Lyrik groaned when he picked up his cards.
“Looks like you’ve perfected that poker face.” I lifted a brow, taunted him a little, because the guy couldn’t win if he cheated.
He tossed his cards facedown on the table. “Damn it. I fold.”
Zee cracked up. “God, dude, I’m going to own you in about ten minutes if you keep that up. You might as well pass over the pin to your bank account.”
Lyrik leaned over the table and swatted Zee’s cards out of his hand. “There…you lose this round, too.”
“You’re just pissed someone half your age is kicking your ass.”
“Half my age?” Lyrik flew out of his chair, knocking it back, and lunged for Zee. “It’s your ass that’s getting kicked. You’re going down, buddy.”
Zee howled with laughter as he jumped from his chair and sprang back into the open area of the kitchen, bouncing around on his toes as he gestured with his hands for Lyrik to come and get him. The two of them boxed at each other, not really throwing blows, just messing around the way they always did.
“Come on, old man. You can do better than that,” Zee taunted when he ducked and Lyrik’s lazy punch landed nothing but air, and Ash and I were stifling our laughter at Zee’s over-confidence, because there was no doubt Lyrik could take him down in a second flat. Dude was not one to be fucked with.
But Lyrik would let Zee get away with murder. Hell, he’d probably help him.
Of course Zee was only five years younger than the rest of us. Twenty-one. Sometimes it felt like he was ages younger, still filled with all kinds of wide-eyed innocence, like he hadn’t yet come to accept the cold, hard truth of this world. You’d think after Mark, it would have hit him. But no. Here he was, living life to its fullest even when it threatened to suck the life out of the rest of us.
The two of them ended up on the floor, wrestling around like ten year olds, before Zee finally called “uncle”.
“That’s what I thought.” Lyrik shot him a gloating grin and sat back on his haunches, while Zee pushed up to sitting, gasping for breath, then just turned around and dug it in a little more. “Still got all your money, asshole.”
Like any of us needed to worry about money.
Ash started shuffling for another hand, before he slapped the deck down in frustration. “I’m about to go out of my mind over here. Let’s get out of here. I can’t stay holed up in this house any longer.”
“Not sure that’s the best idea.” Since when had I become the voice of reason? But we hadn’t been out as a group since we got here. Individually? Sure. But it seemed more conspicuous if the four of us went strutting around together, just begging for attention.
It was pretty clear that voice of reason was concerned about one person and one person only, the girl who still looked at me as if I was just a regular guy who’d walked in from off the streets.
“Why not? No one has even batted an eye my direction anytime I’ve run into town. I think we’re good to go grab a drink. That’s it. No fuckery,” Ash reasoned.
Lyrik and Zee both nodded, and Lyrik spoke up. “Yeah, no worries, we’ll keep it cool. We just need a breather from these walls before we go redrum on your ass.”
I scrubbed my palm over my mouth, feeling put on the spot.
Zee looked at me, lifted his chin. “Where have you been sneaking off to every night? Something out there has to be interesting to keep your attention for this long.”
Interesting.
That term didn’t even come close to describing Shea.
I lifted a casual shoulder, while my blood pressure shot up by about a hundred points. “Nah. It’s just a bar where Anthony hangs out at when he’s in town. It’s cool. There’s usually live music.”
“Hell, yeah. Let’s go check it out. Anything is better than this,” Lyrik said, climbing to his feet and flinging back the jet-black hair clinging to his face.
Ash stood and drained his beer. “Let’s do it.”
Zee grabbed the keys to the Suburban. “I’ll drive.”