“So are you like in love with him now?” he says as we pull onto 87-South.
“I’m not talking about this withyou.”
“So you just weren’t going to tell me? You’re my fucking friend and I do all this shit for you. I try my best to get you somewhere safe. And you pay me back by fucking my twinbrother?”
I turn to him. “I get that you’re hurt right now, but how could you even think that this is about you? Seriously. Think about what you know about me, think about what you know about your brother and you really think this waspayback?”
“Uh,yeah.”
“What reason would I possibly have to try and hurt you on purpose? When I haveever—”
“Not you! I mean Silas! I—” He stops. I keep my eyes on him as his jaw clenches. “Silas andI—”
“He toldme.”
“What?”
“He told me what happened. He told me everything. Everything that happened when you were in high school. Everything that happenedafter.”
“Of course he did. Ishould’ve—”
“You should havewhat?”
He shakes his head and I see his jaw tense even more. “I should have asked you out when I had the chance,” he saysquietly.
I let out a heavy sigh. “I mean, I guess, but it wouldn’t change anything Scott.” I hate to say it, but it’s true. “Yourmom—
“My mom what? Did you talk to mymom?”
“Yes. Your brother suddenly had a girlfriend, which was your idea, might I add. She found out and I had to playalong.”
“Fuck.Okay!”
“She… thought I was using Silas, that Silas was using me to get back at you, but he honestly had no idea how you felt and neither did I. We—this happened before we talked to yourmom.”
He doesn’t respond. I don’t feel like I need to say more. He knows. He’s pissed. I get it, but he’s not entitled to my complex feels about all this. And there’s the small matter of the fact that we’re driving to my career execution. If he’s done talking about it, so amI.
Twenty minutes later, he makes it clear that he’s notdone.
“So you actually like each other?” hesays.
“Yes—I don’tknow.”
“Well good luck with that shit. What? Didn’t even take you a week and Saint Silas won youover.”
“Scott, I didn’t pick a side. It happened. I won’t deny that, but there was no plot. No matter how pissed you two are at each other, Silas and I didn’t plan this. Jesus Christ. I cannot be a part of your ongoing feud. Iwon’t.”
“I bet he told you I fucked him over and stuck him with the farm. Didn’the?”
“Scott.”
“No. I mean, I feel like you should at least hear me out. Since he told youeverything. You know why I gave him the farm? That whole town hates me. The whole town. After what I did to their golden boy. Every time I came back to see my parents, someone would tell me to fuck off. I bet you met Ginny and Maya. Ginny actually tried to fight me. There’s a reason I only come into town at night. When I want to see my parents, I meet them somewhere else. Silas and I split holidays so we don’t have to be in the same room together because he won’t speak tome.”
Okay, I wasn’t expecting all that. Scott was a kid. He made a stupid mistake, but as he’s talking I can only think of one thing. “Did you really try to fix things with Silas? I can’t imagine not speaking to Brooklyn, no matter how badly I screwedup.”
“Yeah, I fucking tried. I apologized to him. Didn’t matter though. Everyone had made their minds up about me. Even our fucking parents,” he says the last bit almost to himself. At that moment, the rational part of my brain tells me it’s time to back away. This isn’t my fight. Yes, Scott is pissed and hurt, but so much of this isn’t about me. And I have problems of myown.
“Murrell really told you he was firing me? That sounds a tadunethical.”