TWO
Harrison
Some obligatory vacationwas the exact opposite of what I needed right now.
“I’m not going to do this,” I whispered to Oliver, who was seated to my right.
“Uh, yeah, you are.” Although he said it with a smile, his eyes didn’t crinkle and the tendon in his neck flexed. A sure sign the smile was forced, and a warning that he wasn’t messing around. To everyone else, Oliver might seem like he’d never had a bad day in his life, but I knew how to spot his subtle signs of exasperation. After all, I was typically the reason behind them.
Plates of food were passed and silver cutlery clinked against the serving plates, thick white ones with pastel flowers on them. They were hideous, if you asked me. And too expensive to be holding the Mexican takeout I knew Charlie had picked up from the family-owned restaurant down the street. When had we become too good for plastic plates? It was a backyard party for Christ’s sake, not a Michelin-star restaurant.
Nathan, Oliver, and I had grown up in the same lower middle-class neighborhood—well, we had until my dad got laid off and my family had to post up in a motel for a while. But asmuch as I would have loved to sit and stew in my bitter thoughts about how money could change a person, I knew Nathan wasn’t like that. He’d always been relatively the same person, and he certainly didn’t give a shit about impressing anyone. Don’t get me wrong, the guy had a sick car and a nice house, but he wasn’t flashy.
“What if I just back out at the last second?” I asked, spooning some rice onto my plate. “I could say something came up at the shop.”
“I swear to God, you better be there,” Oliver said ominously, still through a smile. His commitment to the bit of being the most positive guy in the room always made me want to push his buttons. Usually it didn’t work, but he hated when I tried to bail on things. “We’re family, and you’renotbailing on Nathan.”
Rolling my eyes, I turned to my left to try and get under the skin of the person seated on my other side. At least with Lila it worked. That’s what made it fun.
“A joint bachelor and bachelorette party? That’s not weird at all,” I said to her in a low voice.
Her spine stiffened as she jerked her eyes toward mine. The dress she wore was cut low on her chest, and I had to fight to keep my gaze from falling to that soft skin that looked just a little too inviting.
“It’s not that uncommon.” Her words were clipped. A warning to me to drop the subject immediately. Unfortunately for her, that just fueled my fire.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“Oh, because you’re just being invited to bachelor parties left and right? Remind me again how many friends you have, outside of Oliver.”
“Hey, Nathan and I are close,” I pointed out with a hint of sarcasm. While it wasn’t entirely the truth, Nathan and I hadarrived at some sort of relationship after years of stalemate. Oliver was where my loyalty lay, but Nathan was like family too.
“Then why are you being a jerk about it?” She huffed out a sigh and set her fork down next to her plate. “Besides, can you really picture Nathan, of all people, having a bachelor party?”
“Shots, strip club, and all,” I said, carefully picking the words that would bother her the most. “Don’t let the stiff demeanor fool you. Nathan’s a total party animal.”
Her nose crinkled with disgust. “Gross,” she mumbled before trying to turn away from me.
“At least we’ll get to finally spend more time together,” I continued, unable to help myself. Her green doe eyes always flared up when she was mad. It was almost imperceptible, but after a year of exchanging jabs I could now spot it every time. I was addicted to it.
“You’d be so lucky to go on a trip with me. I actually know how to have a good time.”
“Is that what all your dates say?” I asked, poking her in a known sensitive spot. She was always going on one online date or another, despite never seeming to have success with any of them.
Instead of answering with a venomous retort, Lila moved back an inch as if slapped and her whole face went pale.
Fuck. I had pushed her too far. Something I frequently did. She brought her right elbow to the table and rested her rosy cheek in her hand, so that she was turned completely away from me. She and Charlie started talking in hushed tones, and I knew anything I said to her now would be met with an attempt to ignore me.
Pushing someone too far was my specialty.
I was rough with everyone; it was just the way I carried myself. Growing up, I’d had the misfortune of being the small, slightly introverted kid who would rather pore over a comic bookthan get dragged into whatever sport or game all the other kids were playing. Didn’t exactly win me any popularity contests at school. It also didn’t help that my family was piss-poor, on top of it all. Oliver was the only person to ever give a shit about me. So this carefully crafted guard I kept around myself had been built for a while. People like Lila were just casualties of my defenses.
Since I had already aggravated the two people seated on either side of me, I moved on to Nathan, who sat at the head of the table, watching Charlie but not participating in the conversation.
“I’m surprised you’re having an engagement party at all. It doesn’t really seem like your thing,” I said, leaning forward so he could hear me.
Nathan met my eyes before looking at Charlie again.
“It’s for Charlie. It’s important to her.”
