Shark Out of Water (Grab Your Pole, #3) (31 page)

“If you’ll promise to play nice, I’ll introduce you,” I said and indicated Brandon with my chin. If my guess is right, I doubt she’ll get to him, but being hit on might cheer him up a little.

“I
always
play nice,” Mia replied with an enthusiastic wink.

“
Humph
, that’s debatable…Brandon meet my sweetheart, Mia…she’s really not all sugar and spice though,” I said and stuck my tongue out at her. “And Mia, meet Brandon. Under different circumstances I bet he’d give you a run for your money.”

She responded by raising her eyebrows in interest. Poor Mia, I have a feeling she’s gonna wind up being disappointed.

“It’s true. As much as I hate to admit it, my dick only has an eye for another…and I’ll have you both know, impotency fucking sucks,” he said in self-deprecation.

“I can help you with that…” Aaaand
there’s
the point blank offer. Nice.

I raised my eyebrows at him to say, “It’s up to you,” but after checking her out briefly, Brandon declined by saying, “I bet you could, and like my pimp here said, under different circumstances I’d be happy to get better acquainted but…it’s too soon…just too fuckin’ soon.”

“Ahh, you’re the cheating bastard the knockout inside mentioned…let me guess, you wouldn’t dream of cheating on her and never have but you didn’t deny it when she accused you because you took it to be a hurtful insult and I’m guessing you’re the kind of guy who thinks he’s above owing anyone an explanation about anything so you broke up with her instead. Am I close?” Mia, not playing all that nice, openly psychoanalyzed him and threw in a little dig at the same time just because she could. I felt like saying, “Told you so,” to both of them.

“So dude, I’m gonna go get drunk and see if I can still shred when I’m hammered…you still gonna drive me?” Brandon asked, completely dismissing Mia, her question, and her put down. I wasn’t sure whether to wince or laugh… Seriously, I bet these two would kill each other without a referee.

“Sure thing, I’ll text you when I get done here…but uh, stay sober enough to avoid Bigfoot. At least until I get there…trust me.”

“Whatever you say,
lover
…see you in a couple hours,” he said more like himself and gave Mia a wink before he turned and left us.

“Well, that was a little disappointing. Shred what and drive him where?” She asked as she watched Brandon start up his bike and drive away.

“Guitar and to get another piercing. He’s, ah, fond of sticking holes in various parts of his body, just like your average, sinning rock star,” I told her and before she could ask, I closed my eyes, nodded my head and said, “Mm-hm.” To which she replied by sighing a little and staring longingly at the taillights of Brandon’s motorcycle. “Sorry, sweetheart, I tried but I think he’s gonna be out of commission for a while.”

“That’s a shame, but, speaking of that…I saw a picture of your tattoo. There can be only one? Isn’t that from
Highlander
?”

I was mentally whining and stomping my foot, but in response I simply sighed, closed my eyes again, and nodded.

“Lover, you know just as well as I do that the Highlander is Helix’s mascot…”

I raised my arms to my sides and dropped them in resignation because although I love what it means to Camie and more specifically, to me, I wasn’t actually thrilled with permanently inking a phrase contained in a movie with the title bearing the same name of my school’s rival mascot on my body, so thanks for bringing it up, Mia, you suck.

“Oh, well, what’s done is done I guess… So, if I read the symbolism correctly, shortly after I left in June you somehow managed to fall in love with a virgin. Would I be correct in guessing that she remains pure as un-driven snow to this day?” Goddamnit…I knew if she ever got a good look at that as well as Camie, she’d put two and two together and wouldn’t be able to help herself. She won’t be anything near as bad as Jeff, but still, this bites.

I met the humor in her eyes head on and again, just nodded.

“Oh dearheart,” she sighed, “You must be going for the Olympic Gold in masturbation.”

“Try
Guinness Book
.”

“I bet…take your shirt off,” she chuckled and then demanded of me.

