Page 59 of Cryptic Curse

“We should all go,” I say, nodding to Gina and Lavender.“It would be fun to spend time together and get to know each other better outside of class.”

“Yeah, sure,” Jordan says.

Gina and Lavender exchange a glance.

“Sure,” Gina says after a moment.“That would be a blast.”

“We’ll set it up sometime,” Jordan says.

But he says nothing more.

Awkward.

Then again, my whole life has been awkward.

What’s another minute of it?

19

HAWK

After another minute, though, Eagle puts down his controller again.

Fuck.What now?

“I can’t shake it off,” he says.“It’s like Dad changed or something.The Dad I know would never try to take his own life.He’d never let himself be cornered, as you said.”

I let out a long sigh.“I’m done with this conversation, Eagle.You can either get back to the game, leave, or change the damned subject.”

Eagle stares at his controller, fidgeting with the buttons.

I get ready to start the game again, but he turns to me.

“Fine,” he says.“I want to talk about that night at the barn.”

The fuck?

My jaw nearly drops into my lap.

Wenevertalk about that night.

Eagle knows it’s off limits.We three brothers swore an oath that night that we would never mention it again, not even to each other.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Actually, I’m not.”

I shake my head.“What the hell is going on with you, E?”

He doesn’t respond right away.Until, “I think about it every day.Even now, eight years later, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about it.”

His confession doesn’t exactly surprise me.Sure, we haven’t talked about it, but Eagle has had more than one relapse over the past eight years.It eats at him, I’m sure.It eats at all of us.

“Don’t you?”he asks.“Think about it, I mean?”

I take a deep breath in, sigh it out.“I try to live for the present.I have to.”

He has no idea how much I have to.

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