between the pages

Chapter 7

Braden, Age 24

The window. I had to jump out the window. It was the only option. Ten minutes earlier I was convinced I was facing the worst thing possible–the possible destruction of my friendship with Noah.

But now I was facing something worse–telling Tyson what I'd done.

Dominic Fike was still blasting from the Alexa, mingling with the increasingly frequent knocking on my door. I moved my head back and forth–from the door to the window–trying to decide my fate. As I started towards the window I was met with Peaches, looking up at me with a judgemental stare.

"It was bad, Peaches, there's no way they won't find out just by looking at my face."

I kissed Noah last night. Like on her face. What the actual fuck was I thinking?

I might've just ruined the most important relationship of my entire life last night and I now I had to explain myself. Worse. I had to admit to Tyson that he was right.

The knocking kept coming and my heart kept beating against my chest as if it was going to flop onto the living room floor.

"Open the door, asshat".

My stomach dropped. Tyson. Part of me considered letting him believe I wasn't there.

"We brought bagels," said another voice. I recognized it immediately–Adam. Wasn't he supposed to be in Chicago?

I mentally prepared myself for what I had to do--lie. I had to lie to their faces and pray that I'd live through this.

As I stepped forward to the door I took exaggerated breaths, coveting my last few seconds of normalcy.

I opened the door to the two of them holding a tray of coffee and two paper bags from Einstein Bros.

We all froze. Tyson still had his hand up from the voracious knocking and his hair looked out of sorts. I stared between the two. Adam looked at me inquisitively, as if he was analyzing me. His head tilted to the side and his squint increased. Tyson soon took on the same expression and I only heard one thing before I started running.

"What the hell did you do?" I'm not sure who said it, but it didn't matter. The result would be the same.

I took a step back. Then another. The next five seconds were a blur of limbs, yelling, and chive-cream cheese bagels. When I came to, I was pinned to the floor by Tyson and a cream cheese bagel was held dangerously close to my face.

Adam stood over us with a curious expression, humor glinting in his eyes.

"What'd you do, Bud?"

"I already told Adam everything by the way," Tyson said casually.

"What? Why would you tell him anything?" I was hoping I could break the news to him myself. I expected his reaction to the news to be much more annoying considering he'd been around since I first met Noah in college.

"I figured it would be more funny this way," Tyson continued.

"It is by the way," Adam added with an unwavering grin, "So what did you do? You look like you sacrificed someone to a satanic cult."

"Okay, I didn't do that." I said matter-of-factly, 'Why do you assume I've done anything? Maybe you're just being delusional. Better, question–why are you even here?"

"My nephew's having his Bar Mitzvah," he replied, "Your turn."

They both looked at me with deadpan expressions. Expectant. Unmoving. I wasn't getting out of this one.