“Wait?”Zeke shouts now as Z wraps Eli up, pushing him backwards, about to fall to the ground when Zeke runs over and grabs hold of Z, yanks him backwards, and continues to shout,“You fucking knew?”
Eli just stands in the middle of them, arms not really flying anymore, but the boys reverting to when they were kids and wrestling, and they’re shoving each other, and Eli, from side to side.
Z and Zeke are now just screaming at one another, and I’m not really paying them any attention.
Covering my mouth, I see the blood trickling down from Eli’s lip and the red mark forming on the side of his head. His eyes come up to mine, and neither one of us can stop it as we laugh over the absurdity that we are currently in.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”comes shouted from behind us, as a car door slams shut and there are footsteps running over to where they are. “What’s going on?”
I see the agent who was asking me questions this morning running over, followed by Collins, and they pull the three of them apart.
“What the fuck?” the agent asks.“Sit!”she demands them. It’s fucking comical how all three of them listen, sitting on the concrete wall just behind them. I guess reverting to childhood is also causing them to listen to authority, now.
“Yeah.”
“Not your business,”Z snaps out, looking at both Eli and Zeke.
“No, security here called it in.”
“And why did both of you come?” Eli tries to keep his laugh hidden as he says it.
Cutting his eyes at Eli, he just continues. “Why are you guys fighting in the parking lot?”
Stepping over, I look at them. “Z just found out about everything.” Collins nods. “Then Zeke found out how Z knew about my miscarriage well before he overheard it.”
None of the guys say anything as they look down.
“What?” the agent asks.
“Where do you want to know from?”
“The beginning.”
“Okay. So Eli and I got together last year. He and my brothers had been friends since they were kids. They had a falling-out. Z just found out that Eli kept things —”
“Fucking lied.”Z shouts… like a child.
“Kept things.” I repeat myself, correcting him.
“Okay, never mind.” She tosses her hands up as she says it. “I don’t care.” She looks back at them. “Next time, just keep the public out of it.”
“The public wasn’t involved.” Zeke snaps.
“You’re fighting in the parking lot of a hospital. You brought public into it.” She shakes her head. “You don’t want them to call anyone; just keep it in the house.”
Eli looks at Z and is doing a terrible job of forcing the smirk from his face. It spreads immediately throughout the group, but I’m the first one whose laugh slips out before the rest break after me.
The agent looks at all of us confused, as we’re all laughing. The 3 of us standing at the side walking over to the boys.
“What is happening?” she asks, and it actually makes us all laugh harder.
“Eli’s not technically family,” Collins explains.
Z almost had his laughter under control until he hears it and loses it again.
* * *
We’ve been home for a day. Eli has hardly let me out of his sight since we walked into his house. He convinced me his place would be better since there are fewer stairs.
