“YES! HAPPY for me! Not everything is about YOU!” Miles said, close to tears.
Ryder pushed Tyler and me off him with ease, but didn’t move otherwise. “I’m fucking done. DONE. I’m leaving. I’m going the fuck home. I can’t stand being near you right now.” Ryder picked up his stuff. “Seriously,fuckOFF, Miles. I’m fucking DONE. With this bullshit trip. With your bullshit wedding, and with you, my bullshitbrother.”
Tyler kept looking back and forth between them. “No, man. C’mon. Don’t say that. You’re not gonna leave. Just go and cool off.”
Ryder didn’t acknowledge him. Miles said, “GOOD! If you don’t want to be here, I don’t want you here. Just leave like a fucking pussy.”
Tyler and I stopped Ryder from surging forward. For the first time, the hurt in Ryder’s voice rang out. “You’re such afuckingasshole, Miles. We’re done.”
Ryder grabbed the last of his things and walked off. He didn’t storm or stomp or sulk. Just walked away with his head down, shaking it every once in a while.
The aftermath was different from the night before. Miles had a lot to say about his brother. Mostly curse words, and what kind of shit he was a piece of. After running through the adrenaline, Miles slumped down into the nearest lounger.
“It just fucking sucks, man. Why can’t he just be…” Miles lost the words and the thought.
Jason stood over him, hands on his hips. “Kilo, would the trip be better or worse if he left? We’re here foryou, man. If he’s ruining it, then he should go. But I need to hear it from you.”
Miles glanced up at Jason, then away. “No. It would be worse if he left.”
I’d been there before. Only, we were fourteen on a double date, and the crisis was whether to wait for their ride or go over to his mom’s car. It felt juvenile and silly, but that wasn’t an opinion I could have in the moment.
“Okay,” Jason said. “I don’t know what’s going on with you guys, but how can we make it so you two don’t rip each other’s heads off again?”
“I don’t know. Tell him to stop being a nasty little bitch.” With his energy gone, Miles sounded even more like a fourteen-year-old.
“Seriously, Kilo. I’m trying to help here.” Jason drew a deep breath through his nose. “How about you guys switch rooms? Maybe it’s a little too much together time?”
I had to respect Jason. His ability to stay calm in the face of utter frustration spoke to how good a dad he must’ve been. Instead of getting down in the weeds with the drama of it all, he was trying to find a solution that would keep the vacation on the rails while making sure Miles had the best possible time.
Miles returned some animation. “Yeah, that would be good. If he even wants to stay.”
“I’m sure he will,” Tyler said.
I said, “He loves you, man. If you tell him you don’t want him to go, he won’t.”
Miles’s jaw set. “I’m not saying shit to him. This is my fucking bachelor party.Heshould apologize tome.”
Jason turned to Tyler and me. “Do you guys wanna go talk to him?”
“Yeah,” I said right away.
As soon as we were out of earshot, Tyler said, “I’m not rooming with Connor. Or Jason. They’re cool, but I can’t sleep well with people I don’t know. I’ll move to Miles’s room, and Ryder can move into ours.”
A jolt of weird energy hit my stomach at the thought of Ryder sharing a room with me, but I ignored it. “I’m the best man, I should bunk with the groom.”
“Yeah, well, you know Ryder better than me. It makes sense, man. C’mon, don’t fight me on this.”
I’d let Ryder decide. If he was still there, that is. I couldn’t imagine Ryder leaving. Then again, a lot of things I never thought would happen had. Like Miles and Ryder being so upset with each other that they almost came to blows.
Or a man flirting with me, and kinda liking it.
DidI like it?
We were at Ryder’s door before I even realized I’d asked myself that.
Ryder answered after Tyler knocked once. He gave us a look, like we were the last two people he was expecting to open the door for.
“What’s up, guys?” Ryder said, just on the polite side of rude.
