“Shut the fuck up.” Katie laughs. “She is your mother. She’s not going to never talk to you again. She just needs some time.”
Peeking at her from below my arm, I say, “Tell me something.”
“Tell you what?”
“Something fucked up and juicy about your life to help me forget my own shit, even if only momentarily.”
“Well, I slept with Enzo.”
“Holy fuck!” I sit up. “When?”
She groans, covering her face with her hands. “Fourth of July.”
“Whoa, ho, ho. So, I’m not the only one keeping secrets, I see. How was it?”
“Good.” She peers at me through her fingers. “Except it wasn’t the first time.”
The way my jawdrops, I’m surprised it doesn’t come unhinged. “Excuse me, miss ma’am. I’m going to need you to rewind and start over.”
Despite looking mortified, she throws her head back, laughter bubbling from her. “Fuck, you’re lucky I love you and want to make you feel better, otherwise I wouldnotbe having this conversation.”
“Oh, so what? I’m supposed to tell you about my hook-ups, but you don’t have to?”
“Elias…” She cocks her head, raising her brows, as she gives me ayou gotta be fucking kidding melook. “You were fucking your stepdad. It’s a little different than me hooking up with Enzo, who I’ve known since I was a kid.”
Waving my hand in front of me noncommittally, I laugh, which sounds more like a tipsy giggle than anything else. “Semantics. I’m waiting.”
She rolls her eyes. “We’ve hooked up a couple times. Not anything serious, and always when we were drunk. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Right,” I say, nodding my head. “Is that why you’re blushing?”
“Oh, fuck off.” Katie shoves me, grabbing the bottle and taking another shot while her face turns three different shades of red. “Come on, let’s go downstairs and make some food to soak some of this up so we aren’t miserable as fuck tomorrow.”
“I’ll be down in a minute. I’m going to change.”
As soon as she’s out the door, I pull my phone out. The need to text Zeke is almost too strong. I know it’s the alcohol. But it’s also everything that happened with my mom.
Me: My mom came here. She knows.
I’m pleasantly surprised to see the text bubble pop up right away.Was he hoping I’d text him?
Zeke: I know. I’m sorry, I was going to tell you, but I knew you were out of town with friends, and I didn’t want to ruin that for you.
Me: I don’t know what to do.
Zeke: What do you want to do?
Me: I can’t tell if you’re being dirty or not.
Zeke: No, Elias. Not this time.
A small grin tugs on my lips. I can practically hear the tone he’s taking with me. The chastising one. It puts my mind at ease, almost helping me forget what a shitshow is going on around me… almost.
Me: I feel like I don’t get to decide what I want. Not at the expense of her feelings.
A call comes through. It’s him.
“Hello?”
