Page 2 of Bring You Back

“No, it’s you.”

He makes aha haface. “And yeah, hey, I’m great, thanks for asking.”

He knows I wouldn’t and have never asked. I hate Banks talk as much as I hate small talk. It accomplishes nothing. It’s shallow. Give me something real, andmaybewe’ll get somewhere. Banks knows better, but he doesn’t care. Banks is about Banks, just like I am about me. We’re two swords constantly pointing at each other.

He looks toward the door, searching. “Where’s Chris?”

I sense a meow from Grumbles coming on, so I shake the carrier to remind her I’m here.You’re okay. We’re okay.

Banks makes a face at the absence of my brother. I’m back, soCalebmust be, too. It hadn’t crossed my mind that they might not know what happened to him ... five states away. He’ll never be back. He’ll never eat, talk, breathe again.

This gives me an edge. An advantage. An actual ghost I don’t have to talk about. So I roll my eyes instead. “Your dad already pulled that one. And why do you still do that?”

“It’s funny,” he defends again. He’s an offensive defender.

“It’s never funny.”

“And you never change.”

Oh but I have. I’m worse. Harder. Way less tolerant of this corn chip.

“The gang know you’re here?” He’s suddenly suspicious.

“Not yet,” I tell him grudgingly as I round him and the couch with my duffel back in hand. “And you’ll do well to letmetell them.”

“I will,” he promises.

Now I’m suspicious. Banks is a talker, a ruiner. I ask, “Why?”

He smirks at me. “We have a lot in common.”

I drop my duffel. “We havenothingin common.”

“Yeah, sure, okay, I’ll play along,” he says, way too amused for my liking. “We do now.”

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t care what he’s on about, and I wouldn’t ask, but I’ve been away for twelve months, and I have a gut feeling that this is something I need to know.

I make myself busy clearing off a spot on the coffee table for Grumbles’s carrier while I ask. Half-eaten bags of chips join the litter already on the floor. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m out,” he says with a bitter grin that I catch before setting Grumbles on the table. “Just like you. Tossed aside like I don’t even matter.” I straighten and eye him with a dark realization at the pouty afterthought.

No. No way. After all these years, after all of Banks’s shit, they wouldn’t just toss him aside now. What would be the point?

Side note: Nobody tossed me aside. I did the tossing.

“Yep,” he says, popping the p, and the affirmation cuts off my laugh.

You’ve got to be kidding.Banks is out. Shunned from the group. Why? I swallow the question. I don’t know and I don’t care. But he’s finally out and he now knows that I’m here, trying to get back in. He won’t take that lying down. He’ll be right behind me. If I can, why can’t he? This is my chance to have my friends back—Banks free, come to find out, and I blew that part by coming here first. His smug face juts upward, his eyes roving around in thought.

Whatever. We’re not in this together. Happy groveling.Alone.

He grips the back of the couch and I cross my arms. “Aren’t you gonna ask what happened?”

“Nope.” As far as I’m concerned,the gangfinally came to their senses.

Grumbles meows, loud, and Banks startles.

“And what do you have in there? A snake?”

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