But that was the problem right there—all that occupied Asa’s mind was the thought of her getting hurt because of his own mistakes.
“Yeah, I’m not sure how to do that right now,” he muttered, looking away from Wyatt and focusing on the few vehicles that passed by the window they were seated at.
“All right, tell me, when do you think the guys got to know about Carmen?”
Asa’s mind immediately flashed back to a particular moment in school and realisation dawned on his face. “The locker room, when Ronnie mentioned it in front of all of them.”
“Exactly.”
“But Carson wasn’t there at that time.” Asa pulled his brows together.
Wyatt only shrugged in response. “Not important, someone would’ve just told him. But that’s not the point here, Asa. If he heard about that, then there’s something else he’d have definitely heard of too.”
Something clicked in Asa’s mind. “Hunter’s threat,” he mumbled, more to himself than to Wyatt.
“Bingo.” Wyatt grinned. “Now Carson can be an idiot with no filter on his mouth sometimes. But I think you and I both know even if he did try to mess with you, there’s no way he’s stupid enough to piss off both you and Hunter.” He popped another one of the potato wedges into his mouth. “Like I said, it was an empty threat. No way in hell he’s actually going to act on it.”
That actually made sense—a lot of sense.
Asa’s relentless worrying seemed utterly nonsensical and stupid now that Wyatt had helped him see past the surface of Carson’s words.
“Why’d he make the stupid threat anyway?” Asa cocked his head to the side. “If he was never going to live up to it?”
“I’m guessing he was counting on your rashness to do the rest of the job,” Wyatt said in a somewhat soft tone. “He must have known you would let it get to your head.”
Asa dropped the fork into the plate and leaned back in his chair, feeling his shoulders drop as he ran a hand through his hair. “I need to seriously get my shit together,” he muttered harshly, angry at himself for letting his emotions get the better of him. He wondered if being a heart-over-head kind of guy did more damage than good. “Maybe I should take lessons from Hunter and learn how to become a goddamn robot.”
Wyatt pressed his lips together, chewing on the inside of his cheek as he mulled over something in silence.
“No…,” he finally said, meeting Asa’s eyes with a small smile of his own. “No, you shouldn’t have to change that part of you because people do horrible things sometimes. Besides,” —he took a gulp of his water— “I think it takes a certain kind of courage for someone to wear their heart on their sleeve, the way you do.”
Asa scoffed lightly. “Fat load of good it’s done me.”
“Yeah,” Wyatt replied. “It got you Carmen, didn’t it?”
Asa’s eyes snapped to his with lightning speed, a whole ocean of emotions flooding through him right then as the reality of Wyatt’s words hit him.
Because that part of him—the part that allowed himself to be vulnerable—was what Carmen’s eyes had seen and told him made the world a better place. There couldn’t be anything wrong with him just because he had no qualms about opening up his heart to this world, right?
No, there had to be something wrong with the people who shamed him for it.
An odd sense of calm washed over him gently right then, the sensation being a high contrast to the sudden crashing of emotions just minutes before.
He met Wyatt’s eyes again, grateful that he had someone who could use his mind when Asa himself couldn’t.
“Thanks, man,” he said softly, short and sincere.
Wyatt grinned. “Dude, if you’re going to be thanking me each time I save your ass from doing something stupid, thank you is soon going to become the most frequently used phrase in your vocabulary.”
Asa just rolled his eyes in response, slipping back into their light banter as the seriousness slowly dissipated, and Carson’s threat was no longer hanging over Asa’s head so heavily anymore.
“You just proved there was a reason I kept you around.” Asa grinned, that playful edge in his voice reappearing as they stood up and began to leave. “Good timing too. I was about to give you the papers terminating our friendship.”
“Give me a heads-up next time you want a brovorce so that I can lawyer up.”
“What the heck is a brovorce?” Asa asked in bewilderment as he opened the door of the diner and stepped out into the chilled air.
“Divorce, but, you know, between bros.”
“You’re such a goddamn idiot, Wyatt.”
“Hey, you were the one who mentioned you pulling paperwork terminating our friendship. Might as well put a name on it.”
“Why do I always get stuck with the weird ones?” Asa muttered under his breath.
“Because the weird ones are the best ones.” Wyatt grinned, clapping Asa on the back as the two of them took off down the street to walk back to school.
Asa didn’t say anything to that, but the affectionate smile on his face spoke volumes on its own.
•••
When they reached school, there was still about five minutes of lunch remaining. Wyatt and Asa parted ways, the former heading off towards a different hallway with the latter taking off in the direction to his locker.
Asa was still walking between the rows of lockers when Carmen appeared from the other end, her head bent slightly as she stuffed a textbook into her shoulder bag.
She hadn’t seen him yet as her eyes were focused down on her bag as she zipped it close whilst walking, but Asa didn’t bother calling out her name or alerting her of
