I once thought Jeremy was a future.
That memory is a fist around my throat.
It makes me step back.
Derby looks up immediately. “What?”
“Nothing.”
His eyes sharpen.
I wince.
He stands. “Don’t nothing me either.”
The words should irritate me.
They do, a little.
Mostly, they make me want to cry.
“I saw it,” I say.
“Saw what?”
“This.” I gesture around the living room, the fort, August, him. “And for one second, I wanted it.”
August is busy making dinosaur court rulings, thank God.
Derby’s face changes.
No joke.
No smirk.
Just him.
“And then?” he asks.
“And then I remembered I wanted Jeremy once too.”
The honesty hangs between us.
Derby’s jaw tightens, but he doesn’t get offended. He doesn’t make my fear about his pride.
Progress. Or proof.
Maybe both.
“Yeah,” he says. “That’ll mess with your head.”
I laugh once, watery. “That’s all you have?”
“What do you want me to say? That I’m nothing like him?”
“Yes.”
“I’m nothing like him.”