“Yeah. He was.”
Art takes a long pull of his beer, eyes forward. “You okay?”
I shrug, which hurts, but I don’t let it show. “I’m always okay.”
“Biggest liar I know.”
“Second biggest. You’re still ahead of me.”
He grins at that, and my shoulders loosen.
We eat straight out of the containers, passing them back and forth like we used to in high school when we’d party too hard and end up grabbing to-go food from that twenty-four-hour buffet. Art tells me about some city council bullshit his dad’s been dealing with, and I half-listen, making the appropriate grunts at the appropriate times.
“Remember when we tried to build that raft?” Art says out of nowhere, chopsticks halfway to his mouth.
“The one that sank in thirty seconds?”
“It didn’t sink.”
“We almost drowned.”
“We were fine.” He waves a hand. “Excellent swimmers. You taught me how, remember?”
I grin because, yeah, I do remember. We used to do all sorts of stupid shit at Lovers’ Alcove.
“I may have taught you how to swim, but you still screamed like a bitch.”
“I did not.”
“You absolutely did.”
“Fuck you,” he says, but he’s laughing as he throws an egg roll at my head.
I catch it and take a bite, still grinning despite the ache in my jaw.
For a second, it feels like it used to. Like we’re still those two boys who thought we could outrun our problems.
His phone buzzes.
Art glances at the screen, then silences it without answering and sets it face down on the cushion, but I catch the name before he does.
Genevieve.
I take a deep swig of my beer, then play with the label. “Popular tonight.”
“Always am.” He smiles.
I clock it. File it away with all the other things I’ve noticed lately—the way he deflects when I ask questions, the circles under his eyes, the way his smile doesn’t reach all the way anymore.
He’s slipping. I can feel it.
And I don’t know how to stop it.
“Hey,” he says. “Sorry I didn’t stay last night.”
He doesn’t use the wordfight. Doesn’t mention what I actually did. He just lets the sentiment hang there, incomplete.
“You shouldn’t have to go through it alone.”
