Page 41 of The Brave and the Reckless

Esra jumped up and squeaked our horn hard enough for it to make a strangled airy sound.

“I swear by Apollo the physician, and Asclepius the surgeon, likewise Hygeia and Panacea, and call all the gods and goddesses to witness, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture.To hold my teacher in this art equal to my parents; make him my partner in my…”

Richard was hanging on to her every word as she clutched the squeaker to her chest. The rest of the room had fallen silent, too, people pausing mid-drink and staring at Esra as she went on.

I turned to Sanny, who was noiselessly giggling, hiding his face behind Zuri’s shoulder.

“Hippocratic oath,” he whispered when he caught me staring. “She’s known the whole thing by heart forever. It was a cute party trick as a little kid. It became less impressive when she got older, so she added the Greek original, and then after my accident, even sign language.” He rolled his eyes. “Show-off.”

“Hippocrates of Kos.” Esra ended her monologue with a deep sigh and collapsed back on to the sofa.

After a moment of stunned silence, people started clapping. Richard blinked from Esra to his cards and back. He’d met his trivia match. “I don’t think we’ll need to google that to verify.” He cleared his throat. “Red team wins the question and the first round of trivia.”

More shots appeared in front of us. Richard explained that every player had to drink their rounds of shots. Anyone who tapped out was out of the game. When only three players were left, there would be a lightning round finale.

“All right, I’m out.” I pushed the shots back across the table.

“Are you drinking water?” Esra narrowed her eyes at my bottle, having already downed one of her shots and only now registering her surroundings. “If you don’t drink, you’re out of the game.”

“I haven’t beeninthe game, princess.” I wrenched the claxon from her hand. Her fingernails had left deep dents in the rubber ball at the end of the horn, and it refilled with air with a pathetic hiss.

“Oops.” She flexed her hand. “I can let you answer some questions if you want.”

“How generous. You’dletthe rest of your team participate?”

“Don’t drag me into this. Esra’s brain is paying for my shots.” Sinan clanked an empty glass down on the table. “I’m okay being eye candy.”

“If you want to answer some questions, answer some questions.” Esra threw another shot back, voice growing agitated. “You didn’t exactly reach for the squeaker.”

“I just don’t drink,” I said before this thing could spiral into a much bigger argument than it was worth, “so, I’m out of the game.”

I climbed across Sanny’s legs and took my water bottle back to the kitchen, where I grabbed one of Lucas’s bags of chips. Those definitely weren’t healthy, and the expiration date didn’t help, but I needed a moment of feeling normal. I knew I shouldn’t have played. The sour feeling in the pit of my stomach was too familiar. Jealousy. I’d graduated high school by the skin of my teeth. After my mom got sick, I went through a lot, and that included getting wasted and skipping school. I cleaned up my act, but I’d never had much of a chance to make up for those years. I just had to keep moving. I wrote off books and classrooms, just like I wrote off getting drunk and making stupid choices, and I rarely felt like I missed out on anything.

“You good?” Sanny followed me into the kitchen withina few minutes and grabbed the bag of chips from my hands with a furrowed brow. “Never mind. Clearly, you aren’t.”

“I hate trivia,” I replied.

“You just have to sit back and let Ez answer all the questions for you. She used to spend days in bed reading encyclopedias. I tried to convert her toTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, all right? But she said comics weren’t stimulating enough. What six-year-old uses the word ‘stimulating’?”

“What six-year-old spends days reading encyclopedias?”

“Exactly my point,” he yelled, some of those shots clearly coming through in his slurred words. “Anyway. Are we still on for painting tomorrow?”

“Sure. If you think you won’t be too hungover.” I chuckled.

“Okay. Yeah. I think I have to get Zuri home. She’s got to be in the office bright and early, and Austin is our designated driver.”

“Good call. I’m heading out soon too.” I tipped my bottle toward the door, and by extension my perfectly quiet bedroom just across the street.

Sinan’s face contorted.

“What’s wrong?”

He sighed. “Look, I know that you two hate each other, but…”

“Hate?”

“You and Esra.”

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