forty-one
Zeke
Well, well,” Marcus says as I walk into the bar, “look what the cat dragged in. I thought you’d fallen off the face of the Earth.”
“Ha ha.” I take the seat next to him. “Nice to see you too, Marcus.”
“I feel like I haven’t seen you in years.”
“You saw me last week,” I reply, as he slides a beer toward me. “We were here for my birthday.”
“We used to hang out every weekend, dude.” He takes a swig of his beer. “Now I’m lucky if I see you once a month.”
I guess I do spend most of my time with Avalon. I rarely even go to parties anymore because I don’t have the desire to. Between my schedule and his, we’ve constantly missed each other.
“If it makes you feel any better, I rarely see the guys, and we live together.”
“Yeah, Jax and I were together the other night, and he said you basically don’t live there anymore.”
“I’m home… most nights.” I lie. I’m typically home after practice for a little while. Usually, it’s just to get a change of clothes and whatever I need to stay at Avalon’s.
“Is it your mom?” He turns fully toward me. “Is she doing okay?”
“Actually, she’s doing great.” I grin. “She gets to go home in a couple weeks. Just has to finish up her final rounds of treatment.”
“Zeke, man, that’s amazing!” He grabs my shoulder and gives it a gentle shake. “You must be so stoked, especially because it means sleeping in your own bed.”
“I’d sleep at the hospital every night if I had to. I’m just happy she can finally sleep inherbed.”
“Does that mean we can expect you at more parties from now on?” He raises an eyebrow, and I laugh.
“I don’t know, man. I think I’ve moved on from the whole party lifestyle. You might have to stick to partying with Jax.”
He tilts his head, studying me, as he takes another drink. “You seeing someone?”
“What?”
Am I that obvious? He’s not the first person to question my newfound attitude. Ember questions me almost once a week about it.
“I don’t know, man.” He shakes his head. “I never thought I’d see thedayZeke Harrissettles down, but something’s been different about you recently.”
“Maybe I’m just actually happy for the first time in my life,” I reply. “Like fully happy.”
“And the only thing I can think of that would cause that happiness is a girl. You just found out your mom’s in remission, so it can’t be that.”
“Maybe it’s because our hockey team is absolutely killing it this year. Did you think about that?”
“Hmm,” he mumbles. “I don’t know if I’m buying it.”
“I don’t need you to buy it,” I argue. “I know the truth.”
“If you were seeing someone, you’d tell me, right? I told you about that guy I hooked up with last weekend. And—”
“And I didn’t ask for any information… especially that amount of detail.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I’d tell you if and when the time was right,” I respond. “Now it’s time for a change in conversation.”