Page 71 of Desperate Haste

The irritating way Hank is drumming his fingers along the top of the table.

How my heart is pounding so hard in my chest I’m convinced the guys can hear it from where they’re sitting.

It’s like every sound has been turned up several notches and it’s making it impossible to focus on anything else.

“Ohhh, nicely done, Tolith. With that roll, you escape the underground prison. Denis, it’s your turn,” Kolbi instructs, speaking to me but I can’t reply because my head is too preoccupied with everything going on around me.

“Can you please tell her to stop?” I groan with my head in my hand and my eyes squeezed shut. My ears are becoming overwhelmed with the blaring noises of the house and it feels like they’re about to bleed.

“What did you say?” Kolbi asks.

“Isaid, can you please tell her to stop?” I look up and bark at him. His eyes go wide as he looks at me from across the table, and Conrad and Hank both glance between us.

“Make who stop, brother? What the hell are you talking about?”

“Her.” My chin juts towards the kitchen where we see Ms. Ruthie wiping down the counters with a cloth like she always does once she puts away whatever dessert she’s made for the night before retiring to her own living space off the back of the house. “It’s insufferable.”

“Dude, you can hardly hear her.” Conrad’s voice reeks of skepticism and I feel the strong urge to hit him.

“Really? Because it sounds like she’s sawing wood to me. And the girls, can someone tell them to fucking turn it down?”

“Hey, lighten up man. They’re not bothering anyone,” Hank chastises and he looks like he wants to hit me.I fucking dare him. There’s nothing I’d love more than to throw a fist or two right now.

“Malcolm, are you okay, brother?” Kolbi asks and when I look at him, I can see it in his eyes. The concern. The worry. I wish people would stop looking at me like that.

“Of course I’m okay, why is everyone asking me that today?” I cross my arms defensively in front of my chest and look anywhere but my friends.

“Uhh, maybe because you’re being a massive fucking tool right now?” I hear Conrad scoff under his breath and it snaps something in me. I stand from my chair so quickly it falls over behind me as I tower over him.

“You gotta fuckin’ problem, man? Say it to my face instead of being a goddamn pussy and mumbling it under your breath like a five year old,” I shout at him.

“Hey, lay off, Malcolm,” Kolbi scolds, standing from his own chair. He might have several inches on me but I’m not afraid of him. I’d take him in a heartbeat just like I would Hank.

“No, I’m tired of this asshole acting like he’s better than all of us when he’s not,” I bark at him before turning my sights back on Conrad.

“Listen here,Connie, I don’t know where you get off acting like a pretentious asshole all the time, but newsflash, you’re just as fucked up as the rest of us. You might have been able to play the dead parents card all you wanted as a kid to gain sympathy and get away with being a fucking prick all the time but that card has been revoked. It’s a good thing the three of us came along to save your ass when we did or you would have been alone for the rest of your goddamn life.”

“Malcolm,enough.” Hank is now standing from his chair, glowering next to me.

“Oh, you wanna get in on this, too, Hanky? Wanna talk about how your dad beat the shit out of you so you ran away and joined the Army? How fucking high and mighty of you.” I scoff at him.

“You fucking asshole.” He starts to lunge at me and I brace myself for a fight when the sound of a thick Southern drawl cuts through the tension like a knife.

“What the hell is going on here?” Hank’s hands are gripping the collar of my shirt and my face is screwed up into a snarl as Bailey and Magnolia walk into the dining room. Her hands are on her hips and she is looking at all of us like an angry school teacher who just found her students dicking around when they are supposed to be taking a test. We’re all frozen where we are, breathing heavily after things had quickly gotten out of hand.

“Nothing, nothing is going on here.” I pull Hank’s hands off me and snatch my jacket off of the back of my chair. “I’m out of here.”

“Malcolm, wait, come back here,” I hear Kolbi call out as I reach the front door and yank it open. But instead of turning around and going back inside, I slam the door behind me and head for my truck.

36

OPHELIA

“It was crazy, Ophie. I’ve never seen them act like that before.”

My fingers squeeze around the fork I’m holding as I sit with my friend on the patio of one of our favorite bistros for lunch. She’d called me yesterday to ask if I’d heard from Malcolm—I hadn’t—and asked me if I wanted to meet her for lunch today. With it being Friday, I don’t have that much on my schedule, so making a lunch date with my best friend was easy.

“What sparked the fight? Do you know?” I question, resting my arms against the edge of the teak table. I set the fork down as I’m suddenly not very hungry after she told me about the fight that went down at game night on Wednesday.

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