9.11 - 19. Chapter 19

July 21, 2001

“Thanks for meeting with me on a Saturday,” I told my shrink, Gary Anderson.

“It’s OK,” he said. “I charge more for Saturday appointments.” I chuckled at that. “How are things going with you?”

“It’s been pretty eventful,” I told him. “I figured summer would be slow, but shit, it’s been one thing after another.”

“Tell me about it. Start where you want to,” he said.

I’d actually made notes, which made him smile in a patronizing way, but I ignored that. I went back to the issue with Erik and Kyle, starting there. He didn’t really say much about that: he just let me vent, although he did kind of smirk when I told him about my broken nose. Asshole. I told him that Marie and John were the ones that had inadvertently told Erik about us, and then I explained the whole nightmare about the guest list at the party, including my confrontation with my relatives at dinner, and my banishment from the party itself.

“You don’t seem too upset about missing the Bastille Day party,” he noted. “You were very upset last year when you missed JJ’s birthday party. What’s the difference?” That had been JJ’s birthday party last December, and he’d been so pissed off at me he’d uninvited me from attending.

I thought about that for a bit. “I think because this time, I was banned because it was a punishment, and it was probably fair. With JJ’s party, I hadn’t really done anything wrong; they were just banishing me to be dicks.”

“Family is very important to you,” he said, but waited for me to confirm that with a nod. “In our conversations, it’s pretty clear to you that your family is a core foundation for you. Your life is largely dominated by it.”

I thought about that too. That’s why I liked this guy. He made me think about stuff without annoying the shit out of me, at least not that much. “I guess it is.”

“I’ve watched you handle conflicts with various family members. Whenever that link to your family is threatened, you become very agitated, and aggressive.”

“Is that wrong?” I asked.

“No, it’s not wrong. The purpose of these sessions isn’t for me to judge you and your actions; it’s to help you put them into perspective.”

“Whatever,” I said, responding to his psychobabble. He had a Star Trek TNG poster on his wall, signed by Patrick Stewart, so I used that for an analogy. “So you’re telling me I’m like a Borg, and my family is like the collective?”

“I may have to use that analogy with other people,” he said with a grin, confirming what I’d asked. That was kind of freaky, to think I was that dependent on my family.

“I don’t know if I like being that dependent on anyone,” I said.

“I don’t think you like that either, but it pretty much comes with who you are. And you have a lot of independence, more than most people your age.”

“That makes sense,” I said. I could see that there were limits to how self-sufficient I could be. I moved on and told him about my visit with Tony, and how I busted him messing around with Rick.

“You seem pretty resigned to things as they are with Tony, to be, as you put it, friends with benefits,” he said.

“I can’t believe he blew me off for that asshole,” I said, referring to Rick. “It’s like Rick was just constantly trying to drag Tony off.”

“You don’t seem angry with Tony, but you seem angry with Rick,” he said.

“Yeah,” I said. “The dude was basically stalking Tony. Shit, he tried to get him to sneak off and play around the night before the float, and he must have come over early in the morning to wake Tony up and drag him off.”

“Or Tony got up and woke Rick up,” he said.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how it happened,” I said dismissively.

“Let’s try this. Let’s change the names around. Let’s rename Tony; we’ll call him Kyle. And we’ll rename Rick, and call him Will. And then we’ll rename Will, and name him Erik.” I just stared at him as my brain processed what he was saying. He let me do that, and didn’t say anything until I did. I liked that.

“You’re trying to get me to understand why Erik was so pissed off at me,” I accused.

“What do you think?”

I sighed. “I think it was easier for Erik to blame me than to blame Kyle.”

“And?”

“And it’s easier for me to blame Rick than to blame Tony.” I grimaced at him. “You know, you’re supposed to make me feel better about things.”

“I try,” he said. “Why? What are you upset about?”

“I guess I’m realizing that I hurt Erik really bad because I was part of the deal. I mean, I wasn’t all that into Tony, but it still hurt to have him do that. If I had been totally in love with him that would have been agony.”

“Like Erik was with Kyle?” he asked.

“Like Erik was with Kyle,” I confirmed. So that was the other part of this whole cheating equation. It was the human side, based on the pain that the other person would have to deal with.

“How have you been doing with your father?” he asked.

“We’ve been doing great, but I pissed him off last week. I think we’re OK now.”

