Elena pouts, but is easily distracted by a group of girls that lure her on to the makeshift dance floor.
I hover behind Alec and watch the game with a detached fascination, seeing an entirely different game with other players unfold before my eyes like an out-of-body experience.
“Come on, come on, come on!” Alec howls as he jumps up and down for his petite teammate to flip her cup. “You’ve got this! Do it!”
He’s the last one in the lineup, just like that night when we were sixteen.
My eyes slam shut. I
take a minute to draw measured breaths through my nose, counting backwards.
“Alec,” I say in a tight voice.
He ignores me.
Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I jab him in the side with my fingers. “We’ve gotta go. Mom wants us back before she leaves for her shift at the hospital.”
Alec flashes a flat look over his shoulder. Aside from being identical in our dirty blond hair and green eyes, he stands five inches taller than me at five-foot ten. He shakes his head and ruffles the longer hair on top of his head.
Across the table, the other flip cup team shouts unintelligible gibberish, encouraging their final player to flip the cup from the edge of the table. Alec tenses and bangs out a beat on the thick wood.
The petite girl beside Alec manages to flip her cup upright and Alec wastes no time downing his beer. He’s off like a shot flicking the plastic cup. It only takes him two tries before he lands it, sealing the win for his team while the opposite player is still flipping.
“Yeah!” Alec pumps his fists in the air.
The group around the table erupts in an uproar.
My body tenses and I shove my hands back in my jacket pockets.
“Alec! Alec! Alec!”
They chant it and slap him on the back.
It looks like my brother is already well known. He celebrates, wrapping his arms around the girl beside him and fist bumping a tall boy in a dark green soccer captain’s zip up jacket.
“I thought they had us for sure,” the soccer captain says, waggling his brows.
“Nah, man, not when I’m around.”
A laugh rolls out of Alec again when someone announces another match.
“Bishop! Get over here!”
The shout came from across the room and it draws the soccer captain’s attention. He disappears into the party.
I tug on the back of Alec’s shirt. When he turns to me, I raise my eyebrows.
“Ready?”
His expression closes off. “For another game, you mean?”
“No,” I say slowly, trying to keep a lid on my annoyance. “To leave. You heard me earlier.”
Alec bumps my shoulder as he brushes past me. I hold back a grunt of frustration.
He’s been tetchy with me since we moved. Alec was pissed when Dad broke the news a few weeks before we packed up and left Colorado Springs to relocate two hours north.
“Can you just come with me? Mom said—”