Apparently, Rae liked our brand of chaos enough to recreateit.
The guys grab chairs and pull them up to our table. Tyler’s forced to tuck his in close to mine so Rae can still get out and head for thebar.
“You want?” she asks Beck, jerking herhead.
“Yeah, sure.” He followsher.
“Did you tell Jax and Haley you’re at Vanier?” Tyler asks me when Rae’sgone.
His bluntness has me straightening. “No.”
“You’re going to haveto.”
“Why do youcare?”
“Because I care about you.” Something flickers behind Tyler’s eyes. “And I care about them,” he goeson.
Before I can argue, Rae and Beck return, and the house lights dim. The first performer is a guy who talks about his pets for the entiretime.
Elle’s the second performer. We cheer as she takes thestage.
“Here’s the thing about being twenty in New York—everyone assumes you came from some piece-of-shit city to be an overpaid trader or an underpaid actor. I take offense to that. I came from the country to be an unpaidcomedian.”
The audience chuckles as she strolls across the stage, the lights followingher.
“I have three younger brothers, but my dad died when I wasten.”
My stomach falls, but shecontinues.
“So, I had to keep my mom laughing. Because them wetting the bed every night wasn’t doingit.”
The backs of my eyes burn as I think of our exchange in the hallway earlier about my dad, how I gave her shit for making him sound better than heis.
I’d asked her about her baggage once, and she said it was too much to talkabout.
I duck my face to swipe at my damp eyes, and my gaze finds Tyler’s, holdsit.
He’s feeling what I am—compassion, sadness, understanding, and I’m glad he’shere.
I force myself to focus on the rest of Elle’s set, then the remaining performers, and the heaviness gives way tolaughter.
Everyone has their own pain. Elle uses it to connect people, weaves the hard times in with the goodones.
When the houselights come up, I pull out my phone to text Elle, but Rae grabs my arm. “Don’t. This wasn’t aboutus.”
The crowd outside is laughing and tipsy as we wind our way out to the street. I fall into step next to Beck, behind Tyler andRae.
“Let’s get something to eat,” Beckdecides.
We find a diner a block away. I hold the door for Rae, and she shakes her head, holding up a pack of cigarettes from her jacketpocket.
Before the three of us can find a booth, Beck’s phonerings.
He checks the screen and starts toward the door. “Order me a Coke,” he calls. “I’ll beback.”
Tyler and I slide into the booth across from oneanother.
There are people of every kind in the restaurant. There’s an elderly couple across from a young couple, and I wonder what they’re talking about, what their lives are like, if they act brave in the daylight, if questions they can’t answer start to circle their minds when the lights goout.