Nik scowls. “He’s disgusting.”
“I think you’re just jealous it wasn’t you.”
She huffs. “I wouldn’t let him near me if he was the last man on Earth! He’s already slept with half my class. No thanks.”
I watch the whole interaction with the biggest grin. They’re funny. Back home, my class is so big, there are kids I’ve been in school with since kindergarten that I’ve never spoken to, but here, they all know each other’s whole life story.
He shrugs. “Let’s get you a drink. Might as well have fun before your brother murders me.”
He jogs over to a truck, climbs into the bed, and pulls a few beers out of a cooler.
A boy who looks just like him, but with darker hair, sits on a toolbox in the bed. He nudges Akers’s shoulder. “Go easy tonight. I’m not cleaning puke out of Mom’s carpet again.”
“Fuck off! Why are you even out here? Don’t you have friendsof your own?”
“Yeah, but then who would look after you?” The older boy leans back against the truck and tips his drink.
Akers gives him a dirty look before hopping out of the bed.
After handing one to me, he holds the other just out of Nik’s reach. “Are you gonna play nice tonight? I’m not feeding the bear alcohol if she’s just gonna maul me later.”
Nik scowls. “In your fucking dreams, loser. I bet there isn’t a girl in a thirty-mile radius that’d maul you.”
“Alright. No beer for you.”
11
GABE
JULY 8 YEARS AGO
“Remind me why we’re going to a high school party?” Shane asks from the passenger seat of my car.
I shoot him a dirty look. “We just graduated. Settle down. Plenty of people from our class will be there.”
He rolls his eyes.
As we pull up at Akers’s, there are already cars parked everywhere. Shane jumps out of the car, lighting a cigarette before his feet hit the grass.
I flick my eyebrows. “Jonesing?”
“Shut up,” he grumbles as I head into the woods.
“Gabe!” Theo shouts from the bed of his truck.
He holds out a beer, and I take it, hopping up on the open tailgate. “What’s up?”
He shakes his head. “Playing babysitter, I guess. My dad said I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on Akers tonight.” He grins, holding out his arms to the party. “My eyes are on him.”
I chuckle. Theo’s a year older than me and his littlebrother Akers is a year younger. I’ve known them my whole life.
He leans forward resting his elbows on his knees. “I heard your dad’s giving you and Shane the apartment above the shop.”
“Yep. Handed us the keys this morning.”
“Badass! No more riding home with Daddy when I drink too much. I’m crashing at your place from now on.”
His dad, Phil, is in the club. He’s a fucking prick.
