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“We all used to stare at this thing all the time and play on it.” Wells came up beside me. I hadn’t even realized I’d ventured over to the structure. Wells chuckled. “Hence the lock on the door. It’s a shame Ramses doesn’t really have time to get in here more. He’s so good at what he does.”
And this came from a non-artist. Even Wells could see how awesome this thing was, which was true. I hovered a hand over it. “You said his dad is busy…”
“Yeah, he is,” he said, but his voice grew quiet. His jaw shifted. “Sometimes life gets in the way, I guess. He’s a businessman like the rest of our fathers, so there’s that.”
He made it sound like that might not be the man’s only obligation, or at least, not the only reason.
I guessed that wasn’t any of my business.
Wells stepped over to the sole desk in the room. He nodded. “Seems Wolf might be working in here now, though.”
Sketchbooks lined the desk where a computer would normally be. A couple were open, and I recognized the geometric work.
“Wolf likes to draw this kind of stuff,” he said, picking one up. He glanced around the room. “I guess it’s good this room is getting some use. Ramses told us it was soundproof once, so that’s good for Wolf’s tunes. He can blast them and stuff.”
He did like to listen to music while he worked like me.
Wells’s phone buzzed, and he handed me the sketchbook. I thought that may be Ares being ridiculous, but considering all the eggplant emojis pouring in from a contact by the name of Ms. Deep Throat, I may be wrong in that assumption.
Catching me looking, Wells waggled his eyebrows, then proceeded to text back so many filthy words I had to avert my attention to avoid, well, that shit. I started flipping through Ares’s sketchbook haphazardly, but a photo fell out of it.
I picked it up and was kind of confused by what I was seeing.
“Who’s this?” I asked, and Wells got off his phone long enough to look. There were four people in the photo, a family. There was a woman I recognized as Ares’s mother, Brielle. I mean, I’d just met her, so I recognized her even though she was younger. The man in the photo, I recognized too. Not only did he look like Ares, but I’d seen a younger photo of the guy at Bow’s house.
The man was Ares’s dad, Ramses. He was older than that photo I’d seen, but this was him. God, he was the spitting image of his son.
My confusion lay with the others in the photo. Ramses and Brielle held two children, babies, and the couple had one in each of their arms. Brielle lay in a hospital bed, the baby in her arms swaddled, and Ramses held the other by her side. He sat on Brielle’s bed, the couple smiling into the camera.
I assumed one of these children was Ares, and Brielle clearly had just given birth. She had a tired glow about her face, but looked so happy.
I didn’t get why there were two babies, though, and Wells took the photo when I handed it to him.
“Ares’s parents.” The frown pinched hard into Wells’s lips. He pointed at the baby in Ramses’s arms. “This is Wolf.”
“Who’s the other kid?”
“Ares’s sister,” he said, shocking me. Wells nodded. “Ares has a twin. Had a twin.” He shook his head. “Though he’s obviously only been told about her. He never got to meet her.” He glanced my way, his sigh heavy. “They didn’t even get to make it out of the hospital with her. Ramses and Brielle?”
Oh my God.
I didn’t know what to say. I mean, what could be said to that?
“Wolf would never say, but I think a lot of his shitty attitude comes from that.” His shoulders lifted. “I think the guy might have some survivor’s guilt or some shit. He used to butt heads real hard with his parents, and Brielle and Ramses couldn’t be nicer folks. Brielle is pretty tough, but she’s cool. I think Ares just feels bad.”
“Feels bad?”
Wells’s lips turned down. “I think he feels like they got left with him. He’ll say shit like that sometimes. Real fucked-up shit. Dark shit.”
“I guess she and my dad got stuck with my attitude. Stuck with me.”
Ares had said that when he took me to do the graffiti, but I had no idea he meant it literally.
Wells handed me back the photo when his phone buzzed again. He cursed. “I need to call this girl before she starts losing her shit. I told her we can’t hang tonight, so she’s freaking. Ares let her over last time, so she’s giving me issues. I need to handle it.”
I was still thinking about what he’d said about Ares, but pulled out of it.
Wells backed up. “Don’t go anywhere. This will just take two seconds. I’ll come back for you and walk you back.”
