Page 69 of Extraction Play

Bitterness bubbled through her as she scanned the aisles for her brother.

“We’re done trying with you.”

Her mother’s words still haunted her. All her life, her mother had tried to push her into the mold she wanted Eva to fit into. She’d nitpicked and criticized her until she’d taken the first out she found.

When her parents had cut her out for being bi, that should’ve been more devastating—but she’d learned a long time ago they’d never have the family unit either of them wanted.

She and Micah were far from the heteronormative, cookie-cutter kids they’d wanted, and those were the stipulations for being accepted into the Abrams family.

Movement caught her eyes from farther into the shop. Past the rows and rows of old records was a line of open listening booths along the back wall. Considering there wasn’t a clash of music pouring through the store, the employees must’ve connected headphones to the turntable playing the records.

One lanky figure stood in the back with bulky headphones crushing his curls. Eva’s heart squeezed hard.

Pixie had been right.

She steeled herself for rejection. There was a good chance he might be too angry to talk, but she had to try anyway. Not because she owed him anything for being family—fuck that shit—no, because she genuinely loved Micah and didn’t want to lose him.

Eva strode up behind him and tapped his shoulder.

Micah’s shoulders jumped in surprise, and he glanced back. His brows drew together, and she tensed. This was when he’d send her away, tell her to get lost.

“What are you listening to?” she asked.

“The Clash,” he said, handing over the headphones.

Evaslipped them on, and the loud strains of “London Calling” blared in her ears. Micah had always needed to dramatically disappear into his feels when he reached his limits. He had just hidden that from their parents. Not like they would ever have been understanding. Her heart ached as the music poured over her, like a tether to the past and present in the same breath.

“How did we get like this?” She tugged the headphones off, the faint music still audible—just like their relationship. She only hoped the distant melody was enough.

Micah pressed his lips in a thin line. “Come on,” he said, tilting his head to the door. “Let’s go somewhere we can talk.”

Micah lifted a hand in a wave at the guy behind the front counter and stepped through the door. Eva followed, wiping her palms on the yoga pants for the thousandth time. These pants would be soggy before the end of this conversation.

The sunshine was sharp and exacting, burning down on them as they walked in silence. Eva had so much she wanted to say she wasn’t even sure where to begin.

That she was sorry for not spending more time with him.

That she wished she’d told him she was interested in Pixie.

That she still felt guilty every day for not coming to terms with her bisexuality sooner.

At the end of the block, Micah headed straight for a small park with a playground, a swing set, and a few slides. This early, it didn’t teem with people. Eva’s skin prickled with nerves. She hadn’t been to a park or a playground in years, which seemed like an oversight on her part. She’d been so involved in her relationship with Jack, then Sienna, trying to build a home for herself like she’d always wanted—except with the wrong people.

Wood chips crunched under her sneakers as she followed Micah to the yellow swing set. Micah plunked into the nearest swing. She sat on the one beside him. The slow creak of the chain sent her vaulting to years before, when she and Micah had just been swinging as hard as they could, trying to go high enough to touch the sky.

Eva kicked her feet up, getting the swing to pick up momentum. The longer the silence stretched between them, the more the guilt flooded through her. “I should’ve been there for you more growing up.”

“What do you mean?” Micah asked, his gaze shifting her way. His swing creaked as he joined her.

Fuck. She’d been sitting on this for a while. Ever since she’d started dating a woman for real, when she’d come out as bi. “You took the brunt of our parents’ shit for being queer. Those digs and comments through the years. I had an interest in both guys and girls from an early age, but my brain sort of…shut it down. Mom was constantly criticizing, to the point I hated every damn thing about myself, and the idea of adding something more to the stack?”

She swallowed hard, ignoring the burn behind her eyes. “I figured maybe I could shove down that side. Just date guys, be as normal as I could be. The longer it went on, the more the internal gatekeeping began. I was attracted to guys, so maybe the flare of attraction for girls was fake, maybe a girl crush. Fuck, I don’t know.”

A weight lifted from her shoulders at admitting all that aloud.

“Mom and Dad came down on me hard over the years, and I was never able to hide who I was,” Micah said, swinging back and forth beside her. “Never had the option.”

“I know,” she said, her voice hoarse. Her chest tightened.