“What happened to piss him off?”

“We went to Hawaii to go surfing, and this dude treated me like total shit,” I said, and told him the whole story about me surfing with Kai. “And get this, turns out that he was the dude that was supposed to drive me around.” He chuckled.

“So your father was mad about that?”

“No, my favorite beach is about an hour away from our condo. It seemed stupid to spend two hours a day driving back and forth, so I found this house for sale, and I bought it.” I told him all the details about the house, and how negative my father had been at first.

“So in your mind, buying a house that costs several million dollars was logical to save commute time?” he asked.

“Yeah. I mean, it’s not like it’s a bad investment. And I have that much money in my trusts, so I didn’t need money from them. Of course, turns out they’re handling it a different way, but they didn’t have to. We close on Monday.”

“Why was your father mad?”

“Because I signed the contract and got the deal together without getting him involved,” I said. I told him about the escape clause.

“It seems that when you and your father clash, it’s usually traceable back to a control issue,” he said.

“I get that, and I think that’s what was happening with him. He didn’t want to see me go off and actually take charge of my money. He didn’t want me to own property, and to be independent.”

“That explains his control issue, but not yours.”

“What do you mean?” I asked him, trying to figure out what the fuck he was talking about.

“Your father likes to control other people, including you,” he stated. “Your issue is that you demand to be in control of yourself. You reject any kind of dependency.”

“So you think I bought that house so I could have my own place and I wouldn’t have to rely on him?”

“What was going through your mind when you first thought about buying that house?” I gave him a nasty look, because I hated questions like that.

“I was thinking that it was a pain in the ass to have to drive all that way every day. Not only that, but it means I have to get someone to drive me.”

“So you had just had this issue with Kai, and you decided that you didn’t want to have to rely on someone like him to lug you around. If you bought a house in Hookipa, you’d be completely independent of people like that. You can wake up in the morning, and walk down to the beach.”

“I think it had more to do with the two hour commute,” I objected.

“Maybe, but it seems that when you find an area, or a situation, where you’re dependent on other people, it makes you uncomfortable, and you work to eliminate that dependency.”

“Why is that a problem?” I demanded, a little pissed off. “Why shouldn’t I want to be my own person, and not rely on anyone?”

“I didn’t say it was a problem, but it is an explanation,” he said. I nodded.

“You think I bought that house so I could be even more in control of my life?” I asked him.

“I think it is more complicated than that. You went to look at the house, and signed the contract, on July 14,” he said, and waited for me to nod. “The same day as the party.”

“So in addition to satisfying my control freak nature, you think I bought the house to make up for missing the party?” I asked, and not really pleasantly.

“Spending money like that, making a big purchase, can actually release endorphins, and physically change your mood,” he noted. “Did it cheer you up?”

“Yeah, it cheered me up, but I didn’t feel all that down about it anyway,” I said. I began to wonder if I had subconsciously buried those emotions, and I’d just dealt with them by buying a big-ass house.

He must have realized he was starting to bug me with that topic, so he switched to a different one. “You said Darius went to Hawaii with you?”

“Yeah, and that was the bomb. He and my cousin John came over, and spent a few days there with us. In the evenings, the three of us would just go and bum around in Lahaina.” I talked about how I’d felt so distant from John, but that time in Maui with Darius had helped us redefine our friendship. We didn’t mess around, or even talk about it, but we got a lot closer as friends.

“So you repaired the rift you had with John?”

“I think so. I guess it’s always possible that Marie, or his parents could try to fuck things up between us, but I think we’re on pretty solid ground. I called him this morning to wish him a happy birthday, and he was all happy and upbeat.”

“So John was more than willing to be your friend as long as you weren’t sexually involved?”

I blushed at that, because it was weird to talk about my sex life. Then I stopped to think about that. I talked about having sex with other people. Why was it weird talking about having sex with John? “I guess so,” I said cautiously, as I was still thinking about it.

“Sometimes people will force distance in a relationship so they can redefine the terms of that relationship. I see it with married couples, where a husband will treat his wife like shit in the hopes that she’ll get fed up and divorce him.”

“I could totally see John doing that,” I said, almost thinking out loud. “He wouldn’t want a big nasty confrontation, and he wouldn’t want to have some big talk either.”

He flipped through my file. “How are you doing with Ryan?”

