“Hm,” He pauses as he picks up his phone, quickly pressing on the screen and then nods. “It’s fine, we’ll go raid Liv’s closet.”
“Who’s Liv?”
“My cousin. She used to live in one of the other houses until her dad died. She still has a bunch of shit there.”
“And she won’t care?”
“She’s kind of shit out of luck if she does… isn’t she?”
Tatum steps out of Liv’s room looking down at the clothes and shrugs. “You sure she won’t care?”
“Yeah, I talked to her.”
“I guess you guys are close?” She questions as she looks around the room. I’m sure curious why the houses are all set up here.
“I mean, yeah.” I shrug. “We are cousins.”
“I mean, I have plenty of cousins, but I don’t even think I have their phone numbers, but then again, my family isn’t very close.”
I can’t help but laugh to myself. “I’m sure I have more cousins that I have no idea ‘bout, but Liv’s different.”
“Because you guys grew up together?” She asks, I’m guessing assuming since our houses are so close together.
“Yeah, I’m probably just as close with her as I am Liza, and we’re not blood.”
“So it’s not really about being blood?”
“Not at all.” I laugh, realizing it has nothing to do with the fact that we are related. “But blood is just that, it’s blood. It doesn’t really mean a thing.” She looks over at me, confused again. “I mean, sure, being related can be a perk, but it’s not everything.”
“I agree.” She nods her head as I walk over to her, looking down and smirking as I hold her face in my hand.
“I have a few cousins, but most of them are through the club. Besides my family within the club, I don’t know any others.”
“I guess that’s good. Choose your family.”
“Yeah, but not all the kids here feel that way.” She tilts her head as she keeps looking at me. I can tell that she wants to ask me something, but I just stop, walking towards her, leaning in close. “You should definitely wear that.” I whisper into her ear as my hand lightly trails back up her thigh. “You ready?”
“Yeah.” Her word comes out breathy.
Turning around, I wrap my fingers around her hand as I pull her along the house behind me.
“It doesn’t look like anyone has been in here in a while.” She says as I see her glancing around us in the mirror on the wall as we clear the staircase.
“They haven’t.”
“Why not?” I know she can feel me becoming rigid at her question, especially when she whispers out a sorry.
“No, it’s fine.” I pause before I look back at her. “It’s just, everything is fucked up, and I’m not sure how to fix it.”
“Why would you have to fix it?”
“Because who else is going to?” I shrug, not realizing that it’s how I feel about it at all. I can feel her looking at me, even as I pull her along behind me.
“Zane…” She trails off, causing me to groan as I slowly turn and look at her. I know there’s a million questions that she wants to ask me, and for some reason, all it will take is her saying the words and I think I’ll answer. I’ll tell her whatever it is she wants to know, but she asks nothing. She just continues to stand, staring at me. “Ne—never mind.”
For whatever reason, I want to answer her questions. I’m not even sure why. But I also don’t want to put myself through the answers… not yet answers.
Nodding at her before I turn back around and we make our way toward the bike.
