Deep 6 (Multiple Love)

“So you didn’t talk.”

Tyler shakes his head. “I’m done talking, G. I just want the ghosts in my head to shut the fuck up.”

“But Sandy isn’t a ghost. She’s a real person, and you’re probably going to need to have a conversation with her.”

Tyler clears his throat, glancing up at me through eyes that are pinched at the corners. “There’s nothing that I can say that will fix things.”

“Better leave them broken then,” I tell him. It’s not that I believe my words, more that I know Tyler isn’t capable of fixing anything if he doesn’t have the strength to tell me I’m wrong.

“If it was just me…” he trails off, eyes flicking back and forth as though he’s searching for something in the dark.

“If it was just you, what?”

“Then I’d leave it…but this is Sandy. I fucked up once. I can’t fuck up again, for her sake.”

“Can I give you some advice?” Tyler nods, his face open and his expression desperate. “Don’t do this tonight. Discussions never go well at night. Our minds can’t take the complex shit when we’re tired. Leave it until tomorrow.”

“But she’s upset,” Tyler says.

“I don’t think so. She was more worried about you. Andrew’s taken her back to your room.”

I’m expecting Tyler to be pissed about that. Sandy was his girl, after all, so it’d be understandable if he was territorial about her, but that isn’t what I see. Instead, he seems relieved.

“Andrew will look after her.” Tyler lets out a long breath and stands, pacing a little before he heads to the sink to fix himself a drink. “Andrew always knows what to do.”

He’s right. If I’m the big brother of the group with the wisdom that comes with experience, then Andrew is the conciliator. He always knows what to say when things are getting heated. Whenever we got into trouble as kids, he’d know just how to smooth things over. I avoided more than one bloody nose because of his negotiation skills. Most importantly, he can make all of us see a different viewpoint, and with that strategy, there are rarely arguments that can’t be solved.

“Maybe he’ll help her understand,” I say.

“Maybe he’ll fuck her too,” Tyler mutters. At least, that’s what I think I hear.

“What?”

Tyler shrugs, placing the empty glass on the counter and then turning to look at me. “What do you think of Sandy?”

I take a step back in surprise. No good ever comes from a man asking another man what he thinks of his woman. There are boundaries between men for a reason. Boundaries that you cross knowing no good will come.

“She seems like a great girl,” I say. That’s the line. No further.

“Pretty?”

“Sure. A real peach,” I say. “You were a lucky man.” Definitely no further.

He nods, a small and strange smile ghosting at his lips.

“I was.”

Nodding just once, I fold my arms across my chest. It’s a defensive move, but I can’t help myself. There is something about this conversation, about this whole situation, that doesn’t strike me as right. There’s a natural order to life, and when it’s broken…

“Thanks,” he says when I don’t reply. “I must have been making some racket for you and Andrew to come sprinting down here.

“We’re always here for you,” I tell him.

“And for Sandy?”

“Sure,” I say as he pauses in front of me. “Your friends and family are my friends and family,” I say. “Ride or die. You know that.”

“Good,” Tyler says. He flops back onto the sofa. “Night, G.”

“Night, man.” It doesn’t feel right to leave him when everything is telling me that he’s messed up and needs me. Everything is telling me except my eyes. My eyes detect something completely different.

Tyler is planning something.

I have no idea what it is, but whatever it is…I’m going to make sure he’s okay.

At the top of the stairs, the door to Sandy’s room is closed, and so is the door to Andrew’s. If I knew this girl better, I’d knock to check she’s okay, but apart from the stories that Tyler had told us all when he was drunk, I don’t really know her at all. I’m just about to close my own door when a latch clicks behind me. Andrew emerges from Sandy’s room, our eyes meeting across the hallway in the darkness. “Everything okay?”

Andrew shrugs then nods and purses his lips as though neither of those gestures really communicates what he thinks.

He closes the door then makes his way closer, his hand coming to rest on the handle to his own room. “She seems okay. Better than I thought.”

“So does Tyler,” I say, cocking my head. None of this really makes sense. “But he said something funny.”

“Funny ha-ha?”

I lean against the door, thinking back to the odd moment in the kitchen. “I think he said that maybe you were going to fuck Sandy.”