“That’s what I thought,” she says, as smug as the man himself. “Just try to stick with him, okay? He’s a real pain in the ass, but there’s so much good there.”
I stare at her, not sure what to say. But I don’t need to say anything because Percy links her arm though mine and leads me along the path. Just as we reach the ladder, she asks for my phone.
“I’m texting myself,” she says. “So we have each other’s contact info. Get in touch whenever you want. It’ll be nice to have a friend who can put up with the Brothers Florek for an evening.”
She passes my phone back and returns to the house in her nice dress and bare feet.
35
The tree house is silent when I knock.
“It’s just me,” I say, opening the door slowly. I expected to find Charlie with a joint and a few friends, but he’s sitting on the couch, head tipped back, eyes closed. “Hey.”
Seconds pass, and Charlie says nothing.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
He replies without moving. “I slept with her.”
My body freezes.
“Delilah?”
Charlie sits up slowly and looks at me.
“Percy,” he finally says. “I slept with Percy.”
I feel like I might vomit. It takes a moment to force out, “When?”
“A long time ago.” His voice is as cold and quiet as a frozen lake. “The summer before she and Sam started university. I was twenty.”
I sit on the couch beside him only because I’m not sure my legs will hold me.
“They were in a bad place,” Charlie says. “Sam was away at some science workshop. He was pushing her away, telling her he needed space but hanging out with other girls. Theirrelationship status was questionable—Percy wasn’t certain they were together.”
“Why?” It’s the only thing I can think to say.
“I thought Sam was being a dick. I thought he was ungrateful for what he had.” He swallows thickly. “I thought I might have been in love with her.”
Blood rushes to my ears. “And were you?”
He rubs both hands down his face. “I don’t know. I had feelings for her, yeah, but I think I was mostly jealous and lonely and wanted what they had.”
Charlie leans forward, hands clasped between his knees, looking at me from the corner of his eye. “They didn’t speak for more than ten years. It messed them both up. Percy spent more than a decade punishing herself for what happened. Sam hated me. He closed up again, just like after our dad died. The light Percy brought into his life vanished. And Mom was so disappointed. It was worse than her being angry.” He shakes his head. “Aside from losing my parents, it was the worst time in my life. Fuck, that sounds so selfish. It was worse for Percy and Sam.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I ask quietly.
He straightens, pinning me with a venomous green gaze. “I want you to know what being friends with me entails.” He echoes what Delilah said earlier.
I stare at him, trying to pull my thoughts together, to separate what I know about Charlie from my shock and disappointment, and swallow back the bitter snap of envy. “You were twenty,” I say slowly. It would have been the summer after I stayed here.
“Old enough to know better.”
“Maybe.” I think of myself at twenty, hopelessly in love with Oz and wholly unable to tell him how I felt. “But young enough to struggle with complicated feelings.”
He tilts his head to look at me more fully. “Why are you going easy on me?”
“Do you want me to tell you that what you did was shitty and wrong and hurtful?”
