I nodded completely unenthusiastically. "Yep."
He raised an eyebrow. "But you're not friends?"
I shook my head. I should have focused on the fact that he was so insistent on asking if my ex and I were friends or not, but I didn't. "No. I'd kick my own ass if we were friends."
Sacha smiled at me, this big, grand smile that could have lit up Main Street at Disneyland. "I'd help you if you want."
"You already have." I grinned at his flirty butt. “I promise I’m not going to do anything bad, you can go back and warm up.”
“And miss whatever you’re going to do? Nah.”
The security guard in the back winked at me as we made our way out of the back door toward the bus. Sacha grabbed my forearm that time, easily matching my quick stride with his natural, normal one.
"What exactly are you planning on doing?"
"Ask him what the hell he's doing here." I think.
His large, warm hand tightened its grip. "Were you together for a long time?"
"Around two years," I mumbled, reaching for the door handle to the bus before flinging it open. I don't think I had ever run up those two steps faster than I did right then. I heard the voices in the bus before my foot even landed on the first one.
"—get the fuck out.” I recognized Eli's voice immediately.
"It's not a big deal," the voice I hadn't heard in months greeted me in return when I made it to the top of the steps. The curtain was pulled closed so I couldn't see anyone at first.
"What in the fuck would make you think showing up here wouldn’t be a big deal, you dumbass? Gaby's here, pickle dick!" my twin bellowed.
I don't think I had ever loved Eli more than I did in that moment standing at the top of the stairs with Sacha's warm body directly behind me. He was talking so loudly it could have been considered yelling, but I knew that Eli only genuinely yelled when he was excited about something, and he was definitely not excited to see Brandon.
"I invited him out," the voice I recognized as Julian's deep one spoke up.
“This has nothing to do with you, man. This taint stain knows he had no business coming here but he did anyway,” Eli explained before pausing.
My ex let out a sigh that I’d heard one too many times over the years. “Look—”
"Shut the fuck up and get out. I don't want to see you, and Gaby doesn't want to see you either." I swear to God my brother growled. "Go hide or die, I don't give a shit what you choose. Otherwise I'm going to take a shit on your face right after I knock you out for breaking up with my fucking sister over the phone, mangina."
Sacha poked me in the back at that moment, snickering quietly, and I couldn't help but snort a little too. Leave it to Eli to come up withmangina.
"Gaby's a big girl, Eliza,” I thought I heard my ex say.
But he couldn’t be that stupid, could he?
“What the fuck did you just call me?” Eli snapped, and I had my answer.
This asshole just called my twin by the nickname only I could use. If I wasn't going to murder him for simply showing up to the concert, I was now going to do it because he messed with Eli. Nobody messed with my brother.
Pulling the curtain aside so roughly I might have torn it, I spotted my ex sitting on one of the long couches with his arm draped around a pretty brunette. What struck me first was the fact that the bastard had on a shirt I'd bought him for Valentine's Day a year ago. Seriously?
"Gaby," Brandon muttered with wide blue eyes.
I felt my ears start to heat up from how angry I was getting each second that passed by. "Brandon."
It was only when I felt Sacha's fingertips dip into the band of my jeans, brushing at the small of my back that I calmed down enough to think rationally.
In months past, I’d thought of a hundred messed-up things I would have loved to happen to Brandon. Everything from hooking up with a transvestite, to losing his dick from some kind of strange man-eating bacteria, had waged its war through my imagination. I didn't hate him, really, but he would always and forever have a spot on my Shit List. But when I felt my new friend tug on the back of my jeans, I realized that I wasn't the same person that I'd been a few months back. Even a month back.
Though the flesh and the flakes that comprised the shell of skin were the same, I felt stronger than before. I didn't need Brandon, and I really was better off without him. We'd had a good relationship but in hindsight, he wasn't the kind of man I wanted to be with forever. Our interests were too different and… I guess something had been missing. We didn’t have that easy camaraderie that came so naturally to my demons and I. Hell, even Sacha and I had instantly taken to each other’s humor. He'd loved me, I think, but it wasn't enough to erase the fact that I'd always been second—sometimes third or fourth—in his life after his shitty-ass band. It was just that our breakup had come out of the blue. I’d asked myself a thousand times if the signs had been there that things were falling apart, but no matter how much I over-analyzed it, there really hadn’t been a sign.
