I snorted. “Tell me about it.”
He glared at me. “You don’t have to ‘relate’ to me, you know. Everyone keeps trying to do that. I don’t need everyone to act like they know what’s going on just because they were thirteen before.”
God, I’d forgotten how irritating teenagers were. Which wasn’t a condemnation of Micah, I hadn’t been all that fond of teenagers when I was one...hell,especiallywhen I’d been one. I wasn’t built for that, but I could take a crack at it my way. “Dude, I’m not trying to relate to you. And feel free to take offense, but I don’twantto relate to you.”
His brow creased further. “Yeah, okay. You know I’m not exactly stupid, Uncle Dom. I know when people are trying to pull tricks. I grew up around Mason.”
Oh, ho, the kid that had spent years insisting that he could call all but Matty, Marcus, and Moira by their first names was suddenly insisting on dropping ‘Uncle’ in front of my name...and not Mason’s? Little shit.
“Look,” I said, clasping my hands and staring at him across the table. “I no sooner want to be thirteen again than I want someone to run me over with a bus, alright? I fuckinghatedbeing thirteen, alright? I remember smelling all the damn time, I remember being angry and frustrated with everything. I was horny all the time too, constantly, just...horny. So yeah, dude, I don’t want to relate to you because that time sucks balls, alright?”
Micah had sourly begun stabbing at his lettuce, and at the ‘horny’ party had frozen after skewering a tomato, prepared to bring it to his mouth. The impaled tomato hung in the air as his lips parted, the angry furrow in his brow flattened as he stared at me until I finished.
I smirked. “Was that too much information for you? Please tell me that with the family you have, you aren’t horrified because I dared to bring up sex. C’mon, dude.”
“No, no,” he insisted quickly. “I mean, I know what Mason and...Dad get up to, even though I really wish I didn’t.”
“Would you prefer knowing what Moira and Kayden get up to?”
“God no! That’s even worse!”
I chuckled. “Okay then.”
“I just...I mean,” he said, and took a breath. “I knew about stuff...like, about you and all that.”
“Stuff.”
“Yeah, like...you don’t really settle down is the way Grandma Marty puts it.”
“Aww, that’s nice of Matty. Normally, she just calls me a man whore to my face.”
Micah blinked. “Really?”
“Yeah, dude. Your grandma is a swell woman, and I trust her with my life and the life of anyone else that matters to me, but she’s a lot more blunt than you think. Trust me, she was something else when she was Mom of a bunch of kids instead of Mom to a bunch of weird adults and a grandma to one kid.”
“I’m not?—”
“Don’t pull that indignant shit on me,” I told him with a snort. “I won’t call you a kid anymore, but don’t get pissy on me.”
“You’re still going to think of me as a kid.”
“Because you are.”
“Right,” he said sourly. “So just have patience, and wait until life gives you answers, right? That’s how Mom acts.”
“And how does Jace act?”
He sighed. “It’s like Dad is...scared of me. Which is fucking stupid, you know?”
“Not really,” I said, and wondered if I should have held back on that answer. “Look, you know your dad has gone through...a lot in his life.”
“That’s dumb,” he said with a frown. “Why would he worry about that? It’s not like anyone abuses or neglects me.”
“Well, that’s where I’m not going to be much help,” I said with a shrug. “Everyone has to find their own way to deal with that shit. There’s a reason your dad is so worried, because he’s lived it, and you know what, I have too. You’ve got a good family, at least think about what we’ve talked about, that’s all I ask.”
His glower could have peeled paint, but he looked out the window with a huff. “Yeah, sure.”
Not exactly the enthusiasm I might have preferred, but I knew better than to push it. He wasn’t mature yet, but he was certainly smart enough and had shown enough wisdom for me to know he was capable of working through things on his own.
