To Skin A Lamb

11

TERRANCE

Torn into (40). Me and Charity were being eaten alive. Alex was yelling so loud that I'm sure each SV heard our conversation without even having to strain their ears.

Charity and I were just sitting on his bed like two kids who were getting in trouble. Speechless and only partially sorry.

"You went against the rules, you made things significantly worse and potentially got kidnapped. Over what? A damn shirt?! Not worth it at all! You could have been mugged, killed, raped!"

It's like ice water fell on Charity' skin. "Don't pretend like the trip wasn't worth it. Now the cargo will get here sometime early next week."

"You want a pat on the back for that? Cause you won't find one from me. Are you out of your mind?! Give me one reason why I shouldn't send your sorry asses back to the states?" He continued to yell, giving me a bit of a headache.

Those words were threatening. Like he would genuinely send us home if we didn't have an adequate answer.

Of course Charity had one waiting. She was just waiting for the question to arise.

"What rules did we break?" She asked with lifted brows.

Alex looked at her with squinted eyes. "Are you trying to challenge me right now because it won't work."

"The fact that your brain is registering this as a challenge speaks on behalf. The fact that you have to dig deep in order to search for a way to get rid of us speaks volumes to the situation. I asked a simple question. What rule did we break?" She spoke calmly. Like a surgeon who was ready for an operation. Clean and collected.

"Curfew." He spat.

"Which we had permission from your colleague to negate." She countered, smiling a bit.

"She never said you could skip curfew. She explicitly told you to be back before sunset." He continued, inching closer to her.

"She never specified which sunset. We could have come back next month and it wouldn't have broken the rules." She didn't even hesitate. Like she was expecting him to say that. "But let's pretend she did get into specifics and we only had around seven hours to put in the shipment. The jeep ran out of gas and we had to walk to Guatemala to retrieve more. It was a mistake on our behalf, the timing, however a mistake was made on Gracie's behalf. Is she going home as well?"

Alex laughed to himself. "I thought I was going to be the death of you this summer and it turns out that you are the death of me." He started nodding his head slowly.

"Bold of you to assume that I wasn't going to give it back to you tenfold." (41). She started to smile at him.

I was looking between the two of them, but finally, my attention fell on her. I didn't know if it was appropriate for a person to be turned on by arguing, but damn the blood was rushing to my dick.

Alex fanned his hand. "Get out of my sight before I change my mind."

Neither of us took our time. Charity knew she was skating on thin ice so she quickly left by my side (42). 

When we left, both of us started to laugh. We laughed and laughed until actual tears started coming down from our eyes. "I thought we were goners for sure." I told her, nodding my head.

She sighed deeply, looking relieved. "Me fucking too."

"Could have fooled me! You were a fucking lawyer in there." I pointed back at Alex's cot with amazement. "I'm convinced you can scare a bear."

Charity looked up with a certain kind of spark in her eyes. "You think so?"

"I know so." I smiled down at her. We stopped walking and faced each other. "You are pretty fucking amazing Charity Garcia."

"I think you are too Terrance Nester."

. . .

"You look pretty fucking sprung." Brett stoically mentioned while folding his clothes in the laundry area.

"I'm not." I nodded my head in defiance.

"Okay." He wasn't going to argue with me, which was one of my least favorite qualities about him. "You got good taste though. She's pretty cool. Thoughtful at least."

I looked at him and my smile faltered a bit. "Seems like you like her more than me." I tried to laugh off the feeling.

"First of all, I never said a name. Second of all, I really do." He nodded his head in agreement. "Charity is one of those girls you can imagine a future with. I like her vibe."

Air stopped flowing in my chest for a hot minute. "Oh, I didn't know you had feelings for her." (43).

"Yeah, they just developed. But they are pretty serious feelings." (44). He continued, folding some sweatpants together.

I slowly started nodding like this wasn't an issue. I was stuck.

"Is there a problem?" Brett questioned me with raised brows.

I cleared my throat and tried to smile, but it looked more like a scowl. "Uhm... Everything is fine. You can do what you want." (45).

"But you wouldn't care?" (46). 

"I mean I would care because-"

"Because what? Because you like her?" He questioned.

"I mean, yes, but I think-"

"Do you like her or not? No buts." He kept pushing.

"Of course I like her!" I exclaimed looking at him with irritation.

He smiled a little and then turned around to get more clothes out of the dryer. He called out to me, "I don't like her, just wanted to see your response to it." (47). 

I smiled and nodded my head. "Well played. Well fucking played."

He came back with more clothes. "But Cash money might." He shrugged casually. "Her and Cash are pretty close and I've heard some things circulating. I could see it happening."

I visibly frowned.

"Really?" I questioned.

He nodded his head with lifted brows.

"Fuck." I cursed under my breath. I shouldn't feel this uneasy, but I really do.

"She seems to like him too."

I thought to myself, "He's a pretty lucky guy."

- 

40.  I mean getting cussed out so much that I almost thought that Alex would take his belt off and beat us like a mad parent.

41.  Untamed for sure.

42.  Before she did a backflip and got us kicked out.

43. My skin heated and my breath hitched.

44. Bullshit. He has barely spoken to her since the summer started. I don't care if I sound hypocritical. I don't give a single fuck.

45. Except date Charity.

46. Do. Not. Strangle.

47.  That son of a bitch.