AllFreeNovel
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I can understand being a kid and not knowing how to express yourself, but was I supposed to read his damn mind? I was a kid too. I had no idea he was mad when I wanted to include Dylan. She was family and our age. Why wouldn’t I?
But yeah, that dog thing was shitty. I didn’t realize I was doing anything wrong, but I can see how that hurt.
The years just piled on, and after a while neither one of us could swallow our pride and be open with the other. Feeling so alone, I left, and he perpetuated the only interaction with me he knew how to do anymore, because, at least, he stayed important that way.
We stand there, and I have no idea what the next move is, but I’m not mad anymore. I love Dylan, and I really want my brother back.
“I love you guys,” Dylan whispers, exhaling hard as she backs away. “Please, go get drunk, make that tent, and have a good weekend.”
I watch her climb on her bike, fasten her helmet, and drive away, her taillights visible until she pulls onto the highway.
I drop down in front of my car, leaning back on the chrome bumper and hanging my forearms over my bent knees.
And Dylan’s gone from me again…
I half-suspect this was Kade’s plot, but I laugh to myself, because I don’t think he could’ve predicted any of this.
He moves to the driver’s side and disappears for a moment before he’s next to me, sinking down on the ground at my side.
He uncaps a flask and takes a swig. Tears slowly dry on his face.
He doesn’t look at me as he passes the alcohol.
I take it, swallowing a hefty mouthful. Our dad’s homemade Irish-style whiskey. I can tell, because the Irish make it with barley. He works hard to try to impress my mom’s very Irish father, to no avail.
The old man drinks the hell out of the whiskey, though.
I hand it back.
“Was your…” Kade broaches. “Was your first time okay?”
I smile a little, because I didn’t realize I wanted to share it with someone until he asked.
I nod, looking over at him. “Yeah, it was good. It was amazing.”
“She treated you right?” he asks softly.
My chest swells, remembering making love to her in the back of this car and knowing I’ll never sell the thing. Ever.
“Yeah,” I tell him.
We sit there for a minute, and I know there are things to talk about—first and foremost being if he’s going to be okaywith me and Dylan together if I can win her again, because it’s too late to go back.
And then there’s school and his friends and coming home…
But before I can worry too much, he twists the cap back on the flask and looks over at me. “Why don’t you take me to a Weston party?”
Dylan
Weston is alive tonight.
There isn’t a single street without people on it and barely a house on Knock Hill not pumping light and music into the neighborhood.
I barely see any of it, though.
Parking up the lane, which is as close as I could get to the house, I slide through the crowd, between bodies, overflowing cups, and an impromptu game of football in the middle of the street. “Slip to the Void” blasts from the speakers sitting in the windows of Hunter and Farrow’s house, and I don’t know if anyone is doing the car-vibrating-sex thing, but there are plenty of people making out.
Entering the house, I hear laughter and quickly dry my eyes as I step toward the living room. Blankets and pillows sit in a pile on the chair as Codi and Mace rest on the couch, laughing at something on Mace’s phone. Codi wears my jacket.