I shrugged. “We’re friends. I don’t see him very often. Shit, he’s always doing stuff with Shiloh. The last time I got him to go out was with JJ and Alistair.”

“Do you think he doesn’t want to be alone with you?”

I blinked at him. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I think he just wants to be with Shiloh. Period. I don’t think he’s afraid to be with just me.”

“Do you think John is straight?”

“Pretty much.” Seemed that way to me.

“What about Ryan?”

“I think so,” I answered. “So you’re saying these problems are my own fault for messing around with straight dudes?”

“I’m not talking about fault here,” he said. “It’s possible that those guys were just experimenting, maybe not. But they seem nervous around you, or being alone with you.”

“I’m not going to fucking rape them!” I said, almost a shout.

He shook his head. “It’s not like that. It may be that they don’t want to hurt you, or let you down. But they don’t want to have sex with you either. So instead, they just avoid you.”

“So what do I do?”

“What do you think you should do?” I hated it when he answered questions with questions.

“I could stop sleeping with straight dudes,” I said, and then I smiled. “No. That’s not happening.”

He chuckled. “I think that if you go down that road and mess around with them, you need to be aware that they see you as a friend. Anything else is probably an aberration.”

“You’re telling me that I can’t hit on them, or flirt with them,” I concluded.

“That’s not necessarily what I’m saying. You’re a perceptive guy. I think you’ll figure out just how playful you can be with them by watching what they’re OK with, and what makes them uncomfortable.” I nodded. “I’ll see you next time,” he said, ending our session. I shook his hand and left, feeling a little freaked out.

I got back to our house in Malibu and managed to sneak up to my room without talking to anyone. It was Saturday night and I had no plans. How pathetic was that? I tracked JJ down, but he was meeting up with some of his skater friends, and he didn’t invite me to tag along. That was his world, so there was no way I was going to guilt him into asking me into going with them. Darius was going out with some chick, so that wouldn’t work. I thought about calling Ryan, but after my conversation with my shrink, I felt a little weird doing that. I called Alistair, but he was busy too. I pulled out my phone and started flipping through my contacts, but no one popped out at me. No one I really wanted to party with. I wandered out of my room and heard Robbie walking around in his room. I could tell by the way he was walking that he was agitated. Their door was closed, but when I knocked, he told me to come in.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hi,” Robbie said cheerfully, and then looked worried. He was half dressed, wearing a pair of black dress pants with no shirt.

“What’s with the shirtless look?”

He snaughed. “We’re supposed to go to a party tonight,” he said. “I was dressed, but your dad puked all over my shirt.”

“He’s sick?” I asked. He nodded. I walked into the bathroom to find my dad sitting on the floor with his arms propping him up enough to vomit into the toilet. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s the fucking stomach flu,” he said softly, as if he was trying to not upset his stomach, then he lost that battle and puked again.

“Do you need anything? We should call a doctor,” I said nervously.

“I’ll be fine. It will be gone in a day. If not, I’ll go see a doctor,” he said. He looked at me intently. “Don’t worry. I’ll make it to Maui on Monday for the closing.”

“I’m not worried about that, I’m worried about you,” I snapped. He smiled slightly at that.

“So am I,” Robbie said from behind me. “I’ll stay home with you.”

“No,” Dad said, and puked again.

“Where are you going?” I asked Robbie.

“A premiere for Jurassic Park III, and then parties afterward,” he said, and then turned to Dad. “I can cancel. It’s no big deal.”

“It is a big deal,” Dad said. “You’re in this one.” He meant that the production company Robbie ran, Anders-Hayes, had funded it.

“I don’t want to go alone,” Robbie whined. I saw my dad cringe at that, because he hated it when Robbie whined, but I winked at him, and got a small smile. Then he puked again.

“I’ll go with you,” I told Robbie. I didn’t have anything to do, and that sounded like a fun way to spend a Saturday night. Besides, it was always really cool to be seen at Hollywood parties with Robbie. “If you put a shirt on.”

“Take Will,” Dad said. “He kind of looks like me.”

“Only younger and hotter,” I joked.

“I’ll probably regret this...” Robbie said as he looked at me. “Fine, go get ready. Black tie.”

“Give me half an hour,” I said. He looked at his watch to tell me to hurry. I went back to my room and took like a five minute shower, then put on my fucking tux. I spent the last two minutes messing around with my hair, and trying to hide a zit with this face shit. I walked upstairs and found Robbie in the bathroom with my dad. “Thirty minutes are up. I’m ready.”

