Page 55 of Even in the Dark

“He’sfive years old!He’s set up a tattoo station at a party full of drunk teenagers!”

“It’s paper and water—he’s not brandishing anactual tattoo gun.”

I smack Xave’s arm and give him a look that hopefully conveys he needs to bring it down a notch. He’s being a jerk. It’s weird—the only people Xavier’s ever a jerk to are his parents and his brother’s nannies. I think he resents the nannies for playing the part of an actual parent. And his parents for hiring nannies to play their roles. And since, obviously, his parents aren’t around to weather that resentment, the nannies end up taking the brunt of it. Of course, my analysis could be entirely off base. It’s just a hunch.

The nanny narrows her eyes. “You’re drunk.”

“You’re a buzzkill,” he says, leveling up the jackass attitude instead of reining it in.

God, sometimes it almost seems like he tries even harder than Finn to get the nannies to quit. Like, he legitimately pushes their buttons so that if they don’t quit because of Finn’s unruly behavior, they’ll quit because of his.

Her nostrils flare. “Finn needs to go to bed, Xavier.”

“So go put him to bed. You’re the nanny, right?” He smirks. “I’m just the drunk big brother.”

She inhales a shocked breath. “You are reprehensible!” She purses her lips. “And I will be letting your father know about this party tomorrow morning. I know for a fact none of you are of legal drinking age.”

“You do that.” Xave slings his arm across my shoulders again and starts guiding me towards the hallway.

“You’re such a douchebag,” I tell him as we forge a path through the throngs of people, finally making it through the arches into the mirrored hallway with the custom family frescoes painted on the high arched ceiling.

“Technically, I’m only like ten percent douchebag.”

I laugh. That’s oddly accurate.

“So?” he pushes. “You have a thing for the Maytag Kid or what?”

“Wrong. We can’t stand each other.”

We round the corner into another arched cream and gold marble hallway. This one lined with six-foot high art niches displaying back-lit nude statues in brightly colored iridescent resin. Someone’s balanced a Patriot’s ball cap on the breast of a particularly curvy lime green temptress.

I glance up at Xave. “Have you met Dylan? Because if you have, you’ll know he’s a total asshole.”

“Yeah, I met him. But I’d be a dick if I judged him based on that.” He glances over at me. “I figure after everything with his past and the stuff he’s been through, he’s probably one of those guys who isn’tactuallyan asshole, but just acts like one.”

We’re in the east entryway now—a colossal cream marble atrium with a two-story domed glass ceiling. We stop in front of the bowl fountain filled with giant golden eggs.

“That makes no sense.”

“What do you mean?” He lifts his arm high, slowly tipping the contents of his Solo cup into the fountain. “Makes total sense.” He perches the cup upside-down on one of the eggs. “There are a lot more reasons for acting like an asshole than justbeingan actual asshole. And with all the issues this guy probably has, makes sense he’d have a ton of reasons for acting like a dick.”

Okay, I think I sort of know what he means.

In fact, I totally get what he means. And… he could be right? Maybe?

“Hey, will you tell Gavin I was tired and bailed early?”

Xavier pulls back. “Seriously? You’re asking me to tell your boyfriend you’re ditching him for some other guy?”

“I’m not ditching him for another guy. I’m going to check in with a guy who has no one his own age checking in with him.”

“So… ditching Gavin for another guy.”

I drag my hand through the fountain and splash water at him (and presumably, a small amount of beer, too—or whateverliquor was in his cup a few minutes ago). “Don’t go stirring stuff up, okay? You don’t need to mention Dylan. Just tell him I was getting tired and left early.”

“Did you even hang out with Gavin at all tonight?”

I didn’t. But, to be fair, Gavin didn’t come and seek me out either. Like I said, our relationship is transactional—a fair trade of perks and conveniences. Conversation and hanging out really don’t play much part in it.

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