Small Town Southern Charm

Chapter Twenty-Two

 Johnny and I sat on the bench for a while in silence until a thought came to my mind. I wanted to know.

“If you loved me so much, why would you leave? Most people would have tried to do anything and everything to get with someone they loved.” I spoke softly.

“I was willing to put my love for you away just so that you could be happy. I wanted nothing more than to have your lips on mine and you in my arms. I want you to be in love with me like I’m in love with you.”

About a week had went by with me talking to Johnny. Everything had been going smoothly so far but I think my brother was starting to realize what was going on. He hadn’t said anything to me yet but I could tell that he knew something. Every time I would say that I was going to meet Jody or Josh, he would just look at me like ‘yeah, right’. One day he was going to completely catch on and I honestly don’t know what I’d tell him when he asked about it.

“You coming over tonight?” Jody asked as we sat by the wood stove one morning.

“Uh, no. I already told Johnny I’d meet up with him.”

“Yeah, of course.”

I could tell that she was irritated.

“What’s your problem?” I asked.

“You’ve just been blowing us off a lot lately just to hang out with him.”

“Well, Jody it’s kind of hard to balance two relationships. I mean it was easier before when all of us could be together. Before you guys started hating him.”

“Tara, I don’t want to be around him but if it means keeping you around, then yeah I’ll do it. No, I won’t be happy about it because of the way he’s treated you. I can’t even stand the thought of him anymore. Before I thought it’d be a good idea for you to talk to him and let him know how you left about him leaving but I didn’t think you’d just throw all that anger away once you seen him. For Josh, of course he doesn’t want to be around Johnny. I mean damn, the boy is crazy about you and it like to killed him seeing you like that when Johnny left. Josh wanted to go beat the shit out of Johnny I don’t know how many times when you were having a break down.” She was angry. “I’m going home, I’ll see you around.”

I was sitting in the basement alone, sitting by the stove when Josh came walking down. He already knew what happened with Jody, I could tell by the look on his face.

“You okay?” He asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just hate that I’ve been such a bad friend to you guys here lately. I want to be able to hang out with all of you but I know it’s going to take you two a little longer to be able to do that.”

“Yeah, I can’t go around him just yet, babydoll.”

“I know.”

“I think if I see him any time soon, I will kick his ass and I won’t even mean to do it.”

“Josh..” I warned.

“I just hate that he done that to you. It’s embarrassing to call him my brother.”

I met Johnny at his place and we decided to stay in and have dinner there. After dinner we went into his room to watch a movie. We were just lying there watching the movie when he leaned over randomly and began kissing me. I wasn’t going to lie, I was enjoying it. Even though he had done me so wrong, I couldn’t help but love the way his lips felt on mine. Johnny slowly pulled my shirt over my head and began kissing down my arm. When he got almost to my hand he stopped quickly and pulled away from me. He looked at my wrist then back up to me more than three times before speaking.