“You look good,” Dad said, then puked again.

“You’re not very convincing,” I told him, and made Robbie chuckle.

“We’ll see you later,” Robbie said, and rubbed his back affectionately. We walked down the stairs quickly and found the limo out front waiting for us. We got in, and the driver took off pretty fast, which told me that we were running pretty late. “So how was your appointment?”

“Shitty,” I grumbled.

“Why?”

“He made me feel guilty for fucking around with Kyle,” I said.

“He made you feel guilty?” Robbie asked.

I gave him a dour look. “Dude, do not even psychobabble me.” He smirked. “This is where you tell me that only I can make myself guilty.”

“I didn’t say anything,” he said.

“Asshole,” I responded, but smiled. “He just pointed out that I was all pissed off at Rick, this guy Tony got with, and that was probably just a micro-blast of how Erik must have felt.”

“So what does that mean?”

“It means that if I’m going to fuck around with a committed dude, I have to hate the person he’s with,” I joked, making him laugh.

“What did he say about your house?”

“He asked me why Dad was all pissed off at me, and I told him it was because I didn’t get him involved and let him be in control of the process.”

“I don’t think that’s it at all,” Robbie objected.

“Well actually, it is. Part of it.”

“Oh. There’s more?” he asked me, being a smart ass.

“Basically I bought it because I didn’t want to have to rely on a driver to get me there, and he thinks I bought it because I was bummed that I wasn’t at the party.”

“I’ve done that, bought shit when I was depressed,” he said.

“Like what?”

“Well, the Ferrari for one thing. I bought that when I was upset about getting old. And the condo in Claremont: I bought that because I felt bad about deserting the town. And diamond cufflinks for your dad, because I felt guilty for treating him like total shit,” he said, giving me a partial litany.

“So is it a bad thing?” I asked.

“It’s bad if you can’t afford it, and it’s bad if you buy shit instead of dealing with the real problem,” he said.

“Do you think I did that with this house on Maui?”

He thought about that. “I guess that depends on how you handle the real problem.”

“What is the real problem?” I asked.

“The arguing and fighting in the family,” he said.

“And that’s my fault?” I demanded, not a little pissed off. “I was wrong to call Aunt Claire and Grandmaman out for selling me and Darius down the river?”

“I didn’t say that...” he said defensively, even as I cut him off.

“And it’s my fault that Dad is dragging all of his past issues with Grandmaman into this thing?”

“No, I don’t think...” I interrupted him again.

“And it’s my fault that Marie can’t say she’s sorry for the shit she does wrong?” He didn’t say anything. “I fucked up by being obnoxious at dinner at Escorial, and I apologized to Grand for that. When I see Aunt Claire and Grandmaman, I’ll probably apologize to them too. What more do you want me to do?”

“I’m not trying to blame you for this situation,” he said, frustrated. “I guess I didn’t say what I wanted to say very well. I was trying to say that if you let this bug you, and in order to deal with it you keep buying shit, then that becomes a problem.”

“I think you were trying to give me shit about it, but when I called you on it, you came up with that bullshit reason instead of just admitting you were wrong,” I said to him, smiling.

“Whatever,” he said, and that made me laugh, because he almost never said that. He sat there, looking grumpy, so I nudged him with my shoulder. “Quit it!” I nudged him harder. “Quit it!” he said, and shoved me back. Then he looked at me and I smiled at him, tilting my head as I did, and he grinned and shook his head.

“So what’s the deal with this movie?”

“We’re in this one, but not for a lot of money. We’re just part of the group. I’m kind of nervous, because most of the big investments we made this year won’t hit until the end of the year. The two biggest are Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.”

“I saw your plans in that board meeting,” I said. “They looked good to me.”

“Thanks.”

“Do you have those meetings very often?” I asked.

“Depends. We have to have one at least annually. I try to have them every quarter, or at least three times a year. I find that if I keep Stef informed, he’s happier about things.”

“Makes sense,” I said. “You think I could go to some of them? It was kind of interesting, and I like hearing about what you’re doing.”

“Let me work on that,” he said. We pulled up to the theater and got out of the limo. A few people took our picture, probably because they thought I was some new boy toy for Robbie and that he was cheating on my dad. “You should hang out with Trevor Morgan. He’s about your age.”

