Southern Secrets Society: The Grooming | #Suspense | RomePi™

͋ 19 ͋ Molding Clay (BWWM)

WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR

For some reason he was antsy and every time the phone rang, he nearly jumped out of his skin to grab it.

"Hey, man. What's going on?" The day before the birthday party, he heard his friend's voice on the other end of the receiver.

"Not much. What about you?" Ben replied. Hearing Tad's voice put him on edge for some unexplained reason. He was invited over to Tad's house to toss back a few.

"Make sure you bring your appetite. I'm grilling some steaks." After the invitation, nothing more needed to be said. Cold beer and steaks always sounded like a good plan. Ben grabbed his keys and headed out.

As soon as he reached the familiar light gray, dark gray, and white brick house, Ben walked around to the backyard and found his buddy by the grill. That was a badge of honor for a Southern man to have skills on the grill, and of course, Tad thought he was the best. As he walked through the gate, he grabbed a cold Bud Ice and sat on one of the lawn chairs.

He should have known beer and steak weren't the only reason he was invited over. Not long after he made himself comfortable, his so-called friend's ulterior motive for calling him came to light.

Tad was and always had been a complete asshole. He told Ben that he saw someone they both knew and a friend of hers earlier that day. As long as he'd known this moron, he knew when he was up to no good. During the meal, Tad revealed his snake-like nature.

"Guess who I saw when I left the office today?" His friend's devious smile hinted that it was someone close to Ben.

"Who?" He simply replied.

"I saw Jolie and one of her friends walking around downtown. Just before I had a chance to say anything to them, they walked into Auntie's Kitchen. Since it was lunchtime, I found a parking space and went inside." Tad glanced over at his buddy as he recounted the experience. The grin on Tad's face gave away the fact that he was definitely trying to start some shit.

"So, what was she up to?" Ben questioned cautiously.

"They were enjoying lunch. When I introduced myself, she blushed when I mentioned you are my friend." The light in his eyes gave away what he was doing. Even though Ben was well aware of his friend's attempt to make him jealous, he could not control the emotions boiling on the inside. Tad was highly successful at pissing him off.

The rest of the day went by without any mention of Jolie. Occasionally, he would catch a smirk on Tad's face that he desperately wanted to knock right off as quickly as he'd seen it, but he refused to give the instigator the pleasure.

When he made it home, he could not get the thought out of his head that his friend wanted Jolie for himself. Even though nothing like that was said, his gut told him that Tad's predator-like senses were already locked on her the way a hawk locks in on a mouse.

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As he lay on the couch, Ben recalled the number of times Tad stared at him with a shit-eating grin on his face.

Reliving that visit did exactly what he'd hoped it would do. Ben was so focused on figuring out ways to get back at the bastard he called a friend, that his mind released its hold on the images of Jolie butt-assed naked.

It took a little more time for him to drift off, but eventually, his eyelids began to bump against one another repeatedly as he fought with the sleep that was trying to push him into the void.

As Jolie lay in the bed and Ben struggled with sleep in the den, neither of them realized that they had been under surveillance since the birthday girl was rescued from someone's intentional manipulation of her senses.