Page 58 of Lake
“What do you need? I can get it.” Abigail said as she jumped to her feet and rushed to him.
“Don’t need you to get it. I got two hands that still work.”
“Dade,” Abigail said doing her best to push in and take over grabbing whatever he was reaching for.
“Goddammit, Abigail. Why the fuck haven’t you gone home yet?!” he roared.
Everything went still.
Even the air around me seemed to freeze.
“Because I’m your fucking sister and I care about your stupid ass!” she screamed back at him before any one of us could jump in.
And, well, it was really hard to hold back my laugh but I managed to. She wasn’t going to let him push her around and it was a shock. The Abigail that I’d come to know was sweet and maybe a bit timid. But it was clear when it came to her brother, which I assumed was why she was here now, she wasn’t going to take shit.
They were in a standoff, eyes locked on the others and it was like we were all waiting to see which one pulled their gun to shoot. In my mind, I saw a tumbleweed roll by.
“Sit down. I’ll bring you something.” Abigail turned her back to him, bumping him out of the way and causing him to stumble a little.
With a deep sigh, he turned and headed in our direction. He dropped down in the empty seat next to Chris and propped his crutches up against the table beside him.
“Why aren’t you wearing your temporary leg?” Abigail asked him making his eyes look up to her and shoot daggers in that direction.
I was pretty good at reading people and surroundings. Though it didn’t really take a genius to figure out what was going on here. Dade was not used to his situation, making me think that his loss was a fairly new one. He was still learning how to deal with his new life while trying to figure out his feelings on all of that. However it happened, I imagined that it couldn’t have been an easy thing. I didn’t blame him for the anger.
That said, I didn’t like him yelling at Abigail no matter the fact that she was his sister.
And it was clear that Abigail was here for him. I wasn’t sure how far away home was, but I got the sense that it wasn’t here.
“I didn’t feel like dealing with it right now,” he grumbled.
After the microwave dinged, Abigail brought over a plate of leftovers for him.
“I’m sorry,” he said looking down at the plate and I imagined it wasn’t something easy for him to say especially with a table full of people. “I love you.”
“I know,” she said cheerfully as if she’d already shaken off his mood. “Love you, too.”
It was comical how his hand holding a forkful of food paused in front of his hung open jaw as his eyes finally noticed me.
“Don’t know you,” he stated, eyes trying to figure me out for a split second before that food finally made it into his mouth.
“Lake’s girl,” Abigail supplied with a wink.
“Since when?” he asked with confusion ringing high in his tone.
“I’m not Lake’s girl,” I cut in before this all got out of hand.
“Did you fu-sleep with him?”
“Yeah,” I answered with an eye roll. It wasn’t like everyone else didn’t know.
“And you’re here drinking coffee and gabbin’ with the girls? And Chris. Sorry, man.”
“Yeah, so? I’m kind of stuck until Lake fixes my car.”
“That’s a level of respect that isn’t just given out. There’s a line drawn, it’s a clear one, too. One nighters get the boot right after, or if they are lucky, they get to stick around and make breakfast in the morning. But then their ass is out. Don’t have time for that shit. You sittin’ here, relaxed and genuinely seeming like you like everyone here at this table, that tells me that they’ve already accepted it. Nowyoujust need to.”
I really wanted to ask him what the fuck he was talking about because most of that shit went over my head.