“Right,” I said skeptically. We got inside and Robbie greeted everyone pretty quickly, since we were late and the movie was about to start. Trevor Morgan was kind of cute, but totally stuck up. Plus when I talked to him I felt like I was talking to a little kid. I was so not hanging around with him. We watched the movie, talked to people about how wonderful it was, then hopped in the limo to head to a party.

“So what did you think?” Robbie asked.

“It was good,” I said.

“Good? That’s it?” He was annoyed with me.

“Look, it was good, but it’s been done before. It’s pretty much the same deal. Someone gets stuck on the island and has to escape from bad-ass dinosaurs,” I said simply.

“Fine,” he said, scowling at me.

“Dude, it will probably make shitloads of money, but it’s not groundbreaking,” I said. “What do you think?”

He gave me a dirty look and didn’t say anything for a while. “You’re probably right.”

I chuckled. “If you’re on the production side of things, isn’t how much cash it makes really the most important thing?”

“That’s what makes shareholders happy, but you get your rep from doing good movies and winning awards too,” he said.

“So the awards are like the fame part of it, and the box office is the money?” He nodded. “Take the box office. You can use that cash to buy houses in Maui.” He laughed at that, but not for long, since we got to our first party at some high rise in LA. We spent about an hour there, bullshitting with people, but then it got boring, so we went on to the next one, at somebody’s house.

The house was pretty kick ass, located up in the hills of Bel Air so you could see all of LA. It had a big pool, and lots of yard around it for people to hang out. It was nice weather, so most people were outside. “I’m going to the bathroom,” I told Robbie, and went to go wander off.

He grabbed my arm and pulled me back briefly. “Be careful. Don’t do anything freaky.”

“Freaky?” I asked with a smile. “I think you have that cornered.” He blushed, but I smiled bigger. “I’ll be careful.”

“Good,” he said, and turned to talk to some people.

I was walking up the steps back to the house when I saw Hayden. I hadn’t even thought about calling him or Trevor. “Hey,” I said. He looked at me blankly, and then remembered who I was and grinned. “You here alone?”

“I have a date,” he said, gesturing at some chick who was talking to a group of people.

“You wouldn’t happen to know where a bathroom is, would you?”

“Try the one upstairs,” he said. I just stared at him intensely, and then he grinned. “I’ll show you.”

“Good answer,” I joked. He led me upstairs, and then down a hall to what looked like an office. There was a bathroom attached to it.

“There you go,” he said.

I grabbed his arm, just a little roughly, because I knew he liked to be submissive. “Get in there,” I ordered.

“I can’t,” he whined. I glared at him, a fake glare, but he didn’t know that. I pivoted him around so his back was to me and pushed him into the bathroom, then turned and locked the door. “Will, I have to get back to the party.”

“You will, as soon as you get me off,” I said. I pulled out my dick. “Suck it.” His eyes glazed and he was almost panting as he dropped to the floor and started blowing me. It felt good, but it wasn’t what either one of us wanted. “Stand up.”

He stood up, and I spun him around, then reached around and undid his pants. I pulled them down with his underwear in a pretty violent motion, dropped to my knees, and dove into his ass, rimming him, probing him with my tongue. I slapped him a few times, and he liked that. “Fuck me,” he begged.

I pulled out a condom and two lube packets, since we’d need them. “Put it on,” I ordered, and made him put the condom on me while I reached over his back and lubed his hole. When he was done, I lubed up my dick, and without me saying anything, he bent over and grabbed onto the counter. I lined my cock up and pushed in, going slow, savoring the sound of his gasp as he tried to adapt to my size. I went in and out pretty slowly, letting him get used to me.

“Oh yeah,” he gasped, and I took that as my cue to pick up my pace. Now I was pounding him, just slamming into him, pausing from time to time to slap his ass. “Oh yeah,” he muttered again. “Oh, oh...” then there was a pause, and then he almost cried out. “Gonna cum!” I plunged in and out of his ass while he blasted his load on the counter. Just feeling his ass spasm as he came pushed me past the point of no return.

