‘Yeah, this is a nice distraction.’ She twists the straw between her fingers and smiles, although it’s not quite meeting her eyes.
‘Good.’ He grins, not noticing the tension in her shoulders. Zayden is carefree and relaxed, with an easy smile on his face as he scans the room. I’ve been worried about him, but he is handling the break-up better than I expected him to. Although some days are better than others. ‘This is the perfect place to get lost in for a while.’
‘I have been here before, you know,’ she points out.
‘I’m ignoring that fact because in my mind you’re still my sweet, innocent little sister who has never done anything I have done.’
Little does he know.
She laughs. It’s soft and warm, unchanged since we were kids. ‘Sure. You keep thinking that, big bro.’
‘I can and I will.’
‘How are you going with everything?’ Anya asks softly, and I struggle to hear her over the music. ‘With Leasa leaving?’
Zayden leans back. ‘I miss her. A lot. I know breaking up was the right thing to do, but she was always there. Every day. Now she’s just ... gone. And we don’t speak.’ He shakes his head for a moment. ‘She would send me engagement rings that she liked, and now we don’t even follow each other on social media. It’s kind of ... wild how fast it all happened.’
‘Break-ups are awful,’ she says, offering him a sympathetic look. ‘I’m sorry.’
He shrugs. ‘It’s whatever. We are going to be much happier. The both of us.’
‘I hope so,’ she says with a sad smile. ‘Have you spoken to Mum at all? She’s on my case about never hearing from you.’ She wraps her lips around the straw and I gulp, looking away for a moment until I see her put the glass back down and rest her hands in her lap.
The teasing grin Zayden was wearing drops from his face, and he fidgets with his drink. My jaw clenches. I hate that I know the reason and she doesn’t, but when Zayden confided in me I promised I would never breathe a word of it to anyone. We all promised each other there’d never be secrets between us, and yet we all break the rules sometimes.
‘No.’
Anya opens her mouth to ask more, but Zayden raises his hand in a ‘stop’ signal.
‘We’re having fun tonight. And that topic is not an option.’ His voice is firm, leaving no room for negotiation.
‘Okay. Fair.’ She relents – a little too easily in my opinion, but she is probably aware this is not the right time or place to be delving into such topics – and leans back in the seat. I absolutely don’t notice the way the dress inches up her thigh. ‘But I will be revisiting this.’
‘Sure,’ he retorts sarcastically. ‘Can’t wait.’
‘Are you excited to be back on campus tomorrow?’ she asks, and I scoot a little further down the booth, accepting the fact that she doesn’t want to include me in this conversation. She hasn’t seen her brother for a while, so I understand. It’s my fault there’s tension between us. I just wish we could go back to being friends like we used to be. There haven’t been many people in my life who I’ve had effortless conversations with and felt completely at ease around, like I have with Zayden and Anya. I miss our hang outs.
Zayden twists his face into a frown. ‘Classes don’t start until Monday.’
‘Yeah, but we have all the intro stuff.’
‘I’m not going to that. I’m already playing football; I don’t need anything extra added to my schedule. And I don’t need any more friends.’ Zayden glances at me with a cocky grin. ‘Already got too many of them.’
I give him the middle finger and he grins.
‘Whatever,’ she says.
‘Whatever,’ he mimics. Looking over her head at me, he gives me a nod. ‘I’ll get this round.’
I’m feeling light-headed from the last one, but I don’t discourage him. The amount we are drinking is tame compared to what we used to drink when we were first legally able to go out partying.
The overcrowded club is already hard to breathe in, and I struggle even more when I finally let myself look at Anya again. She is staring right back now that it’s just the two of us.
‘So, how was your gap year?’ I ask. ‘Well.Years, technically.’
She exhales. ‘Tried to become an artist and discovered it’s much harder than I thought.’
‘Your paintings are incredible.’
