Page 31 of Alphas Like Us
I whisper, “What’shappening?”
“Three SUVs,” he whispers back, Winona between us who can probably hear. “Akara is yelling at Quinn to relax. He’s gettingamped.”
Winona shakes cracker crumbs into her palm. “I still likeXander.”
Alright… “Someone explain this, please,” Isay.
Ben takes a tight breath. “You all remember how I used to bring Xander to the school’s hockey games, sometimessoccer?”
That seems like forever ago. Ben Cobalt is a social butterfly the exactoppositeof my brother, but they somehow got along. To be in Xander’s life, you have to wedge yourself in there, and Ben always snuckin.
Up until about a yearago.
Their “falling out”happened.
“You said you two grew apart,” I remember. It made sense. They were getting older, but Ben was one of the only people who could get Xander out of the house. And my brother has been more recluse since he lost Ben as a friend, but I never thought Ben actually disliked Xander. They just don’t talk that muchanymore.
“That’s not really why,” Ben says. “I mean, we did grow apart, but…” He tries to increase his windshield wiper speed. “I stopped bringing Xander to school events after somethinghappened.”
Somethinghappened.
And my brother didn’t tell me. And I wasn’t there for him. Guilt tries to roil inside me, because if he was hurt or in some kind of worsepain…
Charlie hooks his sunglasses on his shirt. “That’s not vague atall.”
Ben side-eyes him before switching lanes to bypass an SUV. “Sorry I’m not using excessive adjectives and nouns to your liking.” He looks back at Farrow through the rearview mirror. “If you don’t know by now, Charlie thinks I’mdangerously naïveto the point of stupidity, and he wastes no opportunity to remindme.”
Farrow pops another bubble in his mouth. “Cobalts are somethingelse.”
Ben glances quickly at Charlie. “Nowthat’svague.”
Charlie pulls at his hair. “I wouldn’t expect anything more from someone who believes Maximoff is boyfriendmaterial.”
Ouch.
Gotta give it to Charlie, he knows myinsecurities.
“Jealous that he’s in a relationship?” Farrow asks easily while lifting his boot to the seat and balancing his arm on his knee. His confidence isradiating.
Charlie glares back at Farrow with a look that saysyou’rewrong.
Farrow combats him with a harder stare that saysI’mright.
I wish Janie were here to help us stay on track. “What happened?” I ask Ben and Winona. “Did Xander gethurt?”
“Not exactly,” Winona says, brushing crumbs off herlap.
“I was friends with these guys at school,” Ben clarifies as heaccelerates.
“Ben is friends with everyone,” Winonarephrases.
“Yeah, but when I brought Xander along, I always introduced him to these people that I thought he’d like…Is that apap?”
“On your right,” Farrow confirms as three SUVs line up to obstruct Ben from taking anexit.
“Speed up,” I suggest. Since that’s the only way he can pass the cars and get off thehighway.
Ben scoots forward, his visibility terrible as rain pelts the windshield. “It’s basically hailing. I can’t speedup.”
