Read Online Trying the Knot by Todd Erickson - Free Book Online Page B

hypnotized. He refused to look up. “I guess I was afraid
the father was me, not that it’s any of your business.”
    “Well, it’s comforting to know you were there
for her in her time of need,” Chelsea said condescendingly. She sat
back, folded her arms, and glared accusingly at him. She could not
stop shaking her head or shake the awed expression from her
face.
    Loud laughter erupted from the back dining
room, and it echoed in the silence that had descended on them. It
sounded as if the Frat pack were tearing the place down from the
inside out. Their distant charged energy only served to feed the
animosity bouncing between Ben and Chelsea.
    “What else aren’t you telling us?” she
asked.
    “What the hell are you getting at?”
    Chelsea was quiet for a few lingering
moments, and then she said tersely, “Whatever would a girl do
without such a terrific friend as you?”
    “Screw you, I don’t have to sit here and
listen to this bullshit. What a hypocritical bitch,” Ben said, and
he yet again jumped to his feet. Guiltily, he burrowed his hand in
the recesses of his pocket and fiddled with the scrap of stationery
he plucked from Vange’s hand earlier that morning.
    “You know what’s total bullshit, Benny?” she
asked angrily. She bounded out of the booth and pointed at him. She
twisted her index finger into his chest as if her serrated
fingernail was a bayonet.
    “What’s total bullshit, Benny, is you’ve done
whatever Nick’s ever told you, probably since you’ve been eleven
years old, and you’ve hung onto his every word as if it’s gospel.”
Having gathered the needed ammunition from her arsenal of cutting
observations, she repeatedly charged at him with her stockpile
until he withered defeated. “You’ve been his stupid little sidekick
for so long you’ve begun to act exactly like him.”
    “Yeah, right.”
    “You’re so spineless, don’t even try to kid
yourself into thinking you’re Vange’s friend.”
    Ben smirked bewildered. “And you are? When
did you start giving a rat’s ass?”
    “I don’t care, not one iota, and I never have
– but you, you did! So, why didn’t she make any effort to call you,
her wonderful, caring friend before she swallowed a fistful of
pills?”
    “You’re insane,” Ben said casually, and he
turned away and scuffled toward the bobcat-topped exit.
    “That’s right, call me crazy and leave, but
why the hell didn’t she call you when she was trying to kill
herself, you outright unmitigated asshole?” she yelled after
him.
    Trembling violently, she wished the
taxidermied feline would spring to life, leap from its eternal
perch and dig a hole through his chest cavity. No doubt, the feline
would discover a black hole where his soul should be. Watching him
amble across the lawn to his motorcycle, she felt Thad’s arm wrap
around her shoulder. Ben straddled and started the bike. He did not
bother to look back, which only upset her further. With Ben no
longer in her crosshairs, she collapsed against Thad as if having
completed a marathon. Drained of energy, she shook uncontrollably
as he continued to support her lightweight frame. He was unable to
guess what she kept stashed away, stewing inside her for so long it
erupted with such volcanic fury.
    “He’s such a smarmy cretin bastard,” she said
out of breath. She held onto Thad while avoiding the glassy dead
eyes of a mounted sturgeon hanging on the wall. “He makes Nick look
like a saint.”

    Nick leaned forward with hands clasped on a
chair alongside the bed where Kate slumbered contentedly. Her black
hair fell away from her flawless olive skin. Drug-induced sleep
whisked her so far away from worry she looked more beautifully
unaffected than ever. Nick found the faint snoring noises she made
when especially exhausted endearing because it undermined her
taken-for-granted perfection. She was not the most beautiful woman
he had ever laid eyes on, but she possessed a presence that
demanded