Devil's Gambit

Chapter 4

"Bro, I waited for you outside your house and you never showed. What the fuck's up with that?"

Harley rolled his eyes. "I told you multiple times that I wasn't going to stay there after I turned eighteen. I'm living with my brother now." He picked up his sandwich, ripping off the crust before taking a bite. The other boy grabbed at the scraps, murmuring about how eating the bread crusts gives you shiny hair. They stood at the island in his best friend's rather ornate kitchen, eating their lunch of seeded, whole-grain bread with organic, preservative-free peanut butter and the purest, unpasteurized honey produced only by bees kept by local farmers, who likely consume nothing that isn't grown in or harvested from their own backyard. Harley was certain their sandwiches were probably eight dollars each given the expenses of each ingredient used