Page 50 of Joey

“We’re staying,” Wald says.

“I thought you said you can’t stay?” Huck teases.

“I’ll make do. But Brooke brought her passport just in case.”

I look at Brooke and she’s staring at me, weird expression on her face. “What?” I say. “What’d he do?”

“How do you know I did something? Maybe Brooke did something?” Wald says.

“No.” I laugh. “It was you.”

“I kissed her,” Wald says.

“Oh, my God,” Brooke says, whirling around to face him. “What the fuck, Wald?”

“Oh,” I say, looking at Brooke. “Well… did you like it?”

She opens her mouth to say something. Closes it. Opens it again. Lets out a long exhale of breath. Then says, “Sure. I did. I liked it. So…” She throws up her hands. “He told me he’s going to fuck me—”

Huck guffaws.

“—and you’re not going to care because we’re not real. But then he said he can’t fuck me until you fuck me. So… I have no fucking idea how any fucking is going to happen.”

Huck laughs again. “I’ll fuck you. I’ll even go first.”

“Forget the fuckin’ fucking,” Wald says. “We have memories to make. Brooke, go put on some winter clothes. I want to see you sweat.”

And even though my life is kinda up in the air right now and my long-lost daughter comes with a lot of “it’s complicated,” I smile pretty big at Wald’s display of dominance and Brooke’s confused reaction.

Because this is the old us. This is the old Wald, and the old Huck, and maybe I’m even the old Joey.

This is how I fell in love with them as friends. Wald saying and doing weird shit to make people uncomfortable, Huck joking about it and going along, and me… I just kinda like to watch them play with people.

“So you’re OK with all this?” Brooke asks me.

I hunch up my shoulders in surrender. “Brooke, I have no say in this. You’re not my girlfriend. I didn’t even see you first. Huck did.”

“Fuckin’ A.” Huck laughs. “That’s right. She’s mine because I saw her first!”

“What the hell is going on here?” Brooke demands

“Uh… well,” I say. “It appears you’ve got yourself a team.”

“A tag team,” Huck says.

“Should I be afraid?” Brooke asks.

“Do you feel afraid?” I ask.

“Are you kidding? Do you even know who I am?”

We all laugh. Even Brooke.

“Oh, my God,” I say. “You sound just like Emma when she confronted Johnny.”

“Who’s Emma?” Brooke asks.

“My little brother’s girlfriend.” Then I look at Huck and Wald, because I never did tell them this. “There was all this fucking family drama up in the Bossy that night we came home last month and Johnny’s telling Emma she needs to walk away and forget about this shit. We all just need to go back where we came from and let it go. And Emma looks him straight in the eye and says, ‘Do you even know who I am?’” I laugh just thinking about it. “It was fucking classic.”