Page 7 of Hale Yes
“I’m afraid to ask,” I reply wryly.
“We should do some hoodrat shit tonight. Just you and me, like the old days.”
I’m just drunk enough to think that doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. “What did you have in mind?”
His blue eyes leave my matching ones and search the metal embossed ceiling. “Uhhhh, let’s see. Oh! I’ve got it.” His gaze is pure mischief when it returns to mine. “We could go toilet paper Dad’s house.”
I laugh and pat my back pocket. “I’ve got a thousand dollars that would buy a lot of fucking TP. Let’s get Antonio to drive us to Walmart. We can buy you a different shirt too since that one glows in the damn dark.”
Phoenix grasps my hand and squeezes, our eyes locked. “Thanks, twinny.”
It usually annoys me when he calls me that, but tonight? Fuck, it makes me feel a little emotional. My brother is getting married tomorrow.
I tighten my hand around his and pat his bicep. “You got it, Phe. Let me pay the bar bill and we can go do all the hoodrat shit you want.”
While I’m paying, I shoot off a text to our father.
Helix: Hey, if you hear someone in your yard, don’t call the police. It’s me and Phoenix.
Y-Chromosome: Do I even want to know what’s going on?
Helix: The groom wants to do some crazy shit tonight, so we’re about to come TP your house.
Y-Chromosome: Good lord, LOL. You’re not driving are you?
Helix: No sir, Antonio is driving us.
Y-Chromosome: Where’s Remi?
Helix: Occupied.
Y-Chromosome: Ah, I understand. I’ll let security know to look the other way for a few minutes. And I’ll warn Rebecca and Perri too so they don’t get scared if they hear two idiots outside.
I smile at the mention of our seventeen-year-old sister. Well, technically, she’s our half sister, but that’s just semantics. Perri has been in our life since she was four. It’s a long story.
Helix: Thanks, Dad. I’ll come clean up in the morning.
Y-Chromosome: Call me if you need bail money.
Three hours later, Phoenix and I fall onto the beds in one of the suite’s bedrooms, still giggling like little kids.
“I can’t believe the security guards didn’t even hear us,” my brother says, and I grin at the ceiling.
Is it supposed to be spinning like that?We’d gone through an entire bottle of Remington’s expensive-as-fuck scotch in the back of his fancy car while Antonio drove us to two different Walmarts to buy all the toilet paper we could find. Dad’s yard looked like a winter wonderland by the time we were done.
“We were super stealthy,” I lie. We weren’t.
“Must have been the ski macks… mackiss… masks,” Phoenix slurs drunkenly. “That was a good idea to get them at the Walmark.”
His face turns toward me from his bed, and I do the same. Even though I can barely see him in the dark, I feel the bright blue of his spirit.
“Tomorrow everything is going to change,” I say quietly.
“But we’ll always be twinnies,” Phoenix replies, his voice uncharacteristically solemn.
“Yeah, we’ll always be twinnies.”
When I told him everything was going to change tomorrow, I had no idea how true that statement was. Because Phoenix’s life didn’t just change.
