“Jesus, Christian.” Miles pulls me into a fierce hug. I return it despite the way it’s making me uncomfortable. Telling people makes me feel like they pity me, or maybe they’ll think I should have gotten over it by now. If Miles thought that, I think it would break me.
“I’m really sorry you had to go through that.”
“Thanks,” I say, finally pulling back. “I just.” I swallow. “Everyone in my life has left me. Always. You were the first person to stick around.”
“I’m here to stay, for as long as you’ll have me. You’re my best friend and I love you.”
“Love you too,” I say, looking up at the ceiling. I feel flayed open and exposed in the worst possible way. It’s so gross, the way I have to heal and make myself better based on things that were completely out of my control. “Okay, way too mushy. I feel icky.”
Miles bursts out laughing and I can’t help but mirror his smile. I curl my legs onto the couch, getting comfy.
“Fill me in,” I say. “I want to hear all the piping hot tea.”
“Oh umm, notthatmuch? I guess?”
“Is that a question or a statement?”
“It’s a statement?”
I turn fully on the couch so I can face my best friend. I watch his face closely. He can’t seem to look at me and he looks guilty as hell. What’s going on? Why is he lying to me?
“What’s going on? What aren’t you telling me?”
“I have no idea what you mean, Christian!”
“I know you, Miles. You’re lying. What are you lying about?”
“I don’t like that you can see right through me,” Miles says with a grumble. “Something happened. I don’t really know how to tell you.”
“Okay,” I say slowly. My stomach is a mess of nerves as my mind comes up with the worst possible scenarios. Did someone fucking die? Did another alien race show up? Are we being evicted from our homes? What the hell is going on?
“It’s about your house,” Miles says slowly. “Someone moved in while you were gone.”
“Oh,” I breathe out. “Okay. That’s not the worst news, I guess. I thought you were about to tell me we were in active war with another alien race and you and I were going to be forced to become warriors.”
“What?”
“I’m just saying!”
Miles shakes his head. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Thank you,” I say, puffing up my chest.
Timalah comes back into the room with a freshly changed Druim. The little guy is up and running around the house. I don’t understand how that can even be possible! He should still be a swaddled little thing hanging from Timalah’s hip, right?
“Hey, lil Corn Man,” I say, holding out my hands for him. Druim picks up a toy from the corner of the room and starts running towards me. Then he stops a few feet away, cocks his little arm back, and yeets the toy at me. I’m so unprepared that I don’t get my hands up in time. The toy smacks the side of my head.Hard.
“Druim!” Miles says in shock. “Sweetheart, toys are for throwing outside, not inside.”
Druim’s tail whips back and forth behind him as he babbles to his dads. “Ball! Outside! Ball!”
I feel like my bell has been properly rung and if I were in a cartoon, little aliens would be swirling around my head. The kid has an arm on him already! I’m so fucking proud.
I get down on the floor so I can properly play with my godson. He’s quick and has far more balance and coordination than I thought someone his age would have already. He’s almost managed to start talking in full sentences instead of just shouting noises at me.
“So,” I say, rolling the ball across the room to Druim. “Who’s the lucky bastard who stole my house?”
Timalah and Miles share another look. They’re hiding something from me. I’m doing my best to be understanding but it’s really starting to piss me off. I’m a grown man. They don’t need to hide shit or try to protect me.
