Love Thy Neighbor (Friend-Zoned)(26)

He lifts his brow and stares at me. I roll my eyes and yell, “Oh, come on! You’ve never seen Super Troopers?” He doesn’t reply, just lifts his brow further. I tell him, “Now you’ve done it. That’s next on our to-watch list. You’ll laugh your ass off.”

Still holding my hands, he snaps, “Stop it. Tell me how you feel. It’s important.”

Biting my bottom lip, I nod and utter quietly, “You wanna know how I feel, Ash? I feel like some guy I was dating beat the shit outta me.” I look him right in the eye and see his face soften. He reaches up and brushes his thumb over my bruised cheek. “I won’t be a victim. If I let this run my life, I become a victim. Nuh uh. Not happening. My parents taught me and my sisters better than that.”

When I mention my sisters, Ghost’s body stiffens and his face morphs into an expression of shock. He sits up and rubs his hands down his face saying, “Oh f*ck! Fuck me! Oh shit! I forgot!”

I move to stand but he pulls his arms around my waist and looks me in the eye. His face is almost apologetic and he rambles, “I f*cking forgot! And it’s today! Fuck, Nat! Oh God…”

Ding Dong

Confused as hell, I look from Ghost to the front door then back to Ghost as he continues to ramble. “I did it because I thought you needed it! You missed ‘em! Just remember this came from a good place and- and don’t punch me!”

I stand, walk over to my front door and check the peephole. My mouth rounds in shock and I look over at Ghost giving him my best what the f*ck expression. He stands, shrugs and shoots me a remorseful look.

Not given a choice, I open the door to my sisters. Helena and Nina stand there with open arms and matching wide smiles as they yell excitedly, “Surprise!”

When they both see my face they gasp in shock.

Not surprising.

Just as I begin to explain what happened Helena runs past me over to Ghost yelling, “I’ll f*cking kill you!” Before I have a chance to tell her to stop, Nina runs past me and Helena to a now wide-eyed Ghost. She pushes him so hard he falls back onto my coffee table with an Ooomph!

Crack-Snap-Smash

Wood splinters fly everywhere. Like watching an episode of WWE wrestling, the table breaks into small pieces with Ghost lying in the middle of it. Nina straddles his waist, punching his face and shrieking, “No one touches my sister!” Ghost does his best to cover his face, but she gets a few good ones in.

Well, this day just turned to shit. Surprise, indeed!

Helena, not being one to let Nina have all the fun, looks around for a weapon. She spots my purse on the kitchen counter, grabs it and walks around the pieces of coffee table to Ghost’s head. She lifts my large and heavy purse as high as she can and slams it into his face. Ghost’s arms fall to his sides and his legs stop moving. I gasp, and for a moment, I’m worried she killed him until he groans long and low.

Well, that escalated quickly.

This has gone too far. I screech, “Stop it! It wasn’t him! Stop it!”

Running around the pieces of my coffee table to Ghost, I push my older sister off him, kneel by his face and lift my purse off him. I cringe at the sight of his bleeding nose. I cup his cheek and ask quietly, “Are you okay?”

Ghost smiles, his teeth stained with blood, and chuckles, “That was f*cking awesome.”

My shoulders slump in relief, and I puff out the breath I hadn’t even known I was holding. Unable to suppress my laughter, I chuckle with him. “I told you. My sisters are the bomb.”

I help him to his feet and admonish my awesome sisters. “What do you have to say for yourselves?”

They stand there like a couple of petulant kids. Looking to the floor and shuffling their feet, they mutter, “Sorry.”

Ghost chuckles some more, and limps over to my refrigerator and opens the freezer. He pulls out a bag of frozen peas and plops it on his face with a small wince.

Nina and Helena’s faces drop and Nina asks, “So, what the f*ck happened?”

I roll my eyes and run my hands down my still-sore face.

Here we go again.

***

I spend about half hour explaining to my sisters what happened with Cole. And, not surprisingly, they went from hating Ghost to loving him in a matter of seconds. They both hugged his rigid body, completely ignoring his wide eyes and obvious discomfort, and then did what Croats do best.

They apologized with food.

I informed my two would-be bodyguards that beating the f*ck out of my hero was somewhat of a faux pas and they needed to make it right. So they cooked and baked all day and told Ghost that morning that if he didn’t come to dinner, they would find him. Realizing this was not an empty threat, a wide-eyed Ghost told them he’d be back around six.

I sit on the sofa resting while they redecorate my kitchen in the worst kind of way and we chat.

Nina starts, “So this Cole guy just lost it over a goddamn note?”

I nod slowly. With a scrunched face she goes on, “Totally cuckoo bananas? Like, Boom! Shit flying everywhere psycho?”

I nod again and she shakes her head slowly, her blonde hair bobbing, and mutters, “Figures.”

Helena stills before jumping to my defense. “What the heck is that supposed to mean, ho?”

Nina turns to Helena with her hands raised and explains, “I’m just saying that Nat doesn’t have the best taste in men.”