Page 84 of Hide and Sneak
“What’s wrong withme?” The rage in her voice makes me pause. She might be the one who ends up throwing punches if I don’t hurry. “You don’t get to judge me for anything. You ran away. You abandoned your pregnant girlfriend to sell weed in Florida!”
“How do you even know?—”
“Your idiot friend told Sutton.”
“Great, I don’t have any friends I can trust.”
“Oh, boo-hoo, poor you. I don’t want to hear that shit. I’ve always had your back. Always helped you when you needed it. And what do you do? Lie for weeks about having a job. Fake going to work like some kind of psycho. Blow up your life and Mandy’s then run away! Why did you even come back?”
“I just needed a break! Why is most of the furniture gone and your room cleaned out? Are you moving in with him?”
I take a deep breath and join them in the living room as she answers. “Not that it would be any of your business, but no. I’m moving into my apartment and he’s moving into his house.”
A glare is thrown my way before he asks, “And where am I supposed to get furniture on such short notice?”
Lila’s mouth opens and closes like a goldfish. If I saw smoke coming out of her ears like a cartoon, I wouldn’t be surprised. “You aren’t staying here! You don’t have a job and they’ve already rented it out.”
“I signed the lease though.”
Lila stares at him like he’s insane. “Then you bailed.”
“Well where am I supposed to go? I’m not staying with that son of a bitch.”
“No,” I sigh. “You aren’t.” Lila isn’t the only one who’s fed up. “Look, man, this isn’t how I wanted you to find out. I was going to talk to you before you left.”
He shakes his head. “So, you were sneaking around while I was still staying here?”
A glance at Lila shows me she’s picturing the same things I am. Hiding in the closet while he had sex with Mandy, and my late night, naked jump out the window to visit the neighbor. “Yes.”
My simple response infuriates him but Lila elaborates.
“I know you’re pissed that we didn’t tell you. You seemed to be doing well and I didn’t want to throw you off track. But that wasn’t even true. So I’m not sorry, Amos. I’m happy with Sutton and I’m not sorry. You’re just going to have to get over it. You don’t get to choose who I’m involved with and I don’t give one shit about your bro code nonsense.”
This whole scene is wild because I’ve never heard Lila be so severe with him. She tends to baby him like her mother does. And no wonder when she’s basically been a second parent to him.
“So, you’re chucking me out on the street to fuck around with my friend.”
“No, those things are unrelated. I’m not throwing you anywhere. You did that. I’m moving. I’m focusing on my life andwhat I want to do with it, the same as Sutton has been. I suggest you take a lesson from both of us and grow the hell up.”
Amos crosses his arms and a quick smirk flashes on his face. I know what he’s going to do. Fuck, I should’ve told her. When he opens his mouth, I interrupt him. “Amos.”
“I don’t want to hear anything from you!” he shouts. “You’ve been fucking my sister!”
“I’m not fucking her. I’m in love with her!” That came out louder than I intended. The room falls silent and Lila whips her head around to look at me.
She stares me in the eye for a long moment before replying in a soft, halting voice. “You’re in love with me?”
I nod, trying to gauge how she feels about that. “I love you. You don’t have to be so shocked.”
A tentative smile begins on her face but it’s interrupted by Amos. “Don’t buy into his bullshit, Liles. You think he’s so perfect, that I should take a lesson from him?”
Damn it all. I should’ve told her but after she accused me of being a bad influence, I just couldn’t make myself do it.
“Ask him what happened the night I got arrested when I was seventeen.”
Lila looks at me, then back at Amos, puzzled. “When you stole that car?”
I’m not going to give him a chance to say it first. I can do that much at least. “He didn’t steal it. I did. He took the fall for me because I was already eighteen and he’d get a slap on the wrist compared to real prison time.”
