AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You hungry?”
I was. Halo’s mom was a great cook, and every year, I looked forward to coming over here to eat the traditional Venezuelan food she made.
My parents were straight-up American, but both sets of my grandparents had immigrated here from Scandinavia. Outside of Swedish meatballs, which never tasted as good as they sounded, my mom didn’t make much food from her parents’ homeland.
I followed Halo into the kitchen, ready to heap a plate with food, but found I wasn’t as hungry as I thought I was. My conversation with Sloane had been so damn weird.
Under any other circumstances, I would go straight back upstairs and get to the bottom of the weird shit she’d said. If you’re worried it’ll get back to her, don’t be. Back to who? That was only one of the things she’d said that made no sense. Like her asking if my girlfriend was with me. Where had that come from? I hadn’t had a girlfriend since college, and even then, they hadn’t lasted very long.
“What do you think is wrong with her?” I asked.
Halo looked up from the roast pork he was devouring. “Sloane?” He shrugged. “Probably the flu. She’s hiding out so she doesn’t get everyone else sick.”
I leaned forward. “She was saying some crazy shit.”
Halo stopped eating. “Like what?”
“She asked if my girlfriend was here.”
“Oh.”
I sat back in my chair. “That doesn’t seem to surprise you.”
“Yeah. Sorry, man. That’s on me. I kinda asked if she’d seen you around with anyone.”
“Why?”
“On the plane, you said there was someone but you weren’t sure she felt the same way you did.”
“Halo, what the fuck?” I muttered, trying to keep my voice down. “I told you that in confidence.”
He leaned forward like I had. “What’s with all the mystery, anyway? Since when don’t you tell me about a chick you’re into?”
“Since I stopped referring to them as chicks and started calling them women.”
He pushed back his chair and went to get more food. “I didn’t realize it was a damn secret. What is she? A teacher from our high school?”
Worse. Way worse, but I couldn’t tell him that. “It doesn’t matter anymore. Like I said, she wasn’t as into me as I was her.”
He sat back down and shoved more food into his mouth. “So who was she?”
“I just told you it doesn’t matter.”
He shook his head, got up from the table, and put his plate on the counter. Without another word, he stalked off in the direction of the living room.
After making sure he was staying put for a few minutes at least, I went into the hallway and pulled out my phone.
When I couldn’t decide what to say to Sloane, I shoved it back in my pocket.
An hour later, I decided there was no point in my sticking around here any longer. Halo was being a dick, answering every question I asked either with a one-word answer or nothing at all. Sloane hadn’t shown her face again, not that I’d expected her to.
“Where are you off to?” Halo asked when I grabbed my jacket from the front hall closet.
“Goin’ to the grill.”
“Mind if I come along?”
“No, but you sure you want to?”
