Forbidden: King (The Four 4)

Casey was still ranting. “I trusted you, Eden, more than I trusted anybody. And you go and do this behind my back? You’ve known Seth since he was a kid, for fuck’s sake! It’s disgusting!”

I yelled, “And now I’m twenty-five!” When my brother turned to look at me, he seemed surprised. It was like he’d forgotten I was there. “Stop acting like I can’t think for myself! I wanted this, Casey!”

“It doesn’t matter what you wanted. I expected Eden to know better!” He turned back to his friend and yelled, “You crossed a line, man!”

Eden said, “I know, and again, I’m so sorry.” I hated the fact that he was acting like he’d been caught committing a crime.

“You’re not even gay, so I’m totally confused. All of a sudden you’re into guys, and you decided to start with Seth, of all people? I can’t believe this. Here I thought I’d surprise you, but the surprise was all mine! To walk up here and find you—” Casey cut himself off and shook his head with disgust.

I said, “Could you please just calm down? You’re making too big a deal of this.”

“This is between me and Eden,” he muttered, without looking at me.

I exclaimed, “Like hell it is! And just so you know, this isn’t some random hookup. I love him, Casey!”

My brother’s expression turned sympathetic, and he finally met my gaze. “I know, Seth. I’ve known that for years. You’ve always followed him around like a puppy and stared at him with stars in your eyes. And for him to take advantage of that, my god. It’s just—”

“No! Stop acting like I’m some dumb kid who didn’t know what I was doing!” I turned to Eden and said, “Back me up here.”

He didn’t look at either of us as he muttered, “Casey’s right to be mad. I crossed a line.”

I stared at him in disbelief, and then I took a step back from him. I’d expected him to have my back and to defend our relationship. Instead, he was basically agreeing with Casey that I was a kid who couldn’t be trusted to make decisions for myself. He was acting like my brother’s opinion was the only thing that mattered, more than my feelings and the relationship I’d thought we were building.

Fuck that. I turned and crossed the field, while Casey went back to chewing him out. It didn’t even seem to matter that I left.

I went into the cabin, threw all my things into the open box in the corner of my room, and grabbed my phone, overnight bag, and backpack. On the way out the door, I snatched the keys to the loaner car off the coffee table.

After I dumped all my stuff onto the passenger seat, I got behind the wheel, started the engine, and threw it into gear. I didn’t even bother glancing at my brother or Eden as I barreled down the dirt road, kicking up a plume of dust behind me.

Once I was on the main road, I pulled over for a few seconds and disabled the tracking app before shutting off my phone. I was in no mood for anything either Eden or Casey had to say to me right now, assuming they’d even noticed I left.

When I reached the garage, I stuffed my feet into a pair of sneakers and pulled on a hoodie. Then I grabbed my wallet and went inside. The mechanic looked up from under the hood of a blue Toyota and smiled at me as he said, “Hey there. I called your friend earlier to let him know I’d found your axle. Didn’t he tell you?”

“He did. I’m actually here because I want to buy that loaner car. Will you take two thousand bucks for it?”

“I’d be taking advantage of you. If you really want old Bernice, I’ll sell her to you for a thousand.”

“Thanks, that’s nice of you.” I slipped a credit card from my wallet and said, “While you’re at it, could you go ahead and charge me for the full cost of repairing the truck? If you’re not sure how many hours it’s going to take to fix it, go ahead and estimate on the high side.” Just like with the cabin, I wanted to take full responsibility for this trip and all its unexpected expenses.

Once the transaction was complete, the mechanic signed over the car to me. The paperwork ambitiously called it a Chevy Blazer. At most, it was a third right.

I went back outside and muttered, as I slid behind the wheel, “Okay Bernice, let’s do this.”

Instead of making it all the way back to San Francisco that night, I ran out of steam about two hours short of my goal. I got a room in a random motel near Sacramento, but I couldn’t shut off my brain long enough to fall asleep and just ended up tossing and turning.