Page 41 of The Devil's Embrace

“Heathe specifically made a point of telling me you’d asked him to do it.” Cal ignored the way both Amory and Mitri looked at him. He’d wanted to keep details like those to himself. They’d already been wondering before why he’d insisted on not pressing charges. Did it make sense to them now, or only make them think he should have done so more?

“Here.” Nero unstrapped his multi-slate and clicked the screen, pulling up flight details. “Proof I only just flew in late last night.” He held it out to him. “Feel free to go through my messages. I haven’t spoken to Heathe in years. That guy, like all my other so called friends, ditched me shortly after your trial ended and there was no longer anyone to publicly hate on.”

Amory rubbed his arm comfortingly, and Nero smiled at her.

“Except you,” he added a bit more softly. “Thanks, A. Your messages every birthday were greatly appreciated.”

If this were true, it sounded like Nero hadn’t had any easier of a time than Cal had.

“The diner is closed.” He motioned toward it with his chin, and then pointed across the street at the small café. “We can get a coffee? I don’t have a lot of time but…I would like to talk.”

“Great. Yeah, that’s perfect.”

And public.

But neither of them pointed that out as they crossed the street.

* * *

“It was all the way in Hurb galaxy,” Nero said as they both sipped their lattes at a table by the front window of the shop.

On the other side of the street, Amory and Mitri were both helping clear the place, though it wasn’t in either of their job descriptions.

Were they worried for Cal or Nero?

“Took over three years for the nanites to repair all of it, but,” Nero held out his arms and grinned, “they did it.”

“I’m happy for you.” He really was, and if he was also happy for himself? So what. That didn’t have to say anything about him one way or the other. “So that’s it? You haven’t experienced any side effects or anything, right?”

“Nope, I’m one hundred percent. Good as new, as my doc said the day I was able to run again.”

“Wow.” Calix gulped a few sips, grateful for the way the too-hot brew burned his throat on the way down. What was he so nervous about? Why did he feel like he was about to jump out of his own skin?

“It’s a miracle, isn’t it? How advanced we are?”

“It’s definitely something.”

Nero lost some of his luster and picked at the plastic rim of his to-go cup. “Look, man, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry. I was a total ass to you in school. The worst part is, I didn’t even really have a reason to be.”

“You didn’t like me,” Calix said matter-of-factly.

“I didn’t like how easy it was for you,” he corrected. “There you were, just coasting through it all, while I was struggling to keep myself afloat. Sports, friends, grades…balancing all that shit just got to be too much, and for some reason, whenever I saw you laugh with our classmates but turn down an invitation to hang out, that pissed me off.”

“Are you trying to tell me you were jealous?” Cal pursed his lips. That had never occurred to him before.

“I’m not trying, that’s what I’m doing.” He sighed. “Clearly a bad job of it, huh? Anyway, I’m an adult now, and I’vesince learned that we’re all responsible for our own emotions and actions. There were a million other ways I could have dealt with my negative feelings that didn’t involve pouring rotten milk into your backpack or spreading rumors about you.”

Those rumors had been half the reason the public had turned on him so easily after the accident, but Calix didn’t bother pointing that out.

Because Nero was right.

They weren’t kids anymore.

“You didn’t exactly have an easy time after the accident either,” Cal ended up saying instead. “It must have been really difficult.”

“To go from being super active to unable to even wipe my own ass?” Nero chuckled. “Yeah, man, it sucked. I’ll tell you though, the worst part? That was watching all of my so-called friends turn their backs on me. I meant it earlier. Amory and, like, one or two other people are the only ones who kept in touch with me. That’s why I blew off the reunion. Originally, I was going to try to make it back for that, but then I realized, why bother? Everyone here is a two-faced prick.”

Cal smirked. “Well, on that we can agree.”

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