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Ripley~
“I’m sorry, someone must have spiked my drink because...what the fuck, Rip?”
Like a teenage fucking girl, as soon as Roark and Junie had gone to go pack up her room, I had gone upstairs, called Phineas, then spilled the details of what I’d done in rapid fashion. I was winging shit with the only girl that I’d ever considered proposing to, and I needed some quick advice since my brother was too busy being Junie’s best friend at the moment.
“Not my best idea ever, I admit, but what’s done is done, Phin,” I told him. “I’ve got three days to make this girl fall in love with me and turn this disaster into something real. I need something more than what the fuck.”
“You should have just come with me and had yourself a time with the blonde” he replied. “Definitely less drama.” Before I could tell him to go eat a dick, he added, “But I get it. The heart wants what the heart wants, and all that.”
“Phin.”
“Oh, yeah...yeah,” he muttered, quickly sobering up. “Dude, you’re a good guy. Just...treat her like it is real. I mean, after all, it is real for you.”
A year after trying to shake my feelings for Junie, I’d gotten drunk one night, then had confessed everything to Phin in an emotional cleansing that would do any girls’ slumber party proud. He’d been giving me shit about keeping it in my pants, and fed up with his teasing, I had blurted everything out, leaving him speechless and me feeling like I’d just grown a pussy.
It hadn’t been fun.
For either of us.
“That’s it? That’s all you have for me?”
“Afraid so, bud,” he replied dryly. “I’m not exactly an expert at love. Plus, I’ve been drinking.”
“Because you’d have better advice if you were sober?”
“Uh, probably not,” he admitted. “I know how to orchestrate my way around a threesome more than I do love.”
“Jesus Christ,” I swore, running my free hand through my hair.
“Look, just...play it by ear, but be aggressive,” he advised. “All girls like the bad boy type, and if she’s best friends with your brother, well...that nutjob is as aggressive as it gets.”
Phin wasn’t necessarily wrong. While we’d come a long way as a society, Roark was still a little bit behind in the times. While I was possessive, protective, and a bit rough around the edges, Roark’s easygoing demeanor was a very well-crafted façade. Yes, he was a good man. Yes, he was filled to the brim with decency and integrity. Yes, he was considerate.
Yes, yes, yes to all those things.
Still, the guy took alpha to a whole different level when he was dealing with the fairer sex. My mother and Junie had a living, breathing, riding knight in shining armor in my brother, and I felt sorry for the woman that would one day marry the psychopath. Good Time Roark was only a good time when things were going well, something that a lot of people didn’t know about him.
That’s probably why he was going to kill me when this weekend was over.
“You’re no help,” I told him. “But thanks for listening, all the same.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied easily. “You still should have skipped your trip for some blonde fun, though.”
As I thought about that, I knew that Phin was wrong on that score. Even though Junie had Roark, it made my stomach sour to think that she would have had to endure this shitshow of betrayal without any help from me. Granted, I wasn’t sure if I really did help anything, but I wasn’t about to let Leslie and Paul think that they’d broken her again.
“I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, Phineas,” I stated, knowing it down to my soul.
Phin just chuckled. “Good luck, Rip.”
“Thanks, man.” I hung up, then tossed my phone on the bed. While Phin’s advice hadn’t been groundbreaking, I didn’t see how there was anything else to do. I had one chance to make this girl see me as other than Roark’s older brother, and I refused to fuck it up.
The door to my room opened, and I saw Roark storming in, and he was carrying two suitcases and a carryall bag.
He also looked pissed.
Kicking the door behind him, he walked forward, dropped the bags on my bed, then hissed, “What the fuck, Rip?”
“Look, I know-”
“You don’t know shit,” he kept hissing. “I just spent the past few minutes trying to convince Junie that everything was going to be okay, and that she can trust you.”
That straightened my back. “She can trust me.”
The same exact eyes that mirrored mine narrowed. “I know that, but this is a delicate situation, Rip,” he bit out. “The girl is vulnerable and-”
“And you think that I’m going to take advantage of that?” Deep down, I knew that wasn’t the case, but this was new territory for us. Roark and I had never fought over a girl before, and I didn’t want to start now.
“No,” he quickly replied. “Of course, I don’t think that. It’s just...I know how you feel about her, and that makes this a tricky situation.”
“Then why did you go along with it?” I asked. “Why didn’t you play it off or something?”
“Because I don’t hit females, so the only other thing that I could do was help salvage Junie’s pride,” he answered, confirming what I had suspected. “And don’t get me started on Paul.”
“Look, Roark, I know you’re concerned, and I don’t blame you,” I told him. “But...” I dropped my head back, then cracked my neck from side to side, easing some of the tension.
“Rip-”
“Nah, man,” I interrupted, looking back over at him. “Look, I’ve respected your wishes for five years, Roark. I’ve stayed away from her and have never once done anything foul or inappropriate. Still, it’s been five fucking years.” His shoulders sagged a bit, but I wasn’t saying all this to make him feel bad. “What do I have to do to prove that I’m not in this for a quick lay? Especially, when I can get that almost anywhere.”
“She’s my best friend,” he sighed. “I just don’t want...I’d hate to see the two most important people in my life hurt because shit went south.”
“Not only would I not do that to her, but I wouldn’t do that to you, either.”
Roark didn’t say anything for a few torturous seconds. When he finally did speak, it was like breathing in fresh oxygen after being trapped underground for weeks. “Don’t fuck it up, Rip,” he said. “I mean it.”
“I won’t,” I promised. “I swear it. I’ll-”
A knock on the door stopped my rush of promises to my brother. “Come in,” he instructed.
I held my breath as the door pushed open and Junie appeared through the opening. She looked nervous, but beautiful as always. Armed with my brother’s blessing and Phin’s generic advice, I was going to do my best to show this girl a different side of Ripley Storm.
Junie shut the door behind her, and she looked like she was entering the end of days. “Sorry, were you guys talking?”
Roark walked up to her, wrapped his arms around her, then pulled her close. Jealousy spiked in my gut as Junie wrapped her arms around his waist, and it wasn’t necessarily jealousy over my brother, but that he had those affectionate parts of her.
“We were just talking about...everything,” Roark told her, his hand rubbing up and down her back, and I wanted to yank her out of his arms, but I didn’t know why. I was used to their hands-on friendship. I mean, they’d been like that ever since I’d first met her, so I wasn’t sure why I was trippin’ now.
Junie pulled out of his arms, then looked over at me. “I guess we need to talk,” she muttered shyly.
I slipped my hands in the pockets of my sweats. “Probably,” I agreed.
Roark kissed her on the top of her head before saying, “I’ll leave you guys to it. Just keep me informed on how we’re going to play this.”
Junie looked up at him. “Like, if we get in a fight and break up tonight or something?”
“We’re not breaking up,” I announced like a lunatic, considering that we weren’t even a couple.
“Well, we could,” she offered. “I mean, I get why you did what you did, but-”
“We’re not breaking up,” I repeated.
“Ooookaaay,” Roark drawled out. “So, I’m just going to leave you guys to discuss...uh, this, and just let me know what’s the plan in the morning. I need a fucking cigarette.” That was Roark’s only vice.
“Sure thing,” I told him, and then he left, shutting and locking the door behind him, leaving me alone with Junie, and it was going to be a long fucking night.
Good times.
