Sound Effects and Overdramatics

I tossed the ball up, slamming it into the basket. Johnny caught it and called the game. I locked my fingers behind my head, opening my lungs to catch my breath.

"You good?" Matt asked, tossing me my water bottle. I caught it and nodded.

"Yeah."

"Went pretty hard, didn't you?"

I ignored him. Even if he did actually care what was going on, he wasn't my favorite person to talk to about Beth. I drank my water without saying a word.

"Come on, man. What's up?" He pushed.

"Nothing."

"We all know what that means." Johnny commented. Matt turned.

"Laurel's in town. Fucking with his head."

“Shut it!” I growled. I slung my bag over my shoulder and started walking away from them. Zack didn’t feel the need to jump in, for which I was grateful.

“Bri, come on. She’s just a chick.” Matt goaded.

“Chicks and dicks. Doesn’t make a difference to you, right?”

His face grew red, underneath the pallor of sweat and exercise. Johnny and Zack hadn’t heard me, but he couldn’t retaliate without getting their attention.

“Just get your shit together.” He ordered. I shook my head and made my way to my Jeep. Jason was waiting for me on my hood.

“Where’s your boyfriend?” I growled.

He shrugged. “Gone.”

“I’m sorry.”

He shrugged again. “Not your problem.”

“So what are you doing here?” I tossed my stuff in the back and he jumped off my hood. The rest of the guys had caught up and I had a feeling whatever conversation we were about to have didn’t necessitate an audience.

His eyes flicked to my friends. He wasn’t going to out me in front of them, but he stared at Matt extra hard. I hadn’t told him what happened between me and Matt, but he spent enough time with us before that he picked up on it.

Matt, to his credit, didn’t give anything away. He put his stuff in the back with mine and jumped into my passenger seat.

“He doesn’t like me.” He pointed out.

“He doesn’t like your sister, either.”

“Same reason?”

I nodded. Zack and Johnny were still hovering. I lit a cigarette and said, “we’re going to Ruby’s, if you wanna join us.”

“Uh...sure. Okay.”

“Dude…” Zack whispered after Jason got into the backseat and shut the door. “You know he’s not your responsibility, right?”

“You know if anything happens to him, she’ll blame me, right?” I snapped.

“We used to kick it all the time. It’s cool.” Johnny piped in. “We’ll see you there.”

I nodded and got in the car, throwing it into gear and speeding out of the parking lot. Matt smoked a cigarette, his whole body tense and ready to blow. I watched Jason in the rearview. He was fidgeting, but smartly kept quiet.

If someone would have told me ten years ago I would have been in this situation, I probably would have pummeled them to the ground.

“So, what happened with Ian?” Matt pried.

“He’s a cheating piece of shit.” Jason growled.

Matt chuckled. “You sure it’s him and not you?”

“Matt!” I yelled.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you don’t.” He grumbled.

“Matt, knock it off.”

“What’s the matter, Gates, don’t want me picking on your boyfriend?”

I swerved into a parking lot and slammed the gear into PARK before wailing on him, my fist meeting the side of his face. I hit him again before climbing over the console to get at him some more. He popped open his door and we tumbled out. I smacked into the asphalt with a grunt and got my arm up just in time to block his hit. The next one I wasn’t so lucky with. He clocked my mouth and I immediately tasted blood.

I managed to get my legs around his and twisted, pulling him to the ground and pinning him down. I straddled him and dodged his swinging arm, grabbing his hand and pushing it back towards him.

“Knock it off, Matt.” I growled.

“Or what? Maybe if I ruin that pretty face of yours, she’ll leave you for good.” He sneered.

I hit him again and a disgusting crack came from his nose. He brought his arms up and shoved, knocking me backwards. My head cracked against the ground and for a couple seconds, my vision blurred. I felt a weight on top of me and knew Matt was holding me down.

“Do it, then.” I dared him. “Go ahead.”

I wasn’t sure if Jason had stayed in the car or if he had gotten out to watch the whole thing. Either way, he wasn’t inclined to stop it. Probably a good thing. If anything happened to him, Beth would have more of a reason to leave and not come back.

Matt wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. I sensed his hesitation, but I didn’t move. As much as I needed to deck him, he needed to get his jealousy out of his system. When he kissed me, I didn’t stop him.

He gripped my shirt and lifted me up to kiss me harder, and I let him. I didn’t kiss him back, though, and when he realized that, he dropped me and stared down at me, his chest heaving.

“Are you done?”

“We’ll never be done.” He promised. He climbed off of me and took off his shirt, pressing it to his face to catch the bleeding.

Hit for hit, he had it worse than I did, but I knew my face was swelling up. I sat up and wiped my hand across my face, smearing the blood from my lip. He shook his head and walked away, reaching into the car for his cigarettes. Jason stepped out, eager to avoid him, and came over to me, offering a hand to pull me up.

“Should I go?” He asked.

“No. It’s his problem. He has to figure out how to deal with it. Come on.”

We all loaded back up, the sound of slamming doors and lighters flicking filling up the silence. When we reached Ruby’s Diner on the pier, Zack and Johnny were standing outside waiting for us, Beth standing next to them.

“Fuck.” Jason muttered for us as I pulled into a parking space.

We couldn’t avoid them. I got out first, wanting to get it over with.

“Thought you were still at the hospital.”

“Kai’s picking up lunch. I needed to get out of there.”

“Kai’s here?”

“Yeah.”

“Fucking great.” I lit another cigarette and walked away. It wasn’t her fault, or Kai’s, or Jason’s. It wasn’t even really mine. It was Matt. His jealousy, his problem.

I knew she had followed me down to the beach, but I kept walking. I couldn’t get enough air.

“Brian,” she called after a while. I stopped and let her catch up to me. She tried to meet my eye, but I couldn’t look at her. I looked out at the ocean, wishing for a sense of calm that I would never reach.

“Talk to me. What happened?”

“Nothin’.”

“Really?”

“What do you care? You’ll be gone in a few days. So why don’t you just fucking go?”

“You don’t mean that.”

I whipped around. “Don’t I? I can’t do this, Beth. I thought I could, but it’s too fucking hard. You’re not here, you don’t want to be here, so why bother? Just go back to London with Kai and fucking stay there.”

To her credit, she didn’t blubber and beg me to change my mind. She didn’t try and say that I was just upset and that we could talk when I calmed down. She swallowed her tears and held onto her pride.

“Goodbye, Brian.”

I watched her walk away. Again. I let her go. Again.

Nothing would fix this and I didn’t want to try.