Seventeen and Invincible

The next morning, our wake-up call was far from pleasant. At eight-thirty a.m. we were awoken by someone pounding on the door so hard that it must have disturbed the neighbors. I rolled over, unwilling to get out of bed, and smacked Kenny’s arm, groaning tiredly and pushing him to get out of bed.

“What do you want, Ana?” he mumbled, burying his face in the pillows.

“Go answer your door. Whoever it is is gonna give me a headache.” He yawned and obliged, swinging his legs from under the covers and placing his feet on the floor. I closed my eyes, forcing myself back to sleep, as he shuffled out of the bedroom and across the living room.

I had nearly returned to a happy state of sleep when I heard yelling. I whined to myself, pulling the covers over my head and trying to hide in the pillows.

“Where is she?” I heard Garrett yell. “Where the fuck is she?” I couldn’t tell what Kennedy said because unlike Garrett he decided to use his inside voice. All I heard was mumbling.

“I know she didn’t go to Mia’s last night. Where’s Ani? Is she still in your room? Because that’s where Pat saw her. Granted, his choice to let himself into your apartment at eight this morning wasn’t brilliant, he knows he saw you two all cozy. So where the fuck is she?” His voice was moving closer to the bedroom door and it was getting harder to tune out.

“She’s fucking sleeping and you’re gonna wake her up. What is your problem?” Kennedy’s voice was still quieter than Garrett’s and still a little further away.

“Yeah, I’m sure you two slept real well all night,” his muttered, his words dripping with sarcasm.

The door to the bedroom swung open to reveal Garrett. I blinked a few times, glancing at him quickly and then looking away. “Are you seriously being such a dick about this? You’re the one who gave her no other choice than to come here.”

Garrett sat down on the edge of the bed and I did my best to ignore him. I’m sure if he looked closely enough, he would still be able to see the tear stains under my eyes and down my cheeks. He sighed softly, looking up at Kennedy and asking him if he could have a minute alone with me. Kennedy nodded, leaving the room and leaving Garrett and I alone.

“What do you want?” I questioned quickly, barely loud enough for him to hear.

“I want to apologize. I was being a total asshole. But I mean I guess you’d probably rather stay here with him than come back to stay with me, right? The two of you always seemed like you had something going on.” I scoffed at the comment because it was so far from the truth. Kennedy and I had never even been that close.

“You are so fucking dense, you know that?” I kicked my legs out, pushing the sheets and blankets away. “You’re always so quick to protect me, but yesterday you did nothing. You just let her tear into me. And who the fuck was she anyway? And then this morning you come in here screaming and yelling at one of your bandmates, one of your best friends accusing him of sleeping with me and then trying to play mister-nice-guy and accuse me of having a relationship with him in the same goddamned sentence.” I huffed out of breath and began speaking again, leaving his mouth hanging open as he tried to answer. “I don’t want to hear your fucking excuses. I was gone for months. Your emails didn’t even sound like you. You never called. You never answered when I just needed a friend to talk to. And worst of all when I came back it was like you didn’t care.”

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? But people change over time. And at our age a few months is a long time.” He reached over, trying to grab my hand, but I pushed him away. “I spoke to Michelle. I told her everything, and she’s willing to let you stay with us for now. Y’know, since you just got back and all of your family is still in Germany.”

“Wait. ‘Let’ me stay with you? I thought that was the agreement, Garrett. I would come back, you would bring me home. You would take me in. I would get a job and work to pay you back. There wasn’t supposed to be some golddigging hoe in the mix.” He sighed, hanging his head in defeat.

Standing, he made his way to the door. “All I’m saying is you can stay with us. You don’t have to and I understand if you don’t want to. If you wanna stay here with Kenny for a while and decide, that’s fine too. I know that what Michelle said was wrong, but I think things with her could really work, Ani.” He stopped speaking only to let a smile inch its way across his face, “I think I love her. I think this could be it.”

He turned to walk away and I faked a smile. I should have never come back.