Didn’t know the guy.Didn’t need to.
He wasn’t good enough for Ever.
A glass of water landed in front of me.I looked up.
Thorn was watching me now, the rag tossed over his shoulder.“Drink that and maybe I’ll pour you another beer.”
I grabbed the glass and knocked back half of it in one pull.
“And,” he added, “you tell us what the hell is bothering you.”
I finished the rest of the water, set the empty glass down, and slid it back toward him.“Nothing.Pour me another beer.”
Oliver snickered.
It was quiet, but it was there.
Thorn’s eyes cut to him.Then he reached over and took Oliver’s half-finished beer right out of his hand.
“The fuck?”Oliver said.
Thorn ignored him and looked between us.“What is wrong with Jude?”
“I didn’t say shit,” Oliver said.
“Yeah, but you know something.What is it?”
Oliver looked at me.“Problem is,” he said slowly, “I don’t think Jude even knows what his problem is.”
I turned toward him.“What the fuck does that mean?”It came out rougher than I intended, but I didn’t care.I didn’t have a problem; I just felt like drinking.
“Probably girl problems,” Ender said.
Basil leaned in, suddenly interested.“He got a girl?”
Ender shrugged.“God knows I would be drinking if Clove and I were having problems.”
“You got a girl?”Basil asked me directly.
I shook my head once.“No.”
“He wishes he had her,” Oliver said.
The whole end of the bar went quiet for half a second.
Then Basil, Thorn, and Ender all locked in on Oliver like he’d just dropped the only interesting piece of information in the room.
“What the fuck do you know?”Thorn asked him.
Oliver looked annoyingly calm about it.“More than him, apparently.”
I leaned toward him.“Try me.”
He just lifted a shoulder.
A loud whoop sounded from the entrance, cutting through the moment.
Everybody at the bar looked toward the door.
