Under a Silent Moon

29

Chapter Twenty-Nine: A Good Day

LANA

"Lana!" I smile at Blake's voice. "Where are you?"

"Hey, I'm at the river. What's up?"

"The river? Why are you at the river when your brother came home specifically to hang out with his little sister?"

I'm on my feet then, extending a hand to help Zack up.

"I'm coming home now. See you soon."

I tell Zack that my brother's home and I want him to come with me. He agrees as long as he doesn't have to sneak in through the window anymore. I laugh and tell him about my brother. I tell him that Blake is selfless and charming. He's talented and has the same sense of humor that I do. I relay the story of when Blake gifted Terrence to me, blue ribbon and all.

As we walk along the road parallel to the river, Zack suddenly becomes quiet and his pace slows dramatically. I stop walking entirely and turn to him. "What's going on?"

"I'm hungry," he says, and I almost tell him that he can join us for dinner when the realization hits me.

"Oh."

He looks sad, genuinely sad. He tells me to walk ahead of him, following the road, and that he'll be right back. Swiftly, he disappears into the thicket of trees and I start to hum loudly, not wanting to think about what's happening only a few yards away.

Lucky for me, Zack is stealthy, and when he returns to my side there's no indication of what just occurred. He checks his face in the reflection of his phone, and smiles coyly at me. "I'm sorry."

"You can't help it," I tell him. I believe my words, but still can't ignore the lump that's formed in my throat. Morbidly, I wonder how it must taste. How does it feel to drain the life out of a living thing? I shudder.

We walk in silence for a couple of minutes when Zack makes a blatant effort to lighten the mood. "I'm sure Blake is used to the trail of lovesick boys you bring home. So meeting me isn't going to be any different than the usual, right?"

An abrupt laugh escapes me at the absurdity of that statement. "I've never introduced him to a boy before. I think he may pass out."

I realize how lame that sounds as a junior in high school, but Zack pays no mind to that.

"So are we, like, dating?" he asks excitedly, entwining his hand in mine and forcing us to skip happily along the tree line. After a couple of skips, I keel over, winded.

After catching my breath, Zack laughs and insists that I need more cardio in my life. He chases me the rest of the way to my house. By the time we make it to my block, he's basically carrying me to the porch as I laugh breathlessly.

I realize Zack's never officially met my mom and sister when we make our way up the front stairs. I warn him about them, and apologize in advance if they're rude, but he waves away my concern. "They can't have more of an attitude problem than you, and I deal with you just fine" he says, dodging my jabs at his rib cage.

Amanda's lounging against the couch when Zack and I enter, but her eyes are only on us for a second before shifting slightly to the right. Before I can say a word of greeting, Blake sneaks out from behind the front door, wrapping his arms around my waist and hoisting me upwards. "Long time, no see, little sis," he says, at last allowing my feet to find the floor again.

My sister eyes us with discontent but I ignore her.

Zack shakes Blake's hand, introducing himself. Blake smiles and says, "You look a lot taller in person than in the pictures Lana sent me."

I cradle my head in my hands, blood rushing to my cheeks. "Oh. My. God."

"Kidding, kidding. Nice to meet you, man," Blake says genuinely.

Out of sheer formalities, I introduce Amanda to Zack as well. She dramatically scans him from head to toe, and then looks at me with confusion so obvious it's nearly palpable in the air.

Mom's in the kitchen--cooking for Blake, of course--and as we saunter through the living room, Blake begins an anecdote about his trip home and how he nearly crashed into a family of deer stranded on the freeway.

When Mom sees us coming, she plasters on a forced smile. A contribution to her Perfect Mother narrative.

"It's nice to meet you," she says to Zack, but her words don't match her tone. It's apparent that the sight of Zack in person rattles her after only seeing his "missing" poster for months. Her smile doesn't reach her eyes, and I think she knows this because she immediately turns away to continue dinner preparations.

The three of us slide into seats at the kitchen table, followed quickly by Amanda. I'm going to slap her if she keeps staring at Zack like that.

Mom carefully sets out the dishes of food on the table, and I don't miss the way her eyes shoot daggers at me from over Blake's head. I can hear what she's saying with only one look: You could've told me you were bringing a guest.

Blake and Zack become consumed in their own conversation, leaving Amanda and I eating silently across from each other as Mom fiddles with something at the sink. I accidentally bump my leg against Zack's and, eyes still on my brother, he sets a hand on my knee and squeezes lightly. I grin, shoving a spoonful of mashed potatoes into my mouth. My appetite's more intense than usual.

To my surprise, when I look up from my plate, my sister's looking at me.

In a low voice, she says, "He's cute."

Taken aback, I blink at her and reply, "I know."

This elicits a smile from Amanda, and it takes me a second to register that she and I just had a bonding moment.

This is a good day.

After dinner, Blake insists that we play board games as a family. Mom busies herself with cleaning the kitchen, which leaves Blake, Amanda, me, and Zack huddled around a game of Sorry on the living room coffee table.

It isn't often that my family and I do things together, and I find that I kind of like it. Maybe Blake will host more game nights when he's back from college.

Blake's winning, of course, but Zack is right on his trail. Amanda and I exchange eye rolls as the boys lightheartedly bicker between themselves. I'm not very competitive, so it matters less to me who ends up winning. Zack's whole high school career revolves around winning, so it's basically ingrained in his psyche. Blake played baseball in high school, so his eagerness to win is elevated as well.

Amanda ends up beating us all. Blake attacks her with a pillow as she laughs maniacally, her forearms taking the brunt of his onslaught.

As the night comes to a close, the musical I'm in gets brought up by Zack, who lets me know he will be attending our first practice tomorrow.

"Wait, you got a part in the musical?" Blake asks, a smile growing on his face.

"You didn't tell your family?!" Zack asks, incredulous.

"It never came up, I guess," I say. "Yeah, we're doing Hamilton this year. Carly and I got a lead."

"What's Hamilton?" Amanda asks.

"It's about the first Secretary of the Treasury and the founding of our nation."

Amanda makes a face. "Sounds boring."

I glance at Zack with an expression that says This is why I didn't tell my family.

"Well I think that's amazing," Blake tells me, pulling me into a brotherly hug.

"You tried out for the musical?" Mom asks from the kitchen doorway. I had no idea she was there, and wonder how long she's been watching us.

"Yeah," I tell her.

"That's interesting," she remarks. She makes a move to retreat upstairs, but before doing so, adds, "Let me know when the show dates are."

Zack raises his eyebrows at me, winks.

"Me too," Blake says, chucking a Sorry game piece at me.