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When Jason stepped up to hug me, I squeezed him tightly, still feeling bad about leaving him earlier. I knew I had to go but it didn’t make it any easier, especially with the whole cocaine-in-the-pocket thing hanging over me. “How are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m okay. How about you?”
“Exhausted. It’s been a long day.”
“Yeah it has. Is Drew okay?”
“He’s... Drew.”
I didn’t need to elaborate.
I released myself from the hug and stepped back to survey Jason properly. He looked beat. He was trying hard to act as if everything was fine, but it didn’t work on me. It was another one of those times when the brothers were freakishly alike, and I could read him with no effort at all.
“Let’s get through tonight,” I said. “We can try to sort everything out in the morning.”
Jason nodded, giving me a weak smile, but it faded, and as Drew’s hand rested on my shoulder, the tension amped up around us.
“Everything okay, Ells?”
“Fine. Everything’s fine!” I spoke with an unnatural brightness that made me sound nuts. I had to do something to tone down the awkwardness, though. Drew wasn’t exactly glaring at Jason, but he certainly wasn’t about to greet him with an apology, no matter how bad he felt. Likewise, Jason stood, tense and unblinking.
Already, being between the two of them made my heart hurt. An invisible rope circled itself around me, each end tugging me in a different direction, splitting me in half, challenging my roles as girlfriend and best friend, trying to make me choose.
“Guys.” Lucy skipped to the centre of the room, commanding everyone’s attention. “Can we play some games?”
God bless my baby sister. I took Drew’s hand and led him away from Jason before everyone else noticed their problems. It was bad enough the three of us were suffering.
“Not tonight, Lucy,” Mum said. “We invited Ellie and Drew for dinner, and they’re probably too tired for games.”
“Please! It’s been ages since we’ve all been together. We should do something fun!”
She fixed her baby blues on me. She didn’t need to say a word, I caved like the push
over of a big sister I was. Game nights had been a long standing tradition for us, usually with food and a few bottles of wine to console us after Lucy kicked our asses at games on her PS3.
Besides, some of us needed the distraction of a game to carry us through the evening.
“Yes! I’ll get everything set up!”
Dad threw me a smile. “Hard to resist those eyes, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “The men of the world are in for a load of trouble when she realises how pretty she is.”
“I’m not pretty. And I’m too focused on college to think about boys.”
Everyone laughed again, and Drew and I sat down on the floor since there were no seats left.
It wasn’t long before Lucy fired up one of her favourite dance games, and dragged me away from Drew to “compete” against her.
“Jason.” She turned to him and waved a controller in his direction. “You want some?”
I burst out laughing as she wiggled her eyebrows at him, and he gave his first genuine smile of the night. He rose to his feet. “Bring it!”
“Mum?” Are you in?”
“Absolutely!”
The four of us took our positions, and when the music started, the competition began.
