Bow stopped eating.
Like she legit stopped, the fry falling out of her mouth. She rubbed salt off her lips. “Charlie?”
“Mmhmm.” I took a drink. “Dorian mentioned his name.”
Now, she coughed. She full-on choked despite not eating any food, and I handed her the soda in front of her.
She patted her throat after a drink. “Dorian mentioned Charlie to you?”
I sat back, figuring the truth was better. I was serious that I didn’t want to do her wrong again. “No, he didn’t. I overheard. He mentioned the name Charlie.”
Her lips immediately closed like I’d known they probably would, but I didn’t regret being honest. That was what separated me from the boys themselves. I didn’t just stomp around all deceitful and caveman-like when I wanted something.
I didn’t just take things from people.
Dorian had done that last night, but I knew he was still in my head despite him being an asshole.
I knew because I was asking about Charlie.
I knew because I cared Dorian wasn’t here today and off doing whatever the fuck he was doing. He wasn’t at lunch with the other boys, and I knew this as fact.
Bow didn’t, though. She couldn’t have. Dorian had been rather tight-lipped about that with Thatcher and Wells. Bow laced her fingers together. “Charlie is Dorian’s uncle.”
“His uncle?”
She nodded. “He died last year,” she said, my lips parting. She frowned. “He was like a brother to Dorian. He was like a brother to all of us really. He was close in age. Only nineteen when it happened.”
“What did happen?”
She appeared hesitant again, her throat working. Her expression shifted, and she appeared pained.
“Someone hurt him,” she said, nodding. Her cheeks flushed, and when she blinked away, I realized I triggered something.
“I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say. Nineteen was so young.
She moved her shoulders. “The boys took it pretty hard. All of our families.” She leaned in. “Charlie grew up with Dorian. Same house and everything.”
Yikes.
Lunch ended at the bell,
and she sat back. Bow grabbed her stuff.
“Probably not mention Charlie again?” She wet her lips. “It messed with our families pretty bad. The boys and me.” She nodded. “Broke Dorian, though. Broke Dorian real bad. He took it the hardest.”
For obvious reasons. Especially if they lived together.
I nodded, of course, lifting my hand. “Of course. I’m sorry I brought it up.”
“You didn’t know.” She forced a smile I knew she didn’t really mean when she turned with her things and walked away.
Why else would she hide something she normally loved to do?
Chapter Twenty-Five
Dorian - age 17
“Hey, you fellas got room for another player?”