Page 79 of Hits Different

Winston’s been on the scene ever since I was a little kid. He had more time for me then. I was far more useful as the angelic elementary school kid posing for pictures on the family lawn than I am as a soccer-playing frat boy.

“Have any journalists approached you?” Winston continues. “In the last couple of weeks. Either on campus, or at summer camp”.

“It’s not a summer camp. It’s an elite training facility”.

“For what?”

“Soccer players!”

“Brandon, this is serious”.

“Crawley. That’s it”.

“And the blind item I sent you?” I stay quiet. “I can’t help you, or your father, if I don’t know the truth. Bar fight?”

“If there was anything concrete, it’d be out by now”. I close my eyes. “And as for other journalists, I just had a few requests for comment after my accident, which I ignored”.

“Nothing else?”

“Nope. I’m fine, by the way”. I ignore the ache in my side. “Is my dad…okay? Has he asked about me?”

“He’s well. Extraordinarily busy, Brandon”.

“I was thinking about coming home for my birthday” This shouldn’t be so difficult. It didn’t used to be. “Do you think he’ll be around?”

“I’m sure he will. And your birthday will be acknowledged on the family website. We’ll send the photographs for your approval”.

“And my mother, I mean, Mrs Carter?” I correct myself quickly. “Will she be there?”

“She’s in Milan meeting with designers”. Over the years, the cracks between my parents had evolved into chasms, two entirely separate lives, and I was lost in the space between. “Then Prague for two weeks. She’ll be back to meet her obligations to the campaign”.

The unspoken instruction hung between us.As will you.

“Winston, wait”, I bite my lip. “My dad. He knows… he knows that what happened wasn’t my fault, right?”

There’s a long pause. Finally, Winston says, “Some things are not a matter of fault, Brandon. But it doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences”.

“I’m still his kid, Winston, he has to understand—”

The line goes dead.

I’m about to toss my phone when it starts vibrating uncontrollably. Pictures start dropping in at lighting speed. I click the first one. Freddie and Sabrina, in-front of the Eiffel Tower. It’s the caption that jumps out:

She Said Yes!

Whoa. Pump the brakes.

Freddie’s engaged?!

He didn’t tell me he was going to propose. That’s my first thought, but I banish it away. So what? He doesn’t have to. Damn. They both look so happy.

I’m about to type my congratulations, when something across the street catches my eye. An attractive couple sit in Mernova’s café window, engaged in an intimate conversation. It takes me a minute to place the girl, but it’s not her that’s caught my attention.

It’s the guy she’s sitting with.

Parker.

Chapter 33

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