Page 234 of The Sweetest Return

He understood. I hated that he understood.

“He’ll be busy,” I said. “Traveling. Back in that world. I may be traveling more for Saint Aurelia. And I know we’re older now. I know things are different. But the last time our lives got that big and demanding, we lost each other.”

“You didn’t lose each other because life got big.”

My eyes flicked toward the dashboard.

“You were young,” he said. “And both of you were scared.”

I swallowed.

Jabari sighed. “I never told you something.”

The way he said it changed the air in the car.

“What?”

“When you finally left Dre’s apartment after everything blew up, I went over there.”

My heart began to pound.

“You what?”

“I went to confront him.”

“Jabari.”

“You were destroyed, Mani. You came home looking like somebody had taken a piece out of you. I was mad. I didn’t know what he had said or done, but I knew my sister was hurting, and somebody needed to answer for it.”

The light ahead turned red.

I stopped harder than I should have.

“What happened?”

“Tee let me in.”

Of course Tee had. Dre and Tee had been nearly impossible to separate back then, two football players with too much charm, too much energy, and a refrigerator that never had enough food.

“He opened the door,” Jabari continued, “looked at me, and shook his head.”

“Tee did?”

“Yeah. He said, ‘Whatever you came to do, bruh, you probably ain’t gon’ need to.’”

My grip tightened.

“I thought Dre had somebody there,” Jabari said. “I was young and mad and ready to believe the worst. Half expected to find some girl in his room.”

My stomach dropped.

“But?”

“But I found Dre.”

His voice softened in a way I almost never heard.

“He was sitting on the floor beside his bed, back against the wall. Apartment dark except the lamp. Clothes everywhere. That Pittsburgh draft hat on the floor like he had thrown it. Bottle beside him.”