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“Well, of course they’d be interested, Zoey,” my mom says with a clap of her hands. “Your work is amazing and beautiful. We have to celebrate, but first I’m going to call your father. He’ll be so proud of you.”
“I’m going to take off,” Jax says to Zane.
Zane looks to me then to Jax and nods. “I’ll call you later, brother.”
Jax goes out the door while Zane stares holes into me. “New York, Zoey?”
“I didn’t think anything would come of it, Zane,” I explain. “It was such a freaking longshot. Do you know how many people submit for this showcase every year? Hundreds! And they only take twelve new artists. I didn’t think I stood a snowball’s chance in them being interested in my work.”
“You tell us everything, Zoey. Why not this?”
“Because I didn’t think anything would come of it, Zane,” I yell. “I just filled out the application one day and sent it in. Honestly, with everything going on, I forgot about it.”
“You submitted the application a year ago. You’ve had plenty of time to tell us.”
“Oh please. Like you didn’t have plenty of time to tell me what went down with Maddox? Pot meet kettle, Zane.”
“It’s not the same damn thing and you know it Zoey. There were a lot more extenuating circumstances regarding that. This is something special. Important to you. You could have told us. Why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know. Okay? I just don’t know. It didn’t seem like that big of a deal. I never thought they’d be interested in my work. I never thought in a million years that I’d have this opportunity. Why the hell are you mad at me over it?”
He lets out a long sigh. “I’m not mad, Zoey. I’m just trying to figure out why you didn’t share this with me. With Jax. We tell each other everything good and important. It feels like you were trying to hide something from us.”
“I wasn’t trying to hide it, Zee. I – I just didn’t want anyone to know, so when I didn’t get accepted then no one would be the wiser.”
He walks around the counter and pulls me into a hug. “Well, if you’d told us about it, we could’ve told you there was no way in hell that they wouldn’t want you.”
I pull back from his hug, rise to my tiptoes, and place a quick kiss on his cheek. “Thanks, Zee,” I say softly. “I guess I should find, Jax, huh? He was pretty upset.”
“Yeah, you should,” he agrees. “But give him a bit. Okay? Let him absorb.”
I nod. “Yeah. Okay. I’ll give him a minute.”
Jax
New York. New fucking York. For six weeks. I know I’m being a bitch about it, but it’s six weeks. I don’t think I’ve ever gone twenty-four hours with seeing her since I was twelve years old and her parents started inviting me on family vacations. I don’t think I can handle six weeks without her.
“Fuck,” I yell kicking over a table in my room.
“What’d that table ever do to you,” a deep voice rumbles from my doorway.
“What are you doing here?” I ask with more attitude than is probably necessary.
“I came to see my baby brother, if that’s okay?”
“Haven’t seen you in months. You couldn’t even bother with my graduation. What makes today so special?” I bite.
“Jax you know I have to keep my distance sometimes and you know why. And you know just because I wasn’t waving a banner and screaming your name doesn’t mean I wasn’t at your graduation. Do you really think I’d miss watching my baby brother and my two pseudo siblings graduate?”
I rake my hands through my hair with an exhale. “No. Zane said he saw you there. Sorry, Rory. Just having a bad day. Shouldn’t take it out on you. How have you been?”
“Same old, same old,” he says with a shrug.
It’s really all he can say. When Rory was fourteen, he got involved with a bunch of wanna be thugs, but somehow it led to him becoming involved with the real mafia of River City.
My brother was always too smart for school. No matter what they gave him to do, it was never challenging enough. His short temper led to other problems for him, including a stint in juvie. But because he was so damn smart, he was quick to move up in the criminal underworld. He became the right-hand man of the local kingpin which also placed a target on his back.
Our parents are hard working people, but they barely make ends meet with each of them working two jobs. I barely saw them growing up which led me to spend most of my time at the Valen’s or with Rory. By the time I was fourteen, I began doing some “work” for Rory. It was a way to get some cash for things like football that I knew my parents couldn’t afford.
