Beautiful Tragedy (A Standalone Romance Novel) Read Free Page B

the colored marshmallows in it. Disgraceful.
    “Hey,” I said as I mixed various fruits with juice in
the blender. I was adding a tablespoon of Echinacea as he said, “How do you
drink that stuff? It even smells bad.” This from a guy who eats his breakfast
out of a box with fake vampire on the front.
    “I have cancer, I can’t taste anything.”
    “Oh dude…Man…I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”
    I smiled then, and he knew I was yanking his chain.
Jake’s the only one here at school who knows my history. I was diagnosed with a
brain tumor at the age of fourteen. Since then, I’ve had multiple surgeries,
chemo, radiation…blah, blah, blah! But now I was taking a new course of drugs
that were still in the experimental stages. I only have to take them five days
a month and they seem to be keeping the tumor from growing…so far. I have
problems with them on the fourth or fifth day of taking them every month, but I
try to time them so that happens on a weekend, and then I just camped out in my
room with a bucket. Jake’s cool and doesn’t invite anyone over during that time…even
Megan. He tells her that I’m working on my music and can’t be disturbed.
    “That was low man,” Jake said when it hit him that I
was kidding. It was…kind of.
    “You insulted my breakfast first,” I told him.
    “True story,” he said. The best part about Jake is
that he never lets anything bother him for more than a few seconds at a time.
He was honestly the easiest-going person I had ever met. He parked his butt on
the couch and turned on the TV. “So what did you think of Molly?”
    I was grinning inwardly as I said, “Who?”
    I casually poured my “bad smelling” drink into a glass
as Jake said, “Megan’s friend? The one from last night? Do you seriously not
remember her name?”
    “I have memory problems from the cancer too,” I told
him. “You’re so insensitive sometimes.” I was grinning this time so he just
ignored me. Then I said, “Oh, the brunette. Yeah, she’s hot.”
    “She’s a good-looking girl,” Jake said. “Hot” wasn’t a
word that he’d use in reference to any other woman than Megan, and I knew it. I
was still tugging at his chain. “But, did you like her? I mean, come on man.
Megan and I know that you attract the good-looking ones like flies. But you
never really like them. Megan said you also needed one with a brain. What did
you think of Molly?”
    I gulped down the juice, sat the glass on the counter,
wiped my mouth and picked up the keys to my bike before I said, “She was
alright.”
    “Just alright?” Jake said, sounding disappointed. I
knew that Megan’s disappointment was what he was worried about. For some reason
it was important to Megan that Molly and I like each other.
    I shrugged, grabbed my book bag off the counter and
said, “Don’t give away my football ticket okay?”
    Jake grinned as I went out the door. He knew how I
felt about football. I’m sure he took that as a good sign.

 
    Our apartment building was only six blocks from the university.
I could walk, and sometimes I did, but sometimes I rode Suzie just because I
missed her. I found her waiting for me in our spot, chrome gleaming in the sun.
Suzie used to belong to my pop. She had been his since she rolled off the
Harley Davidson assembly line in 1964. She was an XL Sportster with an
overhead-valve engine and cast iron heads. Her body was red and white with lots
of shiny chrome. She could be a lot of work to keep clean and shiny, but I
loved her, and what woman wasn’t work?  
    My dad had loved her too. He gave her to me on my
eighteenth birthday. It’s funny, because of all the things my dad has done for
me in my life, that was the day I realized exactly how much he loved me. I put
my book bag in her leather saddle bag and straddled her. It was silly, but
since it was only in my head I tried not to be too embarrassed about it. As I
put on my helmet and Suzie roared to life, I was hoping that Molly