After the Climb (River Rain 0.50)

He gave them one last look.

His best friends.

The best friends ever.

And then he moved to the computer and turned it on.

They had sundaes.

Because Mrs. Swan was Mrs. Swan.

And it was his birthday.

But it was Mr. Swan who took him home.

He was taking Duncan home too, but Genny insisted on coming with.

And Mr. Swan was Mr. Swan.

So even though now it was super-duper late, he let her.

Corey would get into a lot more trouble if he was found not where he was supposed to be, he figured Mr. Swan knew that, so he dropped him first.

“Turn your light on and off, son, real fast, so I know you’re safe inside,” he instructed as Corey was getting out. “Real fast, Corey, we’ll be watching.”

They’d be watching.

Watching out.

For Corey.

Corey bent down to nod at Mr. Swan behind the wheel then looked to the backseat at Genny and Duncan.

He smiled at them and said, “Thanks, guys.”

“You’re welcome,” Gen chirped, totally on a midnight ice-cream-sundaes-and-cake high, but also, that was just Genny.

“No problem, buddy,” Dun said, cool as ever, and that was all Duncan.

He nodded again, to them, shut the car door, and had jogged halfway across the yard before he stopped and jogged back.

He went right to the back door window of Mr. Swan’s car.

Even though Genny could do it, she looked so worried, she was frozen with it as she stared at Corey, so Duncan leaned across her to slide open the window, and he stayed leaned into her as they both peered out at him, their heads super close, Gen’s golden one, Dun’s dark.

“Everything okay, Corey?” Duncan asked, like Mrs. Swan.

All gentle-like.

Corey took him in too.

Duncan was also worried.

“I…”

He couldn’t get the words out.

“Do you—?”

He would never know what Genny was going to ask.

So he’d do it and not chicken out, superfast, he blurted, “I love you guys.”

And then he didn’t jog to his bedroom window that they’d left open.

He raced to it.

And he didn’t look back.

Epilogue

The Holiday

Sullivan

* * *

“Your dad’s hung up, honey, something to do with the opening in Boise. He wanted to be here to get you, but he had to see to it. He’s headed down as we speak.”

“He texted and it’s not a problem, Genny.”

She smiled at him, watching him closely.

They’d just greeted outside the terminal and were walking to baggage claim.

He’d probably get used to people looking at her, some pulling out their phones, some of those not even hiding it, but for now, he wanted to chest butt all of them, get in their face and ask what they were looking at.

“So, a couple of days at the condo, and then we’re all going up to the house,” she said.

“Cool,” he muttered.

“I’m excited to show you the condo. You haven’t seen it yet. Gage loves it.”

Yeah, he did.

Gage was there practically every weekend. Even when Genny and Dad weren’t there.

Then again, Sasha was living there, and Chloe lived in Phoenix, and they’d all adopted each other, even Sully, who Sash and Coco texted all the time.

Coco had ironic gifs down to an art.

And daily, Sash sent him pictures of sunrises or starry nights or sandy beaches with the caption Your Daily Moment of Zen.

“Yeah, he’s told me.”

“You going to spend some time with your mom?”

Shit.

His dad, Sul could hide it.

He could do this because Sully lived far away, and emotionally his father was too close to it.

Genny was a mom.

You couldn’t pull anything over on a mom.

Not one like Genny.

He knew this because he barely knew her, and still, he figured she’d called it.

“Yeah,” he grunted.

They hit the display that told them where his bag was going to come out and she said nothing.

And they walked to the carousel and she still said nothing.

But he knew he was going to give his mom some time, more for Genny than for his mom.

It was getting to be a problem, him wanting to avoid his mother, and he should probably talk it through with Dad. He’d given him a little when Dad and Genny got back together, and his dad had taken it okay.

Though Sully didn’t think the rest of it he would.

No, telling Duncan Holloway that the entirety of his son’s high school years were fucked up because his mom decided he was going to be her ally with all her conspiracy theories about his dad fucking everything that moved, and she was up in his shit all the time (when Dad wasn’t around), wanting him to spy on his own father, babbling all her crap? This going on even after they split up and Dad moved out?

No.

Dad was not going to be okay with that.

Sully had hid it, and he’d lied.

For his dad and for Gage.

He didn’t want her dragging Gage into her shit.

And he didn’t want his father to end up hating her.

So it was on him.