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Diamond
“What do you want?” I don’t miss a beat.
Jesse cringes at my reaction, and I find the disappointment in his eyes ridiculous. We haven’t seen or spoken to each other in over a year. He can’t just show up out of the blue and expect a warm welcome.
“Now, is that any way to greet your big brother?” He forces a smile, his poor attempt at a joke merely fueling my irritation.
“Don’t you mean my father?” I scoff, and the smile is immediately slapped off his face. He thought we could beat around the bush, but there aren’t enough pleasantries in the world to fill the void between us. Things are different now.
He’s my father.
My fucking father.
He’s insane if he thinks I’m going to pretend otherwise.
A sigh escapes his mouth, and he clears his throat, seeming just as uncomfortable with the truth as I am. It’s like he doesn’t truly believe it himself. Like he’s been making up stories for so long, he eventually started to believe his own lies.
“You want to do this the hard way? Fine.” He drops the act. “You need to call Dad. He misses you. Weall miss you.”
That’s why he’s here.
Dave sent him.
“I’ve been busy.” The lie scrapes at the inside of my throat.
“Bullshit. You’re ghosting him. You’re ghosting everyone.”
He’s wrong. I’ve kept in touch with Gaten and Catalina—seeing as they had nothing to do with any of this—but I can’t tell him that. All that’s going to do is give him more ammunition to guilt-trip me.
“I told you I needed time.”
“You’ve had time. A whole year of it. Dave has enough on his plate as it is. Would it kill you to take his calls every once in a while?”
I check my phone.
I’m running late for my date with the girls.
“I can’t do this right now.” I walk around my brother, but just as I’m about to insert my key into the lock, he lodges himself between me and the door.
“Then when?For fuck’s sake, Dia, he already lost his husband. Don’t you think he’s suffered enough?”
His comment feels like a dagger to the chest. I’ve spent months blaming myself for my parents’ divorce. Not even a week after I was released from the hospital, Gaten was packing his bags and moving out of the house.
He couldn’t get over Dave’s lies, which is understandable, but I still put myself through hell for destroying our family. After all, if it weren’t for the truth coming out, my dads would still be together. I don’t need him rubbing salt into my wounds when they’re just starting to heal.
“Get out of my way,” I command.
He folds his arms over his chest. “I’m not leaving until we talk.”
“We are talking.”
“I mean a real conversation. No changing the subject, no avoiding, just two adults talking through their issues.”
I shrug. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Jesus Christ, Dia, could you stop running for two seconds?”
As much as I hate to admit it, he’s right.
