Page 65 of Inevitable
“In that case, I rescued us all from being silently judged and criticized for an hour or two.” Bas crossed his own arms across his chest.
“How am I ever going to patch things up with them if you can’t give them the benefit of the doubt?” Drew snapped.
Bas rolled his eyes.
“She accidentally ran into you. It wasn’t like she called you and purposefully asked you to meet them.”
“She’s trying. People make mistakes, and it’s damn hard to make it better. Sometimes you need to meet somebody halfway there.”
“You were seventeen, and they just stopped giving a fuck! It’s really generous of you to jot it down as just a mistake.”
“Does it mean they can’t learn and make better choices and regret and want to fix things? You can’t just hold a grudge for eternity.”
“Watch me,” Bas replied.
Drew sighed and shook his head.
“I know you want to protect me, but this is not the way to do it. I want to have at least some kind of a relationship with my family. But I wouldn’t expect you to understand that.”
Bas narrowed his eyes.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Drew looked like he wanted to take his words back, but then he lifted his chin.
“You’ve never really gotten what it’s like to have a disapproving family. It’s easy to be all high and mighty when you’ve lost nothing. It’s easy to claim you would cut off all contact when there’s no real danger you’ll ever have to deal with something like that yourself.”
“That’s not fair, and you know it.”
“Isn’t it?” Drew shot back.
Bas’s jaw clenched.
“Well then. How about this for my full support. How about we throw a big party? I’ll invite my parents, and you can give your folks a call, and then we could all have a fucking banger of a time together like one big, happy family! Hey, maybe Ezra will want to join in on the fun, too? Bring his family on board.”
Bas glanced at Ezra, who was looking at him and Drew with wide eyes.
“Umm… the ones who aren’t in prison would probably take off with everything valuable that wasn’t nailed to the walls, so I doubt you’d want them there.” What was probably meant as some sort of a self-deprecating statement fell flat on its face.
Ezra’s shoulders were hunched, and Bas immediately felt like shit, which made him even more pissed at Drew.
“Great,” Drew snapped, still staring at Bas. “I assume you plan to be an insensitive asshole at that party of yours, too?”
Bas opened and closed his mouth for a couple of moments. Anger didn’t leave room for empathy. At that moment, all Bas wanted was to cause the same hurt and damage with his words as Drew had. But then his eyes flew over to Ezra, who looked completely torn. A fraction of clarity forced him to move before even more hurtful words could be flung.
“Sure. Run away, why don’t you? That’s the part you’re good at,” Drew called after him.
“Oh fuck you!” Bas snapped and stormed out of there.
21
Drew dragged his hands through his hair as he watched Bas disappear behind the corner.
“Damn it,” he muttered to himself.
Ezra had no idea what to do. He had no idea what was going on. Well, he could deduce some of it based on what he’d just heard, but he had no context and no shared history to draw upon, so he was still lost.
Drew turned toward Ezra. “Listen, I’ve got to go to the office for a while. I’ve got some papers I need to sign and, yeah… urgent stuff.”