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“You have any classes with Seth?” said Nick.
She shook her head. “He’s a senior.”
“He’s also an idiot.” Then Nick glanced at Gabriel, and he raised an eyebrow. “That’s right—don’t you have, like, two classes with him?”
Chris ignored them, watching her. “Has Seth ever hassled you at school?”
Becca froze, then tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. She had to clear her throat. “Not since the fight in the parking lot.”
Chris frowned. “But before?”
“It’s nothing.” She shook her head quickly. “What are you guys going to do?”
“What are they going to do about what?” Michael said from the hallway. He put his hands on either side of the door and leaned in.
“Nothing,” Nick and Chris said at once.
Gabriel flung the lighter at him, hard, with true aggression. “Why don’t you quit acting like you give a shit?”
Michael caught it and flung it back. Harder. “Why don’t you quit acting like a smartass kid?”
Gabriel moved to throw it back, and Becca heard him flick the lid, then saw the flare as it spun free of his hand. She sucked in a breath.
Nicholas stepped into the line of fire and snatched the lighter out of the air. He snapped it closed. “Come on. Not tonight.”
Michael was already backing out of the doorway. “Whatever.” His voice was tired. “I’m going to bed.”
Silence hung over the room for a moment as he moved down the hallway.
Then he called from somewhere farther in the house. “Send her home by midnight, Chris.”
Becca flinched.
Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Stay as long as you want. He’ll turn on SportsCenter and be asleep in ten minutes.”
“I’m only here until my clothes are dry,” she said quickly.
Chris shifted against the wall. His eyes were flat now, emotionless. “Don’t worry. We won’t keep you any longer than necessary.”
That wasn’t what she’d meant—or was it? Did he think she was insulting him?
Something in the tenor of the room had changed. While her brain was stumbling over something appropriate to say, Chris pushed away from the wall and headed for the door. “Come on. I’ll turn on a movie or something for you downstairs.”
From the sudden shift in his demeanor, she half expected him to leave her alone in their living room, but he sat on the couch—at the opposite end—while one of the Shrek sequels played on cable. The twins had remained upstairs.
She studied Chris, the way the light from the television played off his features.
“You and the twins don’t get along with Michael?” she said.
Chris half shrugged, keeping his eyes on the television. “Gabriel fights with him the most. Mom used to say they’d eventually grow up and be best friends, but it sounds like a load of wishful parenting crap to me.”
“The twins get in a lot of fights at school, too.” She paused. “Actually, that night I helped you—I thought it might have been them causing trouble.”
Chris smiled, but it was grim. “Nick’s not the fighter. He just takes the fall. It’s almost always Gabriel. Part of it’s his element. They’re all difficult to control, but fire—fire is pretty awesomely destructive. It feeds his temper. I think the only reason he hasn’t picked a fight is because the coach told him he’d be benched all year if he caught him fighting again.”
She wondered what it would be like to live with someone whose temper could start fires. Gabriel had flicked that lighter at Michael—what would have happened if Nick hadn’t grabbed it out of the air?
“So Nick’s the peacekeeper,” she said.
