"Knock knock!" Fitz announced as he walked in, cutting the thick string of our tension. "What's going on in here, hrm?"
In a blink, Wolf backed up from me and settled on the bed. Fitz waltzed over to him and picked up the wine bottle on the bedside table.
"Oh wow, you really chugged down tonight, huh? I guess it's a good change from your usual 'glowering alone in a corner' thing." Fitz fixed his smiley eyes on me. "It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact I told you Bee was coming, would it?"
"Fuck you," Wolf shot.
"So testy!" Fitz laughed, and winked at me. "Don't take it personally - he gets that way around people he likes."
Wolf fisted the collar of Fitz's gaudy shirt and stood up all in one swift movement, but Fitz never lost his smile.
"You're starting to grate on my nerves, Fitz." Wolf growled.
"I'm so tired of seeing you mope around for the past two years. Why can't you just admit it?" Fitz motioned to me. "She reminds you of Mark, doesn't she? The army jacket, the glasses, the head-stuck-up-their-own-nerdy-ass personality. Except this time around, she’s the one who wants to make out with -"
Wolf threw the punch so fast I only heard the smack of flesh-on-flesh. Fitz's head snapped to the side, his cheek bright red, but he turned and came back swinging, the smile never leaving his face. The Blackthorn boys scrabbled over the bed, kicking and punching and blocking. Fitz even laughed, like he was having the time of his life.
I was frozen to the spot, but someone behind me called out; 'Blackthorn fight!', and the stampede up the stairs as people pushed past me to watch was deafening. Fitz put up a good fight - Wolf's lip was bleeding - but his own face was already swelling with bruises. This was for real. Wolf was furious, the fire in his eyes now a towering inferno. People cheered, but I couldn't move, my stomach feeling sick. Why were they fighting? Because of me? If I wasn’t here, would they be -
A lumbering figure pushed through the crowd like a hot knife through butter - Burn. Wolf had Fitz pinned to the wall, but Burn walked over and separated them with his massive arms as easily as a child pulling two dolls apart.
"Enough," He said. Fitz lunged for Wolf through Burn, but Burn held him back, raising his voice for the first time I'd heard. "I said, that's enough!"
The sound echoed, everyone going silent, and Fitz and Wolf went limp. Burn turned to the crowd, glowering.
"Get out."
The party-goers didn't need to be told twice, and feeling somehow guilty, I shuttled out of the room with them. Excited chattering filled the air as we made our way downstairs.
"Did you see that? Wolf fucked him up!"
"I had no idea they didn't like each other - they're like, glued together at the hip."
"Brothers fight too, dumbass. It was only a matter of time."
"I wonder what they were fighting about?"
"What if Wolf gives a red-card to his own brother? How messed up would that be?"
"For fighting him? No way - red cards are always something way worse than that. Something that's super fucked up."
I collapsed on a couch, feeling somehow comatose. Everything Wolf and Fitz said started swirling in my head, until I couldn't make sense of it anymore. I remind Wolf of Mark. Wolf's pained face when he talked about Mark - I knew that look. It was heartbreak. Were Wolf and Mark -
"There you are, Bee!"
I looked up to see Kristin standing there, arms crossed.
"Geez, I've been looking all over for you. Are you okay? I heard you were there for the Blackthorn fight."
"I'm - I'm fine."
Kristin put her hand on my forehead, checking me over like she was looking for wounds. "Yeah, you seem okay, maybe a little shook up. Do you wanna talk about it?"
"I just - If it's okay with you, I just want to go home."
"Yeah, sure. Of course. Let me get you something to drink in the car, and we'll go."
She led me out of the house and into the quiet serenity of her Prius. She handed me a cold Sprite, and I nursed the sweet soda the rest of the way home. I didn't think it would help, but it did. By the time she pulled into my driveway and shut the engine off, I felt a little better.
"What happened?" She asked.
"I - " I shook my head. "Wolf and I talked, he said I was - burning myself at both ends for my dad. And a bunch of other stuff. Like he knew me. He thinks just because he read my essay he knows what I'm going through."
"He doesn't?" She blinked.
"No! I mean -" I looked at her. "Please, you've gotta tell me about Mark. Otherwise everything is just a jumbled mess and I'm so confused."
Kristin gnawed her lip. "Okay. It's mostly rumors, though."
"That's fine," I insisted. "I just need something right now. Anything."
She inhaled, steadying herself on the steering wheel. "Mark and Wolf went out. When they were freshman. Some people say it was four months, some people say it was the whole year."
"So," I said slowly. "Wolf's -"
"Gay, yeah." Kristin nodded. "But, before that Fitz told me he had a crush on Vanessa, in like, middle school, so maybe he's bi? I don't know. He doesn’t tell anyone. All I know is he and Mark were a thing for a while. It was big news because we never really dated outside of...us, you know? It's been Lakecrest kids, from kindergarten up until high school. So someone dating the scholarship kid, the new kid? It was weird to us."
"So the gay thing wasn't a big thing?"
"I mean, no," she shrugged. "Riley's gay, and there's Carter and Dreyon - it's not like Mark and Wolf were the only ones." She cut herself off. "They were just, like, total opposites, you know? We never in a million years thought they'd hit it off, but they did."
I moved my finger around the scarce few particles of dust on the dashboard. "What was Mark like? Do you remember?"
"Yeah, pretty well. Hard not to remember the scholarship kids. No offense."
"None taken."
"He was like -" She chewed her lip. "Mark was like, not really friendly. He didn't talk to anyone. But he was smart, and he studied a lot."