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“Do you think they’ll lose their shit?” Brenner asks as he makes a turn.
“I’m gonna tell them I’m in a relationship with my stepbrother. What do you think?” Glen will care more than Ellie. She isn’t perfect, but she ultimately wants Troy’s happiness. With Glen it will be all about what the neighbors will think, and the people at his work. That’s all he cares about. Not me.
We drop the subject while we go to the guy’s house, where Brenner tests the bike and drives it. Then Taylor and I help get it into the back of the truck. It goes into a stand, and we have to strap it down so it doesn’t fall.
“Can we eat?” Taylor asks. “I’m fucking famished. Brenner made me do work, and I have to eat after I work.” He bats his lashes at Brenner in a silly, over-the-top way.
“Why are you acting like I would ever say no to food?” Brenner replies, and I have to admit, I could eat too.
We head to a burger place, and he parks where we can see the truck from the window, afraid of someone messing with his new baby.
I get a bacon cheeseburger, and while they talk shit to each other the way they always do, I can’t help wondering what Troy is up to.
When they start nudging each other across the table from me, I say, “The two of you should just bone and get it over with.”
Taylor’s mouth drops open.
Brenner just shrugs. “He’s hot. I’d bone him if he wasn’t straight.”
Taylor, getting the second jolt of surprise in less than a minute, whips his head in Brenner’s direction, and I say, “Well, everyone thought I was straight before Troy too.”
“I’m not… We can’t… You think I’m hot?” Taylor asks, and Brenner and I dissolve into laughter.
“Fuck you both.” Taylor crosses his arms and pretends to pout, but I can see that I put an idea in his head that had never crossed his mind before.
I’m about to make a joke about it, when my gaze catches on something out the window. Is that…? Glen gets out of the car across the street. What the hell is he doing in Dayton? But then, it’s not unusual for him to have a work lunch or dinner.
I expect him to go inside, but he waits on the sidewalk for a moment, his demeanor somehow familiar…and it suddenly feels like someone just dropped something onto my chest, the weight growing more and more with each passing second.
When I see him smile, despite knowing better, I wait for Ellie to approach him, only it isn’t Troy’s mom. Another woman smiles at him, and he leans in and presses his mouth to hers, before interlacing their fingers and walking into a restaurant.
No. No, no, no, no. This can’t be happening. Not again.
You’re going to lose Troy. You’re going to lose him like you did Mom. Why would he stay with you after he finds out? After your dad rips apart his family? How can he ever look at you after that?
My gut clenches. I shove to my feet, stumbling from the booth, almost running into the waitress while she brings our food.
“Atlas?” I hear Taylor call after me, but I can’t speak, can’t do anything other than try to get to the bathroom before my legs give out.
I barely make it into the bathroom stall before I collapse to the ground, dry heaving into the toilet.
How can I have to make this choice again? How do I deal with telling Troy that my dad is fucking another woman,again, knowing it will break his mom’s heart the same way it did mine?
I dry heave again, but nothing comes out. My forehead is sweaty, eyes stinging. Fuck him. Fuck him for being this kind of man, for taking my mom away from me and now risking Troy too.
How much different are you from him? You’re making this about yourself.
This isn’t about me. The stupid voice in my head is right, though. Part of the reason I hate Glen is that I fear I’m like him, that I’m selfish like him and an asshole like him.
The door creaks as I sit on the dirty floor.
“Atlas? Are you okay?” Taylor asks.
No, I’m really not.
“Stomach bug,” I lie. “Be out in a minute.”
“Is there anything we can do?” This from Brenner.
