I twist my mouth. “Not really, it seems hard.”
He lets out a low laugh, his mouth on mine again. “I love how your brain works.”
“Shut up Vern!”Jerry Lee breaks me from the daydream, and I can’t help the pang in my chest. Parker would always laugh at my intrusive thoughts, say how much he loves how my brain works, or how I think. He always understood it’s justme.
And then I think of Aaron. I know he gets stressed and sometimes doesn’t know what to say to me when I let the thoughts out. I can’t help it, but I don’t always need a response. It’s like my mouth moves faster than I can register what I’m saying. I used to get in trouble for it a lot more when I was younger.
In a way, I guess I still get in trouble a bit for it as an adult too. It’s just who I am.
Jerry Lee starts to bark, and I walk over to his cage where he’s hanging on the bars by his beak.
“Are you missing being able to fly free around the grooming salon?” I ask, and he just barks in response.
“Do you miss seeing your hot guy Jameson, and hunky Parker?” I bite back a laugh because just between the two of us, yeah, I’ll admit that Parker is still hot as shit.
“Hunky Parker!”he squawks.
My eyes widen, and I shake my head. “Oh no, we’re not starting that.”
“Hunky Parker!”I swear he just got louder.
“Sh! Shut the fuck up. Say that, or say caboodle, that’s a fun word.”
“Hunky Parker!”
“Shut up! Do you like having a home? Do you want to take your chances outside with the hawks?”
“Jizz!”
“That’s fine. That I can accept.”
“Hunky Parker!”
“No, that’s not?—”
“Oh good, you taught him something useful?” Parker’s voice has my spine straightening, but I refuse to turn around because then he’ll see how red my face is.
“That wasn’t me,” I deny.
“Never heard him say it before.”
“You haven’t been around him enough then.”
“I’ve been around him enough to know he hasn’t said that before.” I scrunch my nose at his teasing tone.
I turn around and hate the smirk he has on his face and how that mustache only makes him look more mature. I hate it; I hate him; I hate it all.
“Well, it wasn’t me,” I lie.
Parker shrugs. “Guess it must have been your mom then, I knew she was into me.”
“Ew, don’t be gross,” I scold. “She’s happily married to my dad.”
“Yeah?” He steps closer. My back hits the bird cage as I try to keep distance between us, even though he’s still at least three feet in front of me. “And what about you? Are youhappilywith whatever his name is?”
“Aaron, and yeah, I am,” I insist, weakly.
“A-A-ron,” Parker scoffs and I roll my eyes.