Page 70 of Wingmen

“Correct.”

Elliot nodded. His scalp was prickling like he’d been caught in a lie, which was ridiculous, because he wasn’t the one with abottle of prescription opioids sitting on the sink in his bathroom.

“I just heard those are pretty dangerous,” he said. “So it freaked me out. But sounds like it’s fine.”

That was a lie: he hadn’theardanything – he’d witnessed it. And it wasn’t fine. It was a year of horrible feelings he didn’t know what to do with.

“Are you okay?” said Dustin.

Elliot stared at him across the room and thought about telling him. But just thinking about that made a knot come up in his throat that was so big he wasn’t sure he could even get the words out. He did his best to swallow that, and nodded.

“Sorry I freaked you out.”

“It’s fine.” Elliot slid off the stool. He was having the very scary feeling like he might cry again. Dustin watched him cross to the bedroom.

“Are you leaving?”

“Yeah, I should probably get going. I need to get back to Force.”

“Can I drive you?”

“No. Thanks. It’s fine. I’m just gonna take an Uber.”

He could feel Dustin watching him as he went into the bedroom to change. He wondered if he could tell he was running away again.

As he pushedthe button for the elevator at the hotel when he got home that night, his phone buzzed in his pocket.

Come over and I’ll make you something for dinner, said the text when he swiped it open.Full disclosure: it’s just gonna be an omelet.

He read it a few times as the elevator took him up to hisroom. He buzzed himself in and put the phone on the nightstand. He looked at the laundry all over the floor – it really did need doing, he hadn’t been lying about that – then put on theGolden Girlsand got into bed.

Bennet texted two more times that night. Elliot didn’t respond.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Dustin

He didn’t hear from Roddy for two days, and then a text came that said,Hey bro. Dealing with some family stuff. Sorry I didn’t hit you back.

He replied,Okay. Sorry to hear that. Let me know if I can do anything.

Nothing came back for nearly a day. Then a thumbs up.

He stopped texting Roddy and waited. A couple more days went by with nothing. He checked in with,How are you doing?

Nothing.

Dustin suspected there was no family stuff – he suspected this was about Roddy walking out after breakfast that day, which seemed to be about the bottle he’d found on the sink. Did he think Dustin had lied about what they were doing there? He hadn’t. He’d taken one, and then stocked up on ibuprofen that day after Roddy left.

He thought about texting Roddy this, but that would’ve meant calling out that his ‘family stuff’ was bullshit, and hedidn’t want to assume Roddy was lying about that. Maybe he went back to Tampa; maybe he was helping his mom.

So he waited. Another three days went by with nothing. He told himself to keep waiting.

Elliot

He hated lying. But he couldn’t go back there again.

It wasn’t just the pills. It was the weird bubble in his chest, and the way Uncle Sal would have looked at him if he knew what he’d been getting up to in Dustin’s shower that morning. And what would his mom say? And was he gonna just keep lying to Diego? And what was gonna happen when he went back on the roster with Reef?