Exodus (The Ravenhood)

“Don’t look at me like that,” he snaps, pulling his cell phone from his pocket.

“Like what?” I nod toward his cell. “What are you doing?”

“Getting you a ride home.”

“Why bother? I’m sure you would just love it if I disappeared over a cliff.”

“Always so dramatic.”

I tilt my head back against the brick and laugh. “You just destroyed a bar, and I’m dramatic?”

Tobias turns away from me, pulling a pack of cigarettes from his pocket before lighting one up.

“I wasn’t planning on driving.”

He doesn’t spare me a glance when his call is connected. “Hey, get a blue light at the bar.”

A pause.

“A ride.” Pause. “Cecelia.”

I faintly hear a voice on the other end. “They aren’t a taxi service. You take her.”

Sean.

“Get someone here, now.”

“All tied up right now, boss. Deal with it.”

Sobering, I walk over to where he stands. “Is that Sean?”

Silence on the other end of the line.

“I’ll figure it out,” Tobias snaps, ending the call and taking another drag.

“Since when do you smoke?”

“This?” he asks, before blowing out a plume of smoke. “This is just to keep my hands occupied to prevent myself from strangling you.”

“Har har,” I counter. “You never smoked when we were together.”

“You mean all of the five minutes we were together?”

“Don’t act like I don’t know you. It’s insulting.”

He draws on the cigarette a

nd glares at me.

“So, you have the cops in your pocket now, huh? Well, thanks for getting my car impounded, asshole. And if this isn’t a game and you’re not playing, then why the shady move?”

“You have no fucking business speeding around smoking dope.”

“Last time I checked, my father’s urn is sitting in his mansion.”

“When are you going to fucking grow up? You need a reality check.”

“Oh, trust me, this trip down memory lane has been nothing short of sobering. But if I’m going to suffer through it, I’m going to numb as much as I can, because no one seems to want to help me out here, you’ve made sure of it!”