Chapter 13 #2
“Then get a fucking grip. This isn’t like you at all.”
I wanted to argue so fucking bad—just to get some of this anger off of my chest and tossed to an opponent who I knew could take it.
Silas and I were supposed to be perpetual bachelors for life.
We’d made that pact long before we’d both made it big in our respective careers and right around the time we were about to graduate college.
Avery hadn’t been keen on agreeing to the pact, finding it rather childish when it was far from that.
We were promising not to let something as stupid as dating and relationships get in the way of our friendship.
I’d seen too many people get wrapped up in trying to find ‘their person’ while dropping whatever relationships they had with their friends before that, finding it inconvenient to balance the two in a healthy way and instead made it the other party’s problem.
I never wanted to be like that. Lost in my own bubble of happiness that I forgot everyone else around me who helped me get there.
Relationships didn’t scare or terrify me, but I knew the damage they could do if left to their self-actualization.
Hence why getting involved with Blake in the first place was supposed to remain off limits. I’d made that decision day one and here I was, not even a week into this program, and I’d already gone back on my own promise.
Damn it.
“Yeah, you’re right.” I sighed.
“I know I am. The weekend’s coming up. You should come back to Ellington for a bit.”
“Can’t. Got to stay close to the property.” It was a grand idea, though.
Before this, Blake probably would’ve given me the all -clear to sneak off the property and covered for me, giving me the leeway because he still felt bad about my package getting mixed up with the wrong one and wanted to continue to make it right even if I was slightly taking advantage of the situation.
But now... now I really didn’t know where we stood.
My entire body ached.
“Okay, then I’ll come to you,” Silas said.
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah. I’ll drag Avery along.”
I smiled a little. “Good luck trying to peel him from Brandon’s side.”
“I have my ways. I’ll make it happen.”
I had no doubt about that. In fact, if anyone were to guilt Avery into spending time with us again, it was definitely Silas.
Glancing out the window again, and with still no sign of Blake coming back, I heaved a sigh.
Sitting around all weekend trying to distract myself while pretending not to look for Blake’s face in every crowd that passed by was going to be nearly impossible.
I’d wind up getting distracted and doing something stupid, like getting up on one of the adventure courses and plunging to my death because I wasn’t paying attention to how to properly strap myself into the harness.
It was going to be hard trying to talk the staff into letting me off the property for the weekend without somehow involving Blake, but that would just have to be my mission for the day—figuring out a way to get out of here with as little people noticing as possible.
The ideal solution would be no one noticing at all.
Unfortunately, role call was taken every morning, so that would be impossible.
Unless I got Talos to agree to marking me off for the weekend as long as I kept him in the loop of my location.
Would he tattle to Blake about it?
Probably. But hopefully that wasn’t until I was off the property and didn’t piss him off enough to not let me back on come Monday morning.
“All right, I’ll see what I can manage on my end,” I said. “No promises, but I’ll try to get out of here by dinner time.”
“I’ll be waiting with a car at the entrance. We can fake a grandparent’s death or something.”
I let out a dramatic gasp. “Silas, that’s asking for trouble from the spirits. They’ll haunt you for lying about the dead.”
“Okay, if I’m haunted by spirits, it’s not from dead grandparents unless you count the ones that die on my table.”
“How many grandparents have you killed?!”
“Intentionally or accidentally?” Obviously, he was joking. I wouldn’t be friends with a serial killer.
Unless, of course, he was like Dexter and did it in a vigilante sort of way. Then maybe I could excuse a murder or two.
“I’ll call you tonight.”
“You better,” he nipped. “If you forget, I’m calling the cops.”
“Yeah, okay, message received.” And he liked to call me the dramatic one. “See you later.”
“I better.”
Ending the call, I felt a weight slowly being lifted off my shoulders. There was still a lingering pain in my chest that probably wasn’t going to go away any time soon, but at least I had something to distract me for the next few days.
Even if it was most likely going to end with Silas and I drinking until Avery had to carry us out of there and to whatever local hotel we rented for the next few days.
Monday morning would come sooner than I wanted it to, but at least there was a high chance I wouldn’t be running into Blake. His youth program was supposed to start early next week, which he was no doubt going to be stressed out of his mind about up until the day the kids arrived.
That gave me the clear all next week to do whatever I wanted without accidentally having to have that awkward shuffle while he tried his best to avoid eye contact with me as much as possible and I tried to not grab him by the back of the shirt and haul him to the nearest secluded corner to shake the truth out of him.
Neither of us would get what we needed out of a confrontation like that, so things were best left as they were for now until I could actually cool the anger inside of me.
Perhaps by the end of this program, I’d be ready to have a civil conversation with him, but for now, I needed to avoid him at all costs.
Or else I was likely to do something way more stupid than I wanted to. The man deserved to run this camp in peace and without me barking up his tree demanding answers he probably didn’t even have.
Avoid. Forget about it. Move on.
That was what needed to happen.
That was what I needed to keep reminding myself.