“She threw a fucking chair through the window, and Junior had to lock her in the bathroom to calm her down,” Dad said with a wince bringing me back to the present.
My eyes searched his, did he know? Did he suspect? Last night after everything had happened, I found them together, kissing, nearly naked, and I covered for them because I was petrified of what the bosses would do. “Dad…”
He looked away. “Leave it.”
“But—”
“—I said, leave it. They’re young, you’re all young, just hope like hell it’s sex and nothing more, because if Nixon ever finds out… if Phoenix—” He actually paled. “I wouldn’t make you, you know? I’d do it myself if I had to, but I wouldn’t make you do that to your best friends.”
“It could start a war,” I whispered.
“One we can’t afford.” He agreed. “Well, then, fix it.” He slapped me on the back.
“You kidding me right now?” How the hell was I supposed to tell them not to keep having sex? Both Junior and Serena were older than me, and on top of that, the way he looked at her. It was otherworldly.
“Nah,” He grinned. “Like I said, you’re all young, emotions are hot, tempers are hotter, make it so they hate each other so much that they can’t bear the sight of one another.”
“And how do you suppose I do that?” My stomach sank.
“Make it look real,” he said in a sad voice. “So real that she doesn’t come back from it, that he’s scarred for life.” He looked up as Claire made her way down the stairs. “It can be your girlfriend’s first job with you.”
I flinched as my jaw clenched from grinding my teeth. “You want me to destroy them?”
“No, son, I want you to break their hearts.”
When dad left, the small kitchen in the guest house fell quiet, Claire was making coffee. I went around her and hugged her from behind, my head rested on hers. “You okay?”
“It’s a bit weird how often your dad stops by when sex is involved.” She sighed, I loved seeing her in my giant white t-shirt, but what was better was the fact that she wasn’t running away screaming… yet.
I grinned. “Yeah, well, he’s just got really shit timing.”
“You’re telling me.” She sighed, I could feel the tension in her entire body as she stood there, facing the backyard, our reflections in the window stared right back. She lifted her head and stared at me through the glass. “Tell me it’s going to be okay.”
“It’s going to be okay,” I said quickly. “And I’ll do everything in my power to make it that way for both of us.”
“I’m scared.”
“Really? Because I wake up with sunshine sprouting from my ass—newsflash Claire, we are all fucking scared, and that’s a good thing because when you lose your fear, you lose your humanity. Embrace that fear, it’s what keeps us mortal.”
“How’d you get so smart?”
“Hugs, not drugs?” I laughed.
She turned in my arms and pressed a kiss to my chin. “I’m going to go get a shower, wanna join me?”
I eyed her long, lean legs beneath my shirt and let out a groan. “I wish I could, but I have to go check on something, all right? I’ll be like ten minutes; maybe if I run, I can wash your back.”
“Is that code word for sex?”
“One hundred percent.” I nodded.
She stood up on her tiptoes to kiss me again, this time on the mouth, her coffee cup between us and I thought, damn, I would do anything to just have a simple life like this, without the blood, without the tears, without the fear that clung to us like a choking fog.
I kissed her back, promising myself I would do everything in my power to make this work, to keep that smile on her face, and then turned and made my way back into the main house.
Junior should be home.
As should Serena.
But it had been a super late night, so I figured they probably stayed the night as per usual, most of the time we crashed in the theater room, at least pre-Claire.
I didn’t tell my dad that I knew things about Junior and Serena, that I suspected as much, that they had been dancing around each other for a long time and that I was the one that had to keep a secret about the way they looked at each other.
But this time, this time, I hoped they’d ended it, I hoped my dad was right, and hormones were just doing what hormones did. Fucking.
So when I quietly made my way into the main house and walked down the hall, I prayed I was wrong, when I slowly opened the door to the theater room and saw that the end credits to some horror movie were still rolling, I exhaled in relief.