guess in part I knew he loved her, and that won out in the end.

“Half-Pint,” I coaxed and she instantly spun, her anger now directed at me. Which was not what I expected.

“You!” She pointed at me with a stiff finger and a heated composure. “Don’t, Half-Pint me! Why would you listen? Why would you be so stupid to put yourself in danger? What do you have to prove to him? Nothing! Not one damn thing, Lucas!” She stomped her foot, her body shaking. “You could have been killed. Do you not realize that? You could have died and I would have watched it happen. How could you do that to me?”

I jerked back, my own eyes filling with tears. “I’m sorry,” was all I could say.

She wiped her face with the back of her hand. I knew she hated to cry and to have people watch her breakdown almost killed me in itself. 

“You always say that! That’s all you ever say and nothing ever changes! Not one thing! I’m over your fair weather apologies that mean nothing. You never think about me! You don’t care about what I think or want! It’s always about you!”

Her words cut me in ways that made the burn of my foot seem like nothing in comparison. “It was just a guy thing. A stupid fucking guy thing,” I muttered, looking over at Cole who seemed amazed that I didn’t sell him out.

She stepped back, staring back between the both of us. “Like your, ‘She’s just a girl,’ thing?” she scoffed in frustration, vigorously shaking her head. “You two can have each other.”

“Alex,” I called out as she ran away from us. Aubrey quickly chased right behind her.

Cole and I just stared at each other before her mom stepped out of nowhere. I hadn’t even notice she was there. I saw the disappointment clear across her face, making me feel like a bigger piece of shit than I already felt.