“Fuck!” I growled, and grabbed his hips, driving my cock deep inside him. Only now that he’d come, it was pretty uncomfortable for him, getting fucked by my big dick. He was trying to squirm away from me, but I wasn’t putting up with that shit. I was too far gone. I blasted into the condom, releasing my pent up libido, until I had finished. I pulled out gently after that, rubbing his back as I did. We cleaned up without saying anything, but he stopped me on the way out.

“Don’t say anything to anyone, OK?”

“What?”

“I don’t want Trevor to find out,” he said, and looked really nervous.

“Are you guys together?”

“More or less,” he said. “We’re only supposed to do things with other people if we’re together.”

We walked out of the restroom, making sure no one was watching, and then started talking again when we got into the hall. “Dude, I am so sorry. I didn’t know.”

“I could have stopped you,” he said, and winked at me. He was really cute.

“I promise I won’t say a word to anyone,” I swore.

He thanked me with his eyes. “I’ll see you later.” He vanished into another room, probably where they were doing drugs. I was tempted to follow him, but I didn’t want to give Robbie a coronary.

I walked down the stairs and saw Robbie in the corner, talking to some twink. Both of them were pretty hammered. “I can’t,” Robbie insisted.

“Come on,” the twink said, as he moved in closer, hanging all over Robbie. “No one will know.” Robbie shook his head. “It was so good last time.”

“Look, it was good for you, and it was good for me, but I was in a bad place then, and now things are good.” I was really proud of him, and how strong he was being.

The twink moved closer and rubbed his body against Robbie. The dude was an asshole, but it was hard not to appreciate how sexy he was. “Just one more time,” he pleaded.

“Can’t do it,” Robbie said, and walked away. He headed to the bar and ordered a drink, with the twink trailing after him. I stepped into an alcove so I was hidden and just watched them. Robbie would turn away from him and talk to someone else, but the twink kept tugging on his arm to get his attention. I was so tempted to go over and lay the dude out.

I saw Robbie order another drink. The bartender put it on the bar, and Robbie turned away from the drink and the twink, to talk to the guy on his other side. He was an older guy, probably another producer. The twink looked around, and if I wouldn’t have been standing in the shadows, behind an arch, he would have seen me for sure. He pulled out a little vial and poured some liquid into Robbie’s drink. Fuck.

I started running, charging toward the bar, watching as Robbie’s hand reached back to grab for his drink. He picked it up and lifted it to his lips just as I got there, so my only choice was to knock it out of his hand. I smacked the drink so hard it flew behind the bar, crashing into some bottles, and breaking one of them. “What the fuck are you doing?” he demanded.

I ignored him and glared at the twink, who looked really nervous now. He made to walk away, but I jumped on him, tackling him to the floor. “Let me go!” he yelled. “Get this guy off of me!” I reached into his pocket and grabbed the vial. “This dude is grabbing my dick!” he shouted. Now everyone was staring at us.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Robbie demanded as he pulled me up. I handed him the vial.

“That asshole just poured something into your drink,” I said calmly. “I stood over there and watched him do it.”

“That’s not mine,” the twink lied. “I don’t know where you got that. You must have brought it with you.”

“What is it?” I demanded.

“I don’t know. You brought it,” he said. “It was in your hand.”

“That’s bullshit, and you know it,” I said, glaring at him.

“This your new boy toy?” the twink snapped at Robbie.

“No, this is my son,” he said. “You ready to go?” he asked me.

“If you are,” I said, trying to calm down. The adrenaline was still pumping through my body. He said something to the guy he’d been talking to before, who nodded, and then we walked out, side by side. We had to wait about five minutes for our limo, but he didn’t say anything, and neither did I.

It wasn’t until after we climbed into the limo that he spoke. “Thanks for watching out for me.”

“Dude, I’m the only one allowed to roofie you,” I joked, referring to the time last year when I’d poured roofies in the coffee to knock my guard out, but he’d inadvertently drunk some.

He chuckled. “That was the guy I fucked when I was fighting with your dad last year.”

“What a little bitch,” I said. He was kind of cute, though.

“I think its karma. I fucked up, and I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have cheated on your dad. It bit me in the ass, or it would have, but for your sharp eyes.”

“This cheating thing is pretty fucked up,” I said, thinking about my meeting with my shrink. “Dad fucked Wade when you guys were fighting, and it almost ruined his relationship with Matt. I got a broken nose. You almost got roofied. Maybe there’s a lesson here.”

“Maybe there is,” he said, and put his arm around me.