Page 22 of When I'm Gone

With far more effort than should be necessary, I manage to corral him by the front door. “Just come with us. I didn’t mean to write you off like that.”

He shakes his head. “No. It’s fine. I’ll transfer my ticket to Eas when I get home.”

My heart contracts painfully. “That’s not what I want. Come on. It’s almost your birthday. Don’t stay back here and be miserable. It might help take the pressure off, anyway.”

If he cracks a tooth from the way his jaw is grinding, I won’t be surprised. “You and I both know that’s not how it’ll go. That’s a lot of new people all at once for him to get used to and it’ll be easier on him without me there.” He slips around me, flashes a two finger wave on his way out, but doesn’t stop or turn around, just stalks out of my house like he never belonged there at all.

CHAPTER 7

CHASE

Ireally feel like everyone needs to lower their expectations of me. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times—I AM NOT GOOD WITH PEOPLE. Brady’s mad, Blakely is uncomfortable, and dear sweet Easton is munching on his dessert without a care in the world. Although, I guess he doesn’t really have much to be concerned with. He doesn’t have to hang out with Brady alone for two days and now that that’s resolved, he’s fine and dandy.

Jesus Harold Christ, not another one of those catchphrases.

Easton’s trust seems like a delicate thing, and for some reason, it seems he’s trying to give it to me. Could I have handled that better? Probably. But if I had checked with Brady to see how he felt about it before offering Easton a way out seems like a surefire way to shatter the little bit of progress we’ve made.

For some reason, Brady being upset with me seems like the lesser of the two evils.

But I still hate it, deeply and completely. I meant it when I said I have faith in our friendship, at least most of the time. Maybe the tiniest part of me is worried that one day he’ll just be done with me and we’ll never speak again but that’s all it is.

Minuscule, microscopic, not significant at all.

Totally not a concern.

A timid voice breaks me out of my inner turmoil. “Are you okay?”

Easton is peering at me cautiously, like earlier when I came home from work. The kind of look that puts everything else on the back burner because easing whatever is causing it is much more important, anyway. “I’m okay, Chaos. Are you?”

“Yeah, better now.” He offers me an attempt at a smile and holds out a plate with two brownies on it. “If you still want them.”

“Absolutely.”

Blakely pipes up finally. “They’re freaking delicious if I do say so myself. Easton and I were obviously bakers in another life.”

“Easton might have been. You were the kid from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that falls in the chocolate river trying to inhale it.”

Easton giggles and she gasps. “How dare you?! Take it back.”

“Never,” I swear.

She rolls her eyes. “Have you watched the new season of GBBO without me?”

“Come on, Blake. I do have some loyalty. Tradition is tradition, after all.”

Easton raises an eyebrow. “Am I missing something?”

“I’m so glad you asked, Easton. So Chase here refused tobelieve the appeal of the amazing train wreck that is Bake Off until I made him watch it with me when we were seniors, and now we wait to watch any new episodes until we can do it together. Hence, tradition.”

“It sounds like an important one,” he says.

She claps her hands together delightedly. “The most important. Come on. We’re super behind by now.”

She marches off to the living room, a woman on a mission, throws herself down on my couch and starts getting it set up. Easton doesn’t move an inch. “It’s totally cool if you want me to hang out in my room and leave you alone so you can watch with your friend in peace.”

His eyes stay trained on my feet, and I can’t help but remember comparing him to a stray animal. It seems like he’s expecting rejection even though I can’t think of a single reason I’ve personally led him to believe that it’s even possible for him to be in the way.

“I don’t want anything less than that, actually. If you want some alone time, that’s another story, but don’t do it on my behalf because I think it’d be great if you hung out with us.”

---