She’d probably be at this party tonight, having a great time, with or without me.
Later that night, we ended up back at Johnny’s place with too many people. There was really only one person I wanted to talk to, though, other than Devi.
So, I cornered Shane out on the back patio when he went out there to smoke a blunt with Lex.
It was pretty cold; no one was outside but us. The three of us stood in a loose circle, in the dark, under the patio roof as the rain drizzled beyond. I hadn’t smoked a joint since college.
Felt good.
I sucked it back and tried to let that instant ease pervade my senses.
Not even this could really help me relax, though, or ease the tension I’d been carrying around.
I handed the weed off to Lex and said, “You ever planning on telling me, before we die, that you fucking lied to me?”
“Uh, which one of us are you talking to?” Lex said, sounding mildly amused.
I gave him a look. “Who do you think I’m talking to? You’ve got something to confess? Feel free to spill.”
My cousin just took a puff off the joint and grinned, his silver canines flashing in the dark.
He passed to Shane and I met my best friend’s eyes. They were hooded and dark as he sized me up. He took a pull off the joint, then let it burn in his hand. “Lied to you? About what?”
“Devi.”
His eyebrows drew up. “What did I ever lie to you about?”
“You said you took her on a date,” I ground out. “You sat there across the cafeteria table from me in school and said you took her to see a movie. You said you kissed her good night.”
He looked amused. “Did I?” He glanced at Lex for confirmation of this.
Lex rolled his eyes.
“I had no idea if you’d screwed her or what,” I said, my voice low. “You wanted me to sweat it out. Are you gonna tell me you don’t fucking remember?”
“I don’t,” Shane said. He scratched the back of his head. “I mean, that’s sounding kinda familiar now…”
“Yeah. Well, you made it up. To fuck with me. Devi told me you never took her on any movie date. You probably never even talked to her until you asked her to grad.”
He shrugged. “What do you want me to say.” He puffed again and passed to Lex. “It was high school.”
“That’s your excuse?”
“Come on, you did worse to me. Remember when you told Coach I was gonna be out for the rest of the season because I had a rare, highly contagious case of Russian crabs that I’d picked up at an away game, and he flipped out?”
Right.Thathe remembered in detail.
Lex coughed. “That was actually my idea.”
“Whatever,” I said. “That’s different.”
“How is it different?” Shane said.
“That was just a prank. You showed up for practice like an hour later, hungover, and the truth was revealed. I was the one who got in trouble. I lied to Coach about your health, for an hour, because it was fun to see him lose his shit. You lied tomeabout a girl.”
“Right,” he said, with a dismissive laugh. “A girl.And by the way, that lie you told caught on. You know how many chicks I had to try to convince I didn’t have ‘Russian crabs’ after that?”
Lex choked on a laugh and Shane backhanded him in the gut.
