Oh boy.
Here we go.
He didn’t get to four.
“You could always just go back to law school.”
Theo slammed his glass down on the antique coffee table so hard, some of the liquor sloshed over the edge.
“I’m not going back to law school.”
“Why not?” Lloyd’s eyes narrowed as he studied him.
“Because I don’t fucking want to.”
“What, is there something wrong with—”
Theo’s heartbeat was rushing in his ears.
“LLOYD.”
His uncle startled when his sister stepped in front of him, herarms crossed over her chest. He blinked up at her, his brows still knit into a scowl.
“Enough. We’re not getting into that now. Drop it.” A bell rang in the dining room, and Eleanor glanced over her shoulder toward the hall. “Dinner’s ready. Let’s eat before anyone gets hangrier.”
Theo rose easily out of his chair and shoved the scotch bitterly into his uncle’s chest. When Lloyd shot him a dark look, it brought him a not-insignificant amount of pleasure that his uncle had to crane his neck as far as he did to look up at him. He let go of the glass, barely giving Lloyd half a second to catch it before he swept hastily out of the room.
Thinking about that one miserable year at Yale was the last thing he wanted to do tonight.
It was the last thing heeverwanted to do.
Theo picked athis dinner.
Something was off.
Things were even tenser than normal, and he couldn’t quite put his finger onwhy, though his mother and his uncle were certainly up to something. They kept glancing at each other the entire time while they ate, their looks significant and heavy. The looks were especially apparent whenever Theo said anything about his art, or Diego, or even when he mentioned a film he’d watched recently.
Eventually, he simply stopped talking.
He fiddled with his phone in his pocket instead.
Maybe he should just…
Leave.
Uncle Jack only lived a few minutes away, so his dad could pick him up quickly, right? Or Uber was always an option in a pinch, though it might take too long for one to find him out here.
He could also just walk out.
Lloyd asked him a question, and he snapped his attention back to the table.
“What was that?” Theo idly pushed the remainder of his peas around on his plate. He’d been starving when he got there, but his appetite had gradually waned throughout the evening, only to be replaced with an odd, sick feeling in his stomach.
Meanwhile, Lloyd was going harder on the scotch than he normally did. His face was red and ruddy, and he pointed at Theo with his fork.
“What was that last piece you did about?The Radioactive Birds of Wall Streetor whatever? I never did understand that one. It was weird even by your standards.”
Theo stabbed one of the peas with his fork, catching it perfectly between the tines. Maybe the movement had been a little more aggressive than he’d meant it. “It’s a commentary on how rampant capitalistic, corporate greed has become, and how damaging it is—that even the birds who walk near the most iconic symbol of our economy are contaminated by it now. Not even the pigeons are safe.” That explanation was extremely reductive, but sure. Good enough.
