Page 21 of Stand By Me

"Fair enough," Andie mumbled.

Carina took another sip of her beer. "At least you haven't told his brother about it yet, so that's good, right?"

Mario grimaced. Ben had texted him on Wednesday night, complaining about Clay, who had apparently told him to fuck off, so no, Mario hadn't felt like it was the right time to clue Ben in on this latest development.

"Yeah." He took a sip of his water, because while he was drinking on a Monday night, the least he could do was to be responsible about it. "Maybe it's for the best, really," he said, unsure if he wanted to convince them or himself. "There's no way I can explain that to Ben and not have him explode."

"Let him explode," Carina told him. "Maybe that will get him off of his high horse."

"He's not that bad," Mario protested. He probably shouldn't have complained so much about Ben hating his brother to them. "He had a hard time after their father left."

Carina raised her eyebrows. "He's your age, right? Twenty-nine is way too old to use your parents as an excuse for your shitty behavior."

"And even if it wasn't, the same hard thing happened to Clay," Andie pointed out. "Why would it be okay for Ben to act shitty and not Clay?"

"I didn't say it was okay." Mario pointed his water glass at her. "All I meant was that Ben was likely to be pissed off at both of us when he found out."

"Let him."

Mario took another sip of his water.If only it was that easy.

But it didn't matter, anyway, since there was nothing for Ben to find out about.

"Okay, enough wallowing for the night. I'm gonna call a ride and go home," Mario announced, but when he pulled out his phone, a notification about a new text came in.

From Clay.

"It's him!" he said, probably a bit too loud but he didn't care.

Hey, I'm sorry for taking so long. I just had a lot going on.

The next one came a few seconds later.But I'd love to see you if you still want to?

Mario grinned at Carina and Andie. "It's him."

"What did he say?" Andie leaned closer to see for herself.

Mario read them the texts out loud and tapped the screen to reply.

"Na-ah." Carina covered it with her hand. "Shouldn't you make him wait now?"

Mario hesitated. She had a point. Texting back right away after five days of radio silence seemed desperate.

"Does it matter, though?" Andie scrunched her nose. "I hate these games. You want to text him, text him. You don't, then don't."

"But the rule about not texting while drunk should still stand," Carina insisted, not moving her hand.

Andie toasted her with her shot glass. "That, I agree with."

"Thank you," Carina told her, and Mario thought she'd meant it to be sarcastic but it came out fond instead.

"I'm not drunk," he tried to argue, but both women shook their heads.

"Drunk enough." Carina patted his hand. "Go home. You can text him tomorrow."

Andie hummed in agreement, and Mario slumped, capitulating.

Fine. He would wait.

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