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This particular one hit close to home, though, and currently, I was trying to explain to Fawn none of this was her fault. She was trying to take the blame for this outing for some reason after I’d explained what was happening tonight.
Fawn: I’m so fucking sorry. This sucks.
It did suck, but it wasn’t her fault.
Me: It’s cool. Ballet isn’t that big of a deal.
I’d seen this one before at least, and I’d also be lying if I said it was unusual Fawn was trying to take the blame for this. It reminded me of high school and her dad’s accident. She’d been trying to take responsibility for that too. It wasn’t something she really talked about, but I picked up on it.
This girl had trauma, trauma like mine, and my brother had taken advantage of that. He currently was lifting his eyes in the passenger seat while Prinze drove, his hair up and in his own tux. I saw him well through the side-view mirror. The Reeds had a couple of Escalades, and us guys drove one to the theater while the Legacy dads tailed us. The fathers weren’t letting us get away, and we’d all be seeing the showing of The Nutcracker tonight.
Wolf sighed. “Jet lag. Really?” Wolf stared back out of the window. “It took two hours and a layover to get here, dude.”
Where was the lie, but I wasn’t saying shit. Not when I was angry with Wolf too.
For a few reasons.
We’d be talking about what happened later, because no way in hell did my bro manipulate Fawn into getting into a fake relationship, then have something tangible with her.
Physical.
I wasn’t even going to wrap my head around that one. Mostly because it wouldn’t even get that far. I knew Fawn, at least I had, and a guy like Wolf wasn’t her type. My brother was arrogance and a growl. Loved the dude, but that was straight facts, and Fawn hadn’t typically gone for guys like that.
At least, back then.
Add that to the fact that my brother didn’t date, and anything between Fawn and Wolf wouldn’t be happening.
I wet my lips, going back to Fawn. I hadn’t brought up how my brother had acted in our room, and I wasn’t going to until I talked to Wolf.
Me: I’ve seen this one. I like it.
Fawn: Yeah, but you shouldn’t have had to go.
She was right, and as I continued to talk her down, I got to hear more of Thatcher. I fully supported the reaming, so I had no intention of cutting it off. Thatcher had worked his dark hair around in frustration, both the crosses dangling off his ears dark metal. They matched the black-on-black situation he had going with his tux, and the dude looked more like a gorilla than he already did in his formal wear.
“I still don’t fucking care. I should be enjoying my fucking Christmas break and not this shit,” he seethed at Wolf, and when Prinze told him to relax and calm down a bit, he didn’t. Thatcher shot a hand in Wolf’s direction. “No, we’re all supposed to suffer for this dude’s fuckup?”
I couldn’t make out what Wolf said, but it sounded like something resembling a curse and a few other choice words. Whatever they’d been, he shut them down, and that was also weird. Fuckup or not, Wolf Mallick always stood up for himself.
Curiously, he wasn’t. In fact, the guy had been falling on the sword since I’d come back. He had barely even tried to defend himself when I came at him, which was something that didn’t happen. My bro and I had our history when it came to conflict. It wasn’t so often these days, but it happened, and when it did, we handled it like dudes. Shit got heated, but the guy had barely raised his voice today. He’d been the pinnacle of calm until he hadn’t.
I still didn’t know what that was about, and tonight, he appeared to be checking himself again. He held his tongue after what Thatcher said, and oddly enough, it was Prinze who whipped around and told Thatcher to shut up.
“Like you have the right to say shit at all,” Prinze cut, facing forward now and taking an exit.
We hadn’t had to drive far to get into town, but long enough that Wells nodded off. After he got in his reaming, he tucked his hands under his arms and put his head back to the window. He’d gotten the seat between Thatcher and me.
Prinze frowned into the rearview mirror. “How many fucking times did Wolf and I have to drive back to town for your fuckups senior year?”
Let’s just say more than one, and that was within the first month of Wolf and Prinze going off to college. I remember because all that shit went down before Wolf got sick.
It’d been a shit time, for everyone a shit fucking time. I attempted to reach my brother again through the side mirror. We clashed gazes this time, but I only got him for a moment before his attention drifted to the road again.
You can’t run forever.
We’d be talking. He had a lot to answer for, and I was starting to think I didn’t even know him. My brother could be a bully. I knew because I’d seen it, but he never did shit for no reason.
Hurt people…
