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“When has #Hashtag ever released fake news, Teague?”
Fine, I guess he has a point. “I don’t know,” I say. “I just feel like you should have gotten to know her a little better before you proposed to her.”
“I had to propose.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I had to, Teague!”
“Why?”
“I can’t…I can’t explain it.”
“Again with the secrets!”
“She’s the mother of my child, Teague. I grew up without knowing who my real father was and no matter how much Dad loved me, I never stopped looking for him. I never stopped asking questions that would never get answered because there was no one to answer them. Dad was nice to me, what if my baby isn’t that lucky? You have a step-father, you know how it is! Your father’s a jackass!”
“Hey!”
“I’m sorry.”
“Well,” I say. “You’re not wrong.”
“I know everyone thinks I’m stupid,” Holden says. “I’ve made some bad decisions in life, that I can’t change but for once I wanted to do the right thing. I just…I wanted to be a good father. Someone my son could look up to, like I looked up to Dad.”
“You’re saying some serious shit, Holden. I don’t know what to say.”
“Daniel and Jamie,” Holden says. “They have something. I know it. I can feel it, being the intruder sometimes. Let’s face it, the only reason we’re even got together was because someone drugged us. It wasn’t real. It never was, maybe I was fooling myself all this time. And I hate it. I hate that feeling. Of being used, by my own friends.”
I know I have to tread carefully here. He’s not in his senses. Tomorrow he might wake up and feel differently about the whole situation, he’s a mess right now and it might be a good idea to let him get this poison out. “Tell me something,” I say. “You proposed to her, right? And before that, you two were going out. You were happy, Holden. I’ve never seen you that happy before with anyone.”
“That happiness was an illusion,” Holden says. “Just like her.”
“I don’t think that’s true. I think the two of you found something together. I think she found something with you, better than what she had with Daniel.”
“That’s assuming that they weren’t lying all this time.”
“Holden,” I say. “Think about it. Everything that’s happened for the past few months, none of it has been normal! Ever since you found out the secret about your Dad, about your family, people have been trying to harm you. Maybe this is just one of those attempts, Holden! Someone trying to get their revenge because they’re angry at your family? Or maybe someone is trying to make you look bad!”
“Well, they got what they wanted. I’m the laughing stock of Springvale!”
“All the more reason to doubt there was someone behind it all,” I say. “Someone other than Daniel or Jamie.”
“Wow,” Holden says. “You’re a bigger sucker than I am.”
“Holden, you’re really starting to get on my nerves!”
“So go,” he says. “Leave me alone!”
“Holden, I know bad things have happened to you. I know what it’s like to not have a father around, at least I knew mine before he killed himself in prison. You didn’t even know your own father’s name! And that sucks. I get it. But you can’t punish Jamie and Daniel for something they haven’t done.”
“Sounds to me like you’re taking their side over this, Teague.”
“Listen to yourself!” I say. “We’re friends, Holden! We’re more than friends! We’re brothers! We always have been! In all the time you’ve been with Daniel, has he ever given you reason not to trust him?”
“People change.”
“Yeah,” I say. “People change. They become assholes like you, Holden!”
