“Sort it out later!” Eden cried, throwing her hands out like a referee in a football game about to make a call. I smiled, it reminded me of her cheerleading days, which weren’t that fuckin’ long ago.
“Take her home, bro, I’ll see you there,” I declared and pulling on my gloves from my jacket pocket, I moved deep into the night dark alley and left them both staring after me open mouthed.
“Crazy son of a bitch,” I heard Slice mutter, and I couldn’t disagree with that. You tended to get the label right around the time people realized you just stopped giving a fuck.
2
Eden…
“He’s fine, you know,” Slice said, and he sounded confident but I knew better. I stared out the foggy passenger-side window of my own car while we slowly rolled through the late-night streets and I shook my head.
“I know better,” I murmured.
“You worry too damn much.”
“You don’t worry enough,” I countered stubbornly.
Slice sighed and said, “You’re a good kid, Eden—”
“I’m not a kid anymore,” I said tartly. “I’m eighteen, legally an adult.”
“You’re always going to be that kid,” he said quietly, and I turned away from the frosty window to look at him. He gave me some side-eye and his mouth set into a grim line.
“What kid?” I demanded, scowling.
“The one that followed Dice like a little lost puppy,” he said, and I felt my frown deepen beneath my red curls. “You’ve been crushing on him since you were fucking six, Eddie, and enough is enough. He’s too old for you.”
“Ooo, a whole eleven years older!” I rolled my eyes. “That’s nothing,” I said dismissively.
“Maybe not to you,” he said gently. “For him? Probably too much.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I protested and gritted my teeth as Slice braked for a red light and my little car slid the last several feet to the line made invisible by the hard pack of snow on the streets.
“It’s not when you really stop to think about it,” he said. I made an exasperated noise, and he made one of frustration. “Look, I’m trying to help both of you out, here,” he said. “You’re both going to wind up hurt if you keep this up, Eden. Just stop.”
“Not going to happen,” I murmured. I was, after all, my father’s daughter. Stubborn. Relentless… and my auntie Everett had taught me well. I was feminist to the max.
“I don’t want any drama,” Slice said and turned a gaze on me that was as wintery as the weather outside.
I stared him right back in the eyes and said, “You’re getting good at that, but you aren’t him.”
He scowled at me.
“Fuck you, kid.”
“Yeah, fuck you, too,” I said back casually, and he made another inarticulate noise of frustration. Sometimes he was too easy.
Sage, on the other hand… Sage was not.
Smoke, I reminded myself for the thousandth time.
I didn’t think it would ever stick. Not with me.
I hugged myself as we crept toward the outskirts of town and stared at the passing whiteout, worried about Sage riding in this.
He was insane…
He was also beautiful, and I had been in some kind of love with him since, like Slice had said, I was around six. I smiled at the memory when my mother had asked which Disney prince I was going to marry and I had answered dead seriously, none of them; I was going to marry Sage. It was still my intention, someday… if he would ever wake up and see what was right in front of him.
Boys can be so dumb, I lamented silently.
“You okay over there?” Slice asked after a time and I didn’t look, just nodded and said back, “Yeah.”
I didn’t want to talk to him, or about it anymore. I just wanted to go home, regroup, and think of some kind of Plan B.
“I’m worried about you,” he said and cleared his throat. I nodded and tore my gaze from the windshield to look at Slice’s profile.
“I don’t know what else to do,” I said, and I scraped my bottom lip between my teeth.
“Give it up already,” he said.
“Never give up, never surrender,” I sang out, and he rolled his eyes.
“I’m surprised he wasn’t drunk off his ass,” he said, changing the subject, and I searched his profile again. Not worried about him, my ass, I thought to myself.
“I don’t think it was about that.”
“You don’t?”
“No. I don’t necessarily think he wants to forget or even to drown his sorrows.” I shrugged. “I don’t honestly know what it’s about, but I think he thinks and feels like he’s alone.”
“Not an option,” Slice said. “We don’t do ‘alone.’”
“No kidding,” I said.
None of us did ‘alone.’ None of us had to. That wasn’t how the club worked, it wasn’t how any of this worked.
We crept along snow-covered streets, fat flakes falling like down from the night sky. The angels are having a pillow fight, my grandmother would say. My smile at the memory was brittle. She had died of cancer, and I missed her. I tried to go see my grandpa as much as possible. He was a good man and still preached on most Sundays.
“Shit,” Slice grunted and his knuckles went white on the steering wheel.
“Don’t kill us,” I joked dryly, and he frowned without taking his eyes off the road as we fishtailed slightly before regaining traction.
“You going to the club?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“You sure we can get up the driveway?”
“Dunno, we’re going to find out, aren’t we?”
I rolled my eyes and huffed out an exasperated breath.
“We could always just go back to my house,” I said.
“You want me to take you home?” he asked.
“Yeah. It’s late. My dad’s gonna kill me.”
“Wait, you’re out here and Rev doesn’t know?”
“He doesn’t own me,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Fuck, how do I know he’s not gonna kill me?” Slice demanded, and I grinned savagely.
“My dad might hit like a ton of bricks, but your dad is quick,” I answered.
“Not the point, sister. It’ll still be too late for me. I’ll be dead.”
I laughed and shook my head, and Slice smiled. The banter was good, but I still worried about Sage.
“He’s gonna be fine,” Slice repeated quietly, and I looked at him.
“You don’t know that.”
“It’s just snow,” he said. “No one out here but us. He’s going to be okay.”
“You taking my cage back to the club after you drop me off?”
“Fuck no. I’m staying on your guys’ couch. I got a phone. I’ll text him and make sure.”
“Only works if he answers.”
“It’s me. He’ll answer,” Slice said, and I nodded and cranked up the heat in the car as high as it would go. I mean, it was already on and blowing warm air, but it was cold outside and I liked it warm.