Glitch and Cody

Chapter 12 - Up a Pole Without a Flag

Cody

Great! This is just what I need!

My mind is still reeling from what happened to make me act and feel like a character in some weird-ass romantic fantasy. I found the girl I thought I'd hallucinated and disappeared down a rabbit hole with her.

Glitch is even more vibrant and beautiful now that I'm not doped up and in more pain than my body can handle. Being trapped in line with Jasper Townsend is not where I want to be right now. I need a moment to clear my mind.

I want to go dunk my head in the ponies' water trough to rid my brain of all the corny shit that is currently swirling around up there. I don't want to stand here next to him, aware of him glaring at me. Actually, Jasper's presence probably is the equivalent of getting my head dunked in the ponies' water trough.

I'm good at ignoring people. I have been told in the past that I might actually be a gold medallist in the sport. That might be true, but I think Jasper might be a gold medallist in not-giving-a-shit, and I'm irritated, so...

"What?!" I bark.

"Nothing," he huffs, but he is still glaring at me, and Noah is chuckling softly on my other side. Apparently, he is finding our irritation with each other amusing. I've changed my mind; I don't like the guy anymore.

"How do you know Glitch?" Jasper finally wants to know, narrowing his dark eyes to increase the intensity of his glare. Girls might find this kind of look smouldering; I find it friggin' annoying.

"I don't, really." I do, but it's not brain knowledge, it's something else, and there's no way in hell I'm going to spew a load of weird garbage about souls and hearts and hallucinations, especially not to this asshole. I could've pointed out that she's my neighbour, that would've made sense... I'm not good at making sense right now. Besides, that is not what he's really asking; he already knows that.

"Why do you have her top?" he wants to know, suavely running his fingers through the dark brown hair flopping over his forehead. I don't think he is trying his shampoo add manoeuvre on me to be flirty or seductive; he just has that air about him. Always had it. He has that whole strong, healthy farm boy thing going for him that makes all the cows in the vicinity run to him with milking pails clutched to their hearts.

It probably makes the bulls see red. I sure am seeing red.

When we were younger and still friends, the guy used to be startled rather than pleased when girls lined up to gaze into his eyes. In the last couple of years, he might've begun to understand the appeal, and chances are that he is now using it to his advantage, but I doubt it. As arrogant and obnoxious as the guy can be, he has always been completely oblivious to the effect he has on girls.

His conquests are mostly accidental rather than planned.

"She left it under my head," I tell him. 

Yeah, I'm making it worse. I don't care. Noah is openly laughing now, and I poke him in the ribs to remind him that though my right leg is letting me down big time, my arms are still fine, and I can use them well... as long as he stays within punching range. If he moves around, I'm pretty much screwed. Maybe it's better if people didn't know that.

I return Jasper's glare with a big, scary one of my own, and what I see on his face makes me wonder if his interest in Glitch is perhaps more than just one where he wants what he cannot have. Do I care? 

My head is killing me, and I'm not a girl; staring into Jasper's eyes is not giving me any fun thrills. I turn to face the brides gathered at the other side of the town square instead, my eyes searching for and finding Glitch. I feel my smile returning when I see her standing between her cousins, gazing across the great divide, smiling when she sees me looking at her.