“What?” I ask, not sure where this is coming from.
He lifts his shoulders, walking to the fridge. “I know it’s tradition or whatever, but you’ve already put it off for weeks, and since it involves talking to your dad…”
“It’s not that big a deal, and he also makes sure you never get a parking ticket when you can’t find parking before practice.” The guy’s an asshole, but since I only spent time with him over the summer and every other Christmas, we aren’t really that close, and he’s worlds better than my mother.
“And what would he think of all this?”
“Huh?” I’m not following the conversation. “What would who think of what? My dad?”
“Of course your dad.”
“What would he think of what? He fucking loves the adoption. He’s getting the college experience he missed out on after knocking a girl up and running off.”
“You still need to talk to him about it so we don’t get in trouble.”
“The cops were turning a blind eye to it before I got recruited.” Which is true, but we’ve turned it into a different level with my dad’s willingness to look the other way.
“He wasn’t the police chief.” Angel is right.
“He was still helping it happen. He loves this shit. You know he gets as piss drunk as everyone else. Fuck, it’s the only time the man breaks character.” He’d spent the last twenty-two years following in his own father’s footsteps.
Archangel knows me and my mother were just a college mistake no one acknowledged.
“I don’t care what he thinks about the fucking adoption. I mean you and I.”
“He knows we’re friends.” I don’t know what he’s getting at.
Archangel looks at the ceiling. He’s annoyed with me, but I can’t figure out what I did.
“What?”
“A whole party full of people in our hometown believe we are together. He went to college there for three years. You don’t think there are people he still talks to?” Archangel is borrowing anxiety.
“I haven’t thought about it.” I don’t think of either of my parents while making decisions. They certainly don’t think of me.
“Well, think about it. What’s he going to say?”
“Does it matter?” I ask, still lost.
What’s gotten into him?
“You don’t think he’ll be an issue?”
Will he? I make a face. “I don’t care. It’s not worth my brain power.”
He sighs. “Whatever.”
I step into him. “What’s going on? Why are you so tense?”
He won’t look at me.
I put my hands on his arms. “Angel.”
“It’s been a long week.”
“You guys heading to practice?” Seaborn opens the door, and Angel shrugs my arms off like I have the plague.
What is he doing?
