He pushed a hand over his hair. “What was worse was we couldn’t even tell our parents in good faith you had nothing to do with what ultimately went down.”
I twitched. “What?”
“We couldn’t until the press confirmed someone else had done it,” he said. “I mean, you had stayed behind. Behind with her?”
I had…
And I’d definitely given all my friends strong reasons to think the worst.
I had considering my history with my grandfather. I had tried to off him.
Tried and failed.
Wolf sat down on my bed, and I did with him, silent.
“How are the guys?” My parents had taken my phone away. I’d literally watched my dad shut it off and throw it in a box. Who knew when I’d get it back. “Parents took my phone.”
Wolf nodded. “Wells seems cool. You know how laid-back he is, but you pissed Thatch the hell off. The fucker got all up in his feelings, and you know how he doesn’t like to get into that shit.”
He was worse than all of us, closed off. He had a lot of emotional shit, stuff in his house and with his family specifically, so he never tried to be the burden for anyone else.
It all came out in rage when he was upset like he’d done today with me in the hall. Wells could be that way too, but not nearly as bad.
“You freaked everyone the hell out, D,” he said, shaking his head. He leaned in. “Why didn’t you call me? I called you. I… I have something to tell you.”
He stopped to take a breath, and though Wolf never dealt with feelings well either, he was generally better than this. Between the two of us, he was actually better at talking shit out.
He seemed ill-equipped today, his hands to his mouth. He ended up bracing his arms, and since I knew I had something I needed to share too, I had no idea where my buddy and I would be by the end of this conversation. I had opened a door I couldn’t easily close when I decided to pull my grandfather into this Mayberry shit last summer.
“I got something to tell you too.” I forced out a breath. “It’s bad, man. So bad.”
“What?”
I couldn’t even find the fucking words. I wet my lips. “My grandfather’s alive.”
His eyes expanded, like legit bulged out in front of me. “What are you fucking talking about?”
“Just as I said, man.” Even I couldn’t believe the words I was saying, but they were true. My throat tightened. “I don’t know how. We didn’t get that far—”
“What do you mean we?” He sat back, eyes in horror. “What are you talking about?”
And so I told him everything. It all came out, all the fucked-up details. I left no stone unturned, and the chilling truth brought the shakes back to my own fucking knees. My grandfather not only was here in this town, but he’d survived an attempt against his life. An attempt I had unsuccessfully made. My buddies all knew I’d gone upstate to take care of him. I’d kept it a secret at first, but I’d ended up telling them in the end. Wolf had taken the news the hardest. He hadn’t agreed with me initially going to see him.
But that didn’t mean he disagreed with how I’d chosen to handle it.
Once he found out, he’d put it to bed. All my friends had. We weren’t going to think about it again.
I guess my grandfather wasn’t giving us a choice.
“But how?” Wolf looked entirely haunted, slammed clearly in the same way the news hit me. This was impossible, my grandfather being alive. I’d poisoned him. He faced me. “You said you took care of it.”
I thought I had. I shook my head, and he got up.
He grabbed his legs. “D, what the fuck?”
“I know.” I got up too, my shoulders popping up. “I don’t know what happened or how he’s alive. Someone must have found him or something.” I raised a hand. “I didn’t stick around after I watched him go down.”
“So you didn’t check for a pulse?” My friend was angry now and understandably so. He combed his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know shit about this, but you always check for a goddamn pulse.”