Beneath the Surface

Jax

“I’m telling you something about that family isn’t right!” Me, Dillon, and Carson are sitting on my back patio drinking a few beers. “I’ve thought about it all day and something doesn’t add up.”

Dillon starts chuckling,” So in other words you thought about Lexie all day?”

Carson smirks but doesn’t say anything, as usual. The guy barely talks at all. We don’t know why and we don’t push it. He’s a good guy, and the three of us have been friends since high school. We have been through everything together. High school drama, military, tours of duty, coming home, what Nicole did to me, and our subsequent divorce. Through all that Carson has never told us why he is so withdrawn, why he barely talks even to us, or why in the sixteen years that we’ve been friends, we have never once seen him with a girlfriend. It makes no sense, women love the whole quiet, mysterious thing he has going on, but he has no interest in any of them. To tell the truth Dillon and I both wonder if he might be gay, but have never asked. If he wanted us to know what’s up he’d tell us.

“I’m telling you shit doesn’t add up. Dillon, did you not catch earlier today when Maddie almost called Lexie by a different name? She said Lin and then changed it to Lexie. Look at her roots, She’s a natural blond, now you tell me how many natural blonds dye their hair dark brown? Plus, I’m telling y’all, you didn’t see those two boys this morning when they came to apologize about the window. One looked nervous, but the other looked absolutely terrified of me! No shit, I worried he was going to piss his pants or something. What the fuck is that? Something isn’t right.”

Carson looked over towards Lexie’s house then back at me, “maybe her husband was abusive or something and now they’re hiding. I mean she does have a cast on her arm. That would explain the hair color, the new name, and the boys being scared of you.” I nod. That makes sense.

Dillon tosses his beer can in the nearby trash can. “Well I think y’all are jumping ahead of yourselves. I mean y’all don’t know that anything is wrong. It could be that the boys haven’t been around many men, and are scared of you because you’re an asshole. You’re just looking for something wrong in that family because you want them gone. Leave them alone. She seems like a nice enough woman.” He stood up and walks towards the door. “Now if y’all will excuse me I’m going to the bar. There are too many lonely women in this town.”

Me and Carson chuckle and hold our beers up as a goodbye. “I swear his dicks going to fall off one day.” Carson just grins and shakes his head.

We are both used to Dillon and his ways with women. He loves women and women love him, but his longest relationship to date was five months. He doesn’t believe in settling down, but loves to play the field.

We hear a door slam next door and both look over. The twins are running into the back yard with a football and haven’t noticed us sitting here yet. We watch them for a few minutes, throwing the ball back and forth and running and tackling each other.

Carson turns back to me and whispers so we don’t draw the kid’s attention, “Maybe Dillon’s right, and you’re looking for something that isn’t there. They seem like normal kids to me.”

“Okay, watch this.” I put my beer down and stand up. I soften my voice as much as I can, “Hey boys!” I wave at them. They both freeze, and look at me with huge eyes. One boy turns and runs to the other before looking at me again. Neither one waves back or says anything, they just stand there staring at me. “Yall like football?” They turn at the same time and run inside the house. I sit back down and turn to Carson, “see what I mean?”

He grunts and nods at me. “It could just be you though.”

I look over at their house and wonder if he’s right. Is it me? Am I really such an asshole that I actually scare little kids that bad? Or am I right, and something isn’t right with that family?