Page 61 of The Handoff

Chapter 33

David

DaxonandIwere at home, in the kitchen grabbing something to eat. When Dane texted and said that we should check out Instagram. We did, as we sat the table. We watched the video about Lisa, which Fiona and Penelope had posted and shared on IS so many times. They wanted the whole campus to know who she really was. We knew that it would be a matter of time, before the media would come down, and wanting clips of her on campus.

On our way! D

That was the last message I received from Dane, which I assumed meant he was bringing Lisa here.

As we heard the door open, we automatically jumped up. We knew that they were coming, but now that they were here, we didn’t know what to do with ourselves.

Our eyes fixed on the entrance, waiting for them to get into the apartment and to the kitchen.

“Hey,” Daxon said as she stood at a distance, looking at us. She’d been crying, her eyes were red, her hair was a bird’s nest and she was grabbing a bag, as if her life depended on it.

She pointed, “You’re Daxon, right?”

It was then that I realized, until now we’d never been formally introduced, which felt wrong in so many ways, because we’d all slept with her at one point.

“I’m David.”

We were all standing, as if we were strangers, not knowing how to break the ice. To a degree, we were until now, because she didn’t even know David’s name.

She nodded, “Right, I didn’t even know your name. It feels silly now. Seeing all three of you together, I can see the difference.”

I looked at both my brothers, who did the same thing. We didn’t get what she meant.

“Like David’s a little taller and Daxon’s a little bigger, and Dane’s…”

He smiled, “Just perfect.”

It helped break the ice, as we all laughed, because Dane was definitely the vainest out of the three of us.

“Yep, Dane's the vain. Do you want something to eat or go straight to the room? Not sure if Dane explained?” I asked.

She shook her head as she whispered, her lips quivering, “No, he didn’t. We didn’t really talk.”

“Okay. So Mom’s away in London, so you can stay in her room and we’ll be next door and out here.”

“I’ll just put her bag in the room. It’s this one,” Dane said as he headed in that direction and Lisa followed her.

Daxon whispered to me, “It’s weird someone other than Mom seeing as all together.”

I sighed. “It’s been a long time. When we were kids, we went along with it.”

“Yeah, but we’ve been in hiding for years. Making sure that we never are all at the same place only inside.”

Daxon said, “Yeah, that’s about to change.”

I started counting, like I’d been doing ever since we hooked up with Lisa that it would be exactly seven more months if I included the holidays until we didn’t have to hide anymore. Could we really keep up pretenses that long? Lisa knew, but I had a feeling that in a matter of time, so would everyone else. Secrets had a way of coming out, just like the one exposing Lisa’s real identity. We had been careful for so long, but our antics lately had made us loose a sense of reality. One that could put everything we’d worked so hard for in jeopardy.

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