Page 46 of Fire Fight

I glance over to Drake again, still deep in conversation with Gretchen. I wonder what they’re talking about so intently, then they simultaneously look at me, then back at each other and smile.

My stomach clenches tighter and I push my tray away, no longer hungry.

Ben, the next oldest of Hudson’s brothers, wanders over to our table halfway through lunch, helping himself to most of what’s left on my plate.

“Don’t you have your own friends?” Hudson asks pointedly when he’s been there for ten minutes.

“Nah. You know me.” He tips me a giant wink. “Can’t hold on to people to save myself.”

Hudson shoos him away then his shoulders sag as Salesi approaches.

“Yo, losers. Wat up?” He throws himself into a chair opposite, stealing the last French fry from my plate.

“Hey,” I say with a laugh. “I could have been saving that.”

“Yeah, for me.” He rolls his eyes as Viliami joins him. “Can’t stay away, little bro?”

His twin scowls. “Six minutes. That’s how much older you are.”

“It counts.” Salesi tilts his head to the side, studying me through hooded eyes. “You sure pissed off Gretchen. Mind telling me how so I know how much trouble I’m in for being over here?”

“She thinks I lied about not knowing Drake.” The brothers frown at each other. “Sorry, Blaine.”

“His nickname’sDrake?”Salesi shoots a glance over his shoulder. “He does kind of look like a duck.”

“Oh, yeah. The feathers are a dead giveaway.”

Salesi rolls his eyes. “Ignore mini-me. He’s got a degree in sarcasm.”

“More to the point, how do you know him?” Hudson asks, moving the conversation back on track. “Wasn’t his mother a druggie or something? I heard she OD’d in some squalid emergency housing.”

The dismissiveness in his voice makes my stomach pull uncomfortably tight, but I answer his question. “We’ve both been in and out of emergency housing. We went to Alabaster High School together.”

“And you came here at the same time?” Viliami’s eyes narrow like I’m trying to put one over on him.

“Apparently, his dad didn’t know he existed until his mum died.” I pull in my shoulders, feeling guilty since this isn’t my story to tell. “My mum started dating his father and neither of us knew until we moved in together.”

“Hm. Not surprising he didn’t know.” Salesi stretches out his long legs, bumping into mine. He wrinkles his nose in apology, moving them to the side. “Far as I can tell, he’s barely ever home. I’ve seen him sleeping in his car by the public jetty.”

The information makes me feel worse about talking behind his back. I remember checking his room that first day and imagining the only reason someone would stay away from theglorious house was if they had a boy or girlfriend. It’s sad he’d choose the discomfort of his car rather than the luxury at home.

Before my sympathy can fully engage, a tiny voice reminds me it’s what I was aiming for when he stole my money and terrified me into a year of sleepless nights.

Hudson clears his throat. “Since you won’t be going to Gretchen’s party—”

Salesi overrides him before he can make an alternative offer. “You can come to ours. We’re a few houses down, but there’s a nature reserve behind our properties that connects most of the lane. We can crash the party early, then move back to ours. It’s where the cool kids always end up partying.”

“But this time you can join,” Viliami says to his twin, wearing a large smirk. “Who the fuck says, ‘cool kids?’ You’ve taken one too many knees to the head.”

“That sounds good,” I rush to say before their bickering descends any further. “But I’ll need a lift there. I doubt Drake’s keen on playing chauffeur.”

“We have three cars between us,” Hudson reassures me, stretching his arm over the back of my chair. “I’m sure we can sort something.”

“Then I guess it’s a date.”

After another few minutes of chatter, the twins go back to their table. Nobody appears to mind they were consorting with the enemy. Perhaps Gretchen’s reach isn’t as long as they thought it might be.

Maybe she even understands on some level that Drake’s the false one. That, for all my faults, I genuinely wanted to be her friend.

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