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All three of us stalled and turned, like some sort of exaggerated encounter in a movie. Alexander Sr—who I was pretty sure would die before he shortened his name—looked like an older, gruffer version of Xander, minus the tattoos.
“It’s competition time.” Maddox’s voice was tight.
I stepped closer, half angling myself between him and his father. The way Senior tended to talk to Maddox, I wouldn’t have it most nights, but especially not this one.
Maddox’s father raised his brows. “You’re still doing that? Aren’t you a little old for that?”
“Yes. We’re still doing that.” All of the cheer was gone from Maddox’s voice.
Senior let out a tight sigh. “Well, good to see you.” It didn’t sound like he meant it. “Have a good night.” He stepped around us and walked away.
Maddox clenched his fists. If this was anything like most of the pair’s encounters, he was wondering if there was anything he could say that would give him the last word.
Not really. Not that would land with the desired impact.
I was close with my own Mom and Dad, even though they’d moved out of state when they retired. But Maddox’s father treated him like the family shame, and I loathed it. I grabbed his keys from him and nudged him into the passenger seat. “We should get home.”
The best thing to do now was to distract him. Over the years I’d learned that he’d talk if he was ready, but for the most part, he preferred to get over the inevitable as he put it, and move on.
Alys climbed into the back seat, I pointed us toward my house, and drove. “What are we thinking, cover-wise?” I asked.
“Beck. Loser.”
I couldn’t hide my wince at Maddox’s response. It was unusual for him to crash this hard with such a short exchange.
Alys leaned forward between the two front seats. “Do you really want to work with that much red? How about Nirvana’s Nevermind?”
“Naked baby?” Maddox wrinkled his nose. “Besides, that’s almost as iconic as Abbey Road.” He made it sound like a bad thing.
“I was thinking Naked adult,” Alys said.
“I’m pretty sure Weird Al already did that.” I didn’t know if it mattered though. “And are we allowed to do nudity?”
“I didn’t see anything against it in the rules.” Of course Maddox had checked for that.
And if we could get risqué… “What about Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik?”
Alys’s let out an amused huff. “Fuck yeah. The two of you would look pretty good in nothing but strategically placed socks.”
“That’s true, we would.” The frustration in Maddox’s voice was fading, replaced with amusement. “Are you going to wear socks on your tits, Alys?”
Interesting visual. I liked it.
“No.” She didn’t hesitate. “You’re going to have to recruit for the other half of the band.”
I pretended to pout as I parked the vehicle in front of my house. “That’s no fun. You’re one of the crew.”
“I vote with him.” Maddox hopped out, as energetic as usual. He opened Aly’s door.
She tsked and handed him his camera equipment before climbing out. “You vote with him for me to wear socks on my nipples. Uh-huh.”
“Sock pasties—it’ll be the newest BikBok trend.” Yup, Maddox was back to himself.
Alys laughed. “They can have it.”
Inside, we spent a few minutes putting away things like camera gear and kicking off our shoes.
“You know, if we drifted into the bedroom now, we could just conveniently forget to go our own ways before we fell asleep tonight,” Maddox said.
