Austin rolled his eyes. “That’s not an excuse. You know in this market you could sell and make more than you put into it.”
“Since when are you savvy about the housing market?” I asked, playfully challenging his authority. “Where would you even go if you left?”
Austin was a nomad, where I was a settler.
“Arizona. Barcelona,” he daydreamed.
“You can’t even point to Barcelona on a map.”
“Yeah, I can.” His light eyes were facing the sky, half opened. “And Berlin. Rome. Anywhere. Hell, I’d go live in a van on the coast. I really can’t stand being this close to Dad.”
I agreed with him. But we were two totally different humans, even if we’d shared a womb. It was easy for him to abandon all logic, I just couldn’t.
“Do you even know where your passport is?” I asked.
“Yes. And yours. They’re both at Dad’s, in the drawer.” He gave me a sneaky look, like he had found the entrance to Narnia.
“If only.” I laughed.
He leaned against me to reach his phone when it started to vibrate in the pocket of his joggers. A number that wasn’t saved was on the screen. He seemed surprised and agitated, and he immediately ignored the call. When he looked up at me he shifted uncomfortably. Something was up; I could read Austin like a book.
“Who was that?” I asked, when he stopped my hand in midair as I tried to reach for his phone. “Was it Katie?” I rolled my eyes.
Austin’s face broke into a smile, and he shook his head. He almost looked relieved. “No. God, no.”
My mind wandered to being in my old bedroom at my dad’s, with Kael, the first night I met Katie and embarrassed myself insulting her, which seemed so trivial now. After the fight, Kael’s run-in with the MPs, and everything that’s happened, I was relieved to hear that Austin had moved on from that chaotic woman.
I was brought back to reality with Austin’s leg shaking the way it did whenever he was nervous. It was getting cooler outside, and I wanted to go in.
“Do you want to stay here for a little bit?” I looked at Austin and, for a second, I could see our mom in him, something around the eyes, about the shape of his mouth. We’d always be a mash-up of our parents, and that horrified me.
“No.” He sighed. “I don’t know. I need to figure my shit out. I can’t do that from your couch.”
“It’s cheaper than Barcelona, and besides, how the hell would you even pay for a trip like that?” I joked.
“Actually, I was thinking about staying with Martin.”
His words punched me. A sucker punch.
“Martin?” I was going to make him say his name.
“Kael.”
“Since when are you two friends like that? You’re wearing his clothes and now moving in with him?” I couldn’t even hide the hurt in my voice.
“I don’t know, a week or so.” He laughed. I couldn’t breathe. “He’s been at Mendoza’s a lot. Plus, Elodie is already sleeping on your couch, there’s no room for me here.”
“Elodie can sleep in my bed.”
“Martin has an extra bedroom and I sort of already took my stuff there.”
“Seriously?”
I couldn’t believe him.
“Look, I know something happened between you two and I know how it blew up with Dad. And that’s all I know. You know Dad is a fucking bald-faced liar, so don’t let him get in your head. Once he’s in, he won’t get out.” He looked me straight in the eyes. Daring me to be honest.
That was a dare I wouldn’t take.