Now, in the past she and I have gotten into it when she made demands I didn’t feel like complying with, usually because I was tired and she wasn’t, and somehow or another she almost always got her way in the end, but with the advent of Camie, Mia’s
gotta
know I’m
not
doin’ shit with her anymore. At least not until I decide one way or the other what I’m gonna do about the fucked up mess that is my relationship with Camie right now. Hell, I’m not even all that comfortable simply
talking
to her in an essentially deserted setting because Camie’s inside a building close by even though the building doesn’t have any goddamned windows where someone might see us. And even
if
I were to decide to really and truly let Camie go, because that’s the
only
way I’ll ever be able to have anything like sex again, I have a feeling I won’t be able to get it up anyway. I’m gonna fuckin’ end up like Brandon permanently, I just know it.

“Fuck no,”
I said like I thought maybe she’d taken temporary leave of her senses, because really…even better than Jeff, Mia knows me. I think that might be because she’s an unbiased girl and we have the brutal honesty rule…I tend to find it easier to talk to her and plus, she’s more compassionate about this sort of stuff than he his. I’m not sure, but whatever, it’s not the point, the point is she’d have to be insane to think I’d risk something so important to me for doing something with her that might be a lot of fuckin’ fun after five arduous months of celibacy on my part, but what ultimately means diddley-squat to either of us.

“Get your mind out of the gutter…I know better than to try to seduce or entrap you, I just wanna see something,” she told me in irritation and rolled her eyes.

“I would hope so, Mia, Jesus…but still, you know how much it bugs the shit outta me when you do that and I don’t wanna take my fucking shirt off.”

“Oh quit it, you big baby,” she said and not taking no for an answer—not unlike her
at all
by the way—she swiftly moved behind me and before I could turn around and stop her, she was lifting the back of my shirt all the way up. “Uh-huh…that’s what I thought. Your contract has a date that hers doesn’t.”

“Yeah, I know. I had Gary add it a few wee—wait. How the fuck would you know that?”

My mind was racing…when Camie was at the allergist, I added the date of that fight we had because it was when we both used the “L word” for the first time out loud and meant it…Mia said she saw a picture of
my
tattoo and there’s only the
one
picture of mine by itself in existence and Gary took it when I had him add the date because he’d forgotten to get one of mine or Camie’s when he did them originally, and there isn’t a single picture of Camie’s by itself, and Mia asked if she’d “read the symbolism correctly,” and just now she called it what it really is…a contract…so that has to mean…

“I just saw the twin, minus one date. I’m really curious though, whose idea was the
Highlander
reference?”

Oh FUCK. I was wrong. My freakout has only just begun…

“Hers, but oh, Mia, please tell me you didn’t tell her you know it’s a contract.” Oh God, this isn’t good…

“Ahh…”

“Oh fuck…what
exactly
did you say?”

“I can’t give you word for word, dearheart, but I told her I recognized my brother’s work, that I’d seen the mate but didn’t realize there was another one or something along those lines, and then I did happen to tell her I know it’s a contract but that was only because Gary had called it that.”

“How about where you saw it…did you tell her you’d only seen a picture of it?”

She nodded.

I wanted to breath a sigh of relief, but something is telling me it’s a little too early to do a celebratory dance in the end zone. “Alright. You didn’t by any chance happen to mention you actually understand the symbolism though, did you?”

Again, Mia nodded.

I started whining out loud this time… “
No no nooo
…for the love of all that’s
HOLY
, Mia, you didn’t tell her you understand it because you know me!?”

“I did.”

And now I think I’m legitimately hyperventilating. Little did I know, it was a lot worse than that…

“Tristan, you need to take a deep breath, let it out and keep doing that, and it’s gonna be hard for you when you hear this, but please don’t stop because you’ll pass out. Jeff introduced me to her at Wayne’s party in a particularly, ah…informative way. You weren’t there and I had no clue who she was so I played along.”

“Nooooo…he…she…you…”
Oh Jesus, now I
know
Satan is definitely fucking with that goddamned fire. And I also now know what someone might feel like before they have a stroke.

“Keep breathing and talk to me…I know you’re lying to her but I don’t know why, so will you tell me about that?” Mia asked calmly and let me pace around her in a circle, being in almost full-blown panic mode.

“Nope, not gonna talk about that to anyone and before you ask, I don’t know! I don’t know how to fix it or even
if
I should! I don’t know
what
the fuck to do! Especially now!”

