Loser II || WlW

Eighteen

     "I bet I could get your girl to kiss me." Frat Boy sits on the couch across from me.

My eyes are trained on Brittany in the kitchen. She's making herself a drink, still unaware of my plan to get her down the mountain in a few hours.

I smile. "Is this a competition now? I slept with your girlfriend so you're trying to make moves on mine?" I look at him, hide my clenched fist from his view.

He runs a hand through his dead, bleached hair and leans forward. "Are you scared?"

I swallow, but not because I'm afraid of Jeremy trying to get with Brittany.

My mind is elsewhere. 

Zachary getting out of jail, his girlfriend following me, my mom going missing, that guy Roger showing up with his boys out of nowhere... It's too much for a coincidence. But if I let myself think about it too much, I'll spiral. I'll slip into the same hole of questions.

How did Clementine get here?

What about Grace and Donna?

Isn't it a little suspicious that I've had sex with every woman on this trip? 

And who planned the trip at all? Who scheduled it so that we'd arrive the same day my brother was released? 

Brittany. Brittany planned it. She even begged me to come with her, and I finally said yes because I would have done anything to keep her around. Did she know that? After the way she kissed me in my bedroom my senior year of high school she must have known I had feelings for her.

My mind races back to Zachary's letter. How he accused her of covering everything up and framing him. I've tried to pick through the details of the past so many times. If Brittany was working alongside officer Kyle back at home, they could have framed my brother but that doesn't explain his behavior the night he murdered Dad. Unless he's telling the truth and he was just operating out of fear. Or if Brittany threatened him. Told him to play along or she'd kill me.

Everything is foggy now though. Details get jumbled and I can't tell if what I'm remembering is reality or the stories that Zachary planted in my head through the hundreds of letters he'd send.

"J?" Brittany's palm is on my forehead as her worried eyes search my face. "Are we already moving to the phase of our relationship where you ignore everything I say?"

I wipe cold sweat from my forehead. "When did you get here? Weren't you in the kitchen?"

Her eyebrows pull together as she rests a hand on the side of my face. "Are you sure you're feeling okay?"

I nod. "I just zoned out." As an attempt to change the subject, I add, "Will you grab a beanie from the room? I'm freezing."

Brittany watches me for a moment before she gives a hesitant nod and sets her drink on the coffee table. So, I wasn't imaging that, at least. She was in the kitchen making a drink.

And Frat Boy is still sitting in the same spot on the couch across from us. He makes a disapproving noise in the back of his throat and shakes his head. "You're making this too easy for me. You have to at least make it look like you listen to her."

I glare at him. "I do listen to her."

He raises an eyebrow at me. "Obviously not."

I wave him off. "Whatever, man. Why don't you go try to make Clementine actually like you for a change?"

He lets out a slow chuckle as he pushes to his feet and strolls to the couch where Brittany was sitting.