21
Andy
“Oh look, it’s Andy!”
I froze on my way up the stairs after dropping my empty hot chocolate mug off in the kitchen, stomach sinking at the familiar voice.
Will.
I’d been carefully avoiding him all day, but of course the one time we were both alone, he’d found me.
“Merry Christmas,” I said, turning away.
Will bolted ahead of me, bounding up the stairs like one of the dogs.
No, that wasn’t a fair comparison. The dogs had been nothing but kind to me, and I was going to miss them a lot. Especially Pegasus.
“I am having a fantastically merry Christmas,” Will said, cheeks flushed, eyes glazed.
Drunk.
I got the impression he was that way a lot.
And okay, he’d lost his dad young. But so had I, and I hadn’t turned being an asshole to strangers into a personal hobby.
“Where’s Kit?” he asked, not quite hiding a clumsy tongue.
“No idea,” I said, which wasn’t exactly a lie. I assumed he was with his dad, but I didn’t know where they’d gone.
I didn’t have to tell Will any of that, though.
Will tutted sadly. “Poor Andy, abandoned. Well, I suppose you’ll have to get used to that. If you like, I could... well, one of us is surely interchangeable with another to you, hmm? I might be able to comfort you in your hour of need.”
“No,” I said, wrinkling my nose at the thought. “Kit’s worth ten of you.”
“Oh, heis. Well, at least two of me, anyway,” Will enthused, bright eyed.
He reallywasdrunk.
“And I love him,” I added, and I thought I was only saying it to annoy Will, but as soon as I felt the words in my own mouth, I knew how true they were.
I loved Kit. And I wasn’t sure if I wasallowedto, if that was something Kit wanted, or was ready for, or whatever, but...
My feelings were set. I couldn’t change what my heart wanted, even if it’d just picked out something I wasn’t sure I could have.
I’d always been ambitious like that.
“Well now, thatisunfortunate,” Will said.
“For who?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest. He’d made me run away last time, but he wasn’t coming away from round two unscathed.
“You, primarily,” Will said. “I wouldn’t like to bein lovewith Kit. Not if I were you.”
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
Will squinted at me, brows drawn together, and then took two careful paces toward me.
“Nothing,” he said after a long pause. “Nothing at all. Forget I ever spoke. Mustn’t tell tales.”