“Alright, keep breathing, but you’re making me dizzy so let’s sit down and talk about this,” she said and pulling on my arm with all her weight, she forced me to sit. “Let’s start with some basic but important questions. Do you love her?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, good. Now, does she love you?”

“Mmm, I’m not sure anymore. She did though, I’m sure about that.
Buuut
I hurt her and I don’t really know what kind of damage was done. It could be permanent.”

“Why are you hesitating in figuring that out?”

“Honestly, because I’m afraid of the answer. Either way I think I’m fucked so being in purgatory seems to be my easiest option right now. I can’t make up my mind and I don’t wanna let her go, but I think I might only be holding onto her because I’m being selfish.”

“Whoa, hold on. I’ve had my fair share of relationships where I’ve really gotten to know my boyfriends, so trust me when I say the way a person behaves in bed is highly indicative of their character. Now, as you’re aware, you and I have spent quite a bit of time in bed together, Tristan, so I know you pretty damned well and I can confidently say that you are the
furthest
away from selfish as it gets, so you need to explain that.”

“Alright, I’ll try,” I sighed. Then, because I could feel it about to come spewing out, I took a deep breath and let loose with a copious amount of what I’m sure could be termed as word vomit. “You see, Mia, it’s like this…she might be better off with someone else but I don’t want anyone else to have her. From the very first time I saw her over the summer I was done. Strangest moment in my entire life too. It was like I
recognized
her and I almost immediately thought of her as mine even though I couldn’t bring myself to even find out what her name was. And for a little while, I even thought she had a boyfriend, but…the feeling that she was mine never went away. I saw her over and over again throughout the summer but I still couldn’t even approach her, but then she showed up here at school and that was it.

“Then when I found out I was the only one to have ever even
kiss
her, let alone the virgin thing which I actually love by the way, I figured God was laughing at me because she and I have always had this really fucking weird physical chemistry that’s a tangible thing like lightning. Honestly, there are times when we’ve touched that it feels like we’ve caught fire but it’s an amazing burn, which just makes being together difficult for me at times, as I’m sure you of all people can imagine. But even before I found out about all that, I couldn’t fucking
stand
the idea of anyone else touching her, even if it’s just holding hands. And still to this day it makes me literally sick to my stomach. Seriously, I could puke right now just thinking about it, which I’ve actually finally done…it’s fucking gross, but even with all that and as much as I love her, I’m not convinced she’s meant for me.

“I mean, Mia, Camie and I could be
epic
but we haven’t actually known each other very long, it basically started in October, and we’re still sort of feeling each other out, but, I
think
we might have all the pieces bar one…because when we fight, we fucking
fight
and we usually end up hurting each other in some way and that’s just not good, plus, she’s sorta young, but it’s not her age so maybe inexperienced in comparison to her peers might be a better way to describe it, which makes her a little insecure in some areas, not that that’s a really big issue though. I mean it’s sorta frustrating sometimes, but it’s not even remotely a deal breaker for me. And it’s not that we fight all the time, but we do bicker pretty often and that’s just not what I envision as being a happy or strong relationship that can last. Does that make sense?”

“Some of it, but what doesn’t isn’t important. Do you two talk? I mean, are you open and candid with each other?”

“Yes and no. Like I said, we’re still sorta getting a feel for each other and the trust
was
really coming along until I fucked up, but being transparent with each other before that, not so much.”

“Hmm. But she knows what you’re really looking for and that you think she might be it.”

“Uh-uh, she doesn’t,” I sighed and shook my head.

“You’re kidding. You said she came up with the whole there can be only one phrasing though, I thought she would’ve known what that means…I mean, she tattooed it on her body, Tristan, she has to know.”

“Yeah, well…for her it stands for something different. The tattoo was originally just something we drew on each other with Sharpie when we made things official and we called it our contract because we each had terms. She wanted an exclusive commitment, no other girls. I was a little iffy on that point in the very very beginning but I agreed, and then once we began negotiating I just never told her that for me, that phrase has a double meaning. Like seriously, what was I gonna say? I believe in soul mates and I’ve been around the block a time or two searching for mine, and well, even though you’re not even quite sixteen and we’re still getting to really know each other, I think you might be the one? Remember, Mia,
three months
.”