Page 58 of My Brother's Bad Best Friend

He gestures vaguely, waving them away. “What about them?”

“I think you owe it to him to… I don’t know. Pay him back. Get it together.”

He grunts, shaking his head. “Fuck Jonas. Fuck Half Pipe. I’ve been following in his footsteps for too long now like a little puppy dog. It’s time for me to go on my own, make some real money. The kind of money he’s been keeping from me.”

I stare at him, at the way he’s wired and tired and broken all at once, and I realize that my brother’s truly dead and gone, left that night five years ago and never came back. This new guy is a total stranger to me, and he’s bitter, so bitter. I don’t know how he got here, but I can guess.

Living in Jonas’s shadow probably would do that to anyone. And Ezra never was all that strong to being with, it was just Jonas propping him up, keeping him going.

“So leave,” I say softly.

He blinks and then narrows his eyes. “This is my apartment, kid. You’re here because I’m letting you.”

“No, not here,” I say, shaking my head. “I mean, leave Half Pipe. Get out from under Jonas once and for all.”

He grunts a little bit. “The money’s good.”

“Better selling drugs.”

He watches me for a second, silently calculating. I can see it in his expression. “What did he do to you?” he asks finally. “Give you that good dick people are always talking about?”

I blush and jealousy flares up in me, but I shake it off. “No, asshole,” I say. “But you’re going to drag him down with you, so you might as well go away and drown all alone.”

He grins at me, but it’s vicious. There’s an edge to his voice that reminds me of Royal, and it’s like a dagger in the gut.

“Fuck Jonas. And fuck you if you want to be his little pet.”

I shake my head, slowly releasing a breath. I turn away from him. “Okay, Ezra. Make your choice.”

“Oh right, go running off to him,” Ezra calls out as I walk away. I grab my bike and open the door. “You’re here because I let you be here!” he shouts. “Don’t fucking forget that!”

I let the door shut behind me, shutting out Ezra, and I feel like I’m finally moving on. Royal is behind me, left in a hospital bed. My mother is behind me, chained to Royal’s side. Nathan is behind me, dead and buried. And now Ezra is fading away, just a memory of himself, an image that I built up in my mind after so long, finally revealing itself to be nothing more than a fantasy.

I head outside, into the sunlight. I strap down my helmet, get on my bike, and pedal. I pedal hard into the wind, smiling like a moron, feeling like I’ll never run out of breath, never run out of sun.

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