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"Shut up, you," I said, tugging at a strand of her hair as I moved past her into the kitchen. "You guys want any sweet tea or banana bread?" At the raised brow from Breaker and the grin from Alex, I shrugged. "What?"
"Shoot, you once offered us tap water and the old chips that were sitting in the back of your cabinet that tasted like cardboard when we were over," Alex said, dangerously close to laughing. "Now you come down here and you suddenly have sweet tea and fresh baked banana bread? We need to hurry up and get you out of here before you start making chicken fried steak and dumplings and buy a pickup truck."
I chuckled, shaking my head, not bothering to tell them that some real chicken fried steak was a gift from the gods. "It's from my neighbor. An apology for being nasty to me yesterday."
"A chick was nasty to you? I don't believe it," Alex winked at me as Breaker wrapped his arm around her shoulders, giving her a small squeeze.
"She was my dad's substance abuse counselor."
"She must have loved the fuckin' scotch," Breaker laughed.
"Oh yeah. She was just tickled," I agreed. "So do you guys want to crash here? The bedroom is free. I promise I won't listen to you guys fucking," I said directly to Alex because I knew I would be rewarded with a huge blush. I wasn't disappointed.
"Nah, Shoot. We got a room at that motel down the road. Didn't want to put you out. Figured you might have people you needed to see, neighbor girls you needed to fuck..." Break said, giving me a knowing grin.
"Working on it," I said with a shrug.
"Working on it? You've never had to work for it before," Alex objected.
"Never met someone like her before," I said before I could think better of it.
"Oh fuck," Break laughed, throwing his head back. "Seriously? Please tell me she ain't no damsel in distress. I think we've all had enough of that shit with Lea and Summer and Lo and Janie and Alex..."
"I was not a damsel in distress!" Alex immediately bristled.
"Doll, you so fuckin' were," Breaker objected.
"You kidnapped me! I was doing just fine on my own. I wasn't in distress until you put me in distress!"
"We seriously fighting 'bout this?" Break asked, looking amused as he always did when he and Alex got into a fight, which was frequently. "I was there, remember? Big bad guy who wanted to use your skills and then rape and kill you? You remember him right? Paid me to kidnap you? He had Shooter in the basement for days? He killed your friend? I think finding yourself on his radar meant you were in some pretty fuckin' serious distress."
"I was dealing with some shit! Was Shoot a gentleman in distress? No. He was just a dude in a situation. Stop being so sexist you giant, pain in the..."
"It's the Chinese food argument all over again," Breaker said, shaking his head.
"This has nothing to do with that! That was about you being a presumptuous..."
"And the bathing suit argument..." Break went on, intentionally trying to poke at her anger.
"The bathing suit was about you thinking you could tell me what to wear!"
"I prefer you naked," he said, attempting to do it quietly, but Break had a voice that could never quite be quiet.
"Sure you guys don't need to use the bedroom? Work off some of that steam?" I offered.
Alex's breath got caught somewhere between a snort and a laugh and she shook her head, lowering her eyes at Breaker. "I don't know why you try to piss me off all the time."
"Sure you do," he said, giving her a smile that made her blush. "Can I leave her with you while I go get some shit to eat and check in at the motel? Every-fucking-thing around here closes by seven."
"I'm going to steal a shower," Alex told me with a shrug. "I feel disgusting."
"Need someone to scrub your back?" I asked with a grin.
Break slapped me across the back of the neck. "Fuck off," he said in good humor and moved toward the door. "Be back in like an hour or so."
As soon as the door closed, Alex turned back to me with a eager smile. "So tell me about this girl..."--Breaker and Alex left sometime around ten that night after sharing greasy diner food take-away and sharing old war stories. I half expected for a knock on my door after Amelia's meeting, but there had been nothing.
The next morning, I got up and got dressed in black slacks and a black button up. I wore my creepers out of spite and made my way to the funeral home for the wake. I didn't want to be there. I didn't want to have to stand up there and have endless droves of people shake my hand and tell me they were sorry for my loss. All the people who had stood by while my old man beat my ass almost daily. I didn't want their fucking sympathy.
But I went and I stood up with my grandmother, her arm clutching mine, only releasing me to throw her arms around people she wanted to show how devastated she was over her son's death to. Breaker and Alex sat in the back of the room in dark colors, looking wholly out of place and everyone's eyes landed on them questioningly.
"Fucking ridiculous," I heard from behind me when I finally caught a break to talk to Breaker and Alex. All three of us turned to find Dade standing there in black, shaking his head at me. "No way should it be your ass up there shaking the hands of all those people," he clarified, clamping a hand on my shoulder for a second before letting it drop. "That shit should be for your meema. She likes the attention enough."
"Dade," I said, gesturing toward Break and Alex, "these are my friends: Breaker and Alex. Guys this is my childhood friend, Dade."
