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“If you think about it,” Hayes says with a deceptively innocent look at Soren. “Being born with innate talent or skill can also be considered luck.”
“Or being born at all,” Lake says, grinning at Hayes.
Soren blinks for a bit before he shakes his head and gets up. He points first at Lake, then at Hayes. “Fuck you, and fuck you. You’re wrong. I’m gonna go get another drink. And don’t move. I have more things to say.”
Lake and Hayes raise their middle fingers to him in unison.
Soren stomps away, and the two of them start to laugh.
And somewhere inside me, the deepest pit of my stomach gets a sour feeling. The kind that tells me I should punch Hayes. I don’t know where that came from, but it’s still there when Hayes lifts his beer and clinks it against Lake’s bottle. It has to be the beer. It’s the only thing that feels even remotely like a good reason for wanting to act like a dick.
I’m distracted by somebody throwing their arm over my shoulders from behind me. I throw a look at King as he grins at me.
“Sup?” he says with a wide, happy, drunk smile. “We’re playing darts. You guys in?” He looks around the table, and his eyes stop on Hayes, then on Lake. They stay on Lake. His smile widens, and he sways a bit as he stands. “Oh hey! It’s you again. What are the chances?”
Lake blinks for a moment before he says, “Yeah. Hi.”
“You know each other?” I ask.
King grins at me. “Ran into him a few days ago when he was trying to find my old man’s office in Boston. I keep telling Dad he needs a better sign. Saved the day, though. Lucky you,” he tells Lake. Then he frowns. “Or, I guess not lucky. Sucks about the divorce, dude. But you know, Dad’s a good attorney. I know he’s not, like, the top name in the business, but he’ll make sure everything’s fair and square.” He gives Lake a clumsy pat on the back and stumbles into the crowd again.
I slowly turn my head toward Lake. It feels like I’ve just been pushed off a rooftop and the ground is speeding toward me with no way to stop it.
I stare at Lake.
I should say something. I know I should. But I have no idea what that something should be.
Lake finally meets my gaze, and my heart sinks.
I guess… I guess that answers the question about what Lake wants.
Clearly the answer is not me.
I need a minute of deep breaths or some shit to compose myself and try to calmly rationalize what I just learned, but my thoughts are all over the place, jumping between denial and fear and… anger.
Yeah, I’m pissed off.
Afraid and pissed off. That’s probably not a good combination. I take a deep breath.
“Cool,” I say. It’s pretty damn difficult to force the words past my lips when it suddenly feels like I’m being choked. “A divorce, huh? Good to finally get that thing out of the way.”
Lake is frowning now, and he gets up from his seat.
That’s when Soren comes back to the table. He slams another round of beers down and drops his ass into the chair.
“I thought about it,” he announces. When nobody says anything, he looks around from one person to the next and laughs. “Well, this is tense. You get into a fight while I was away? Is that, like, a sibling thing?”
“Yeah. Sure. Sibling thing,” Lake says, eyes never leaving mine.
“Outside,” I say tightly, and stomp toward the door with Lake following behind me. Once outside, I storm a little ways down the street before I stop. I heave in a large gulp of crisp night air and drag my fingers through my hair. It takes a bit before I hear footsteps behind me. I turn around.
Lake slaps my jacket against my chest.
“Put it on, or you’ll catch a?—”
“When were you going to tell me?” I demand, ignoring the jacket.
He’s very quiet for a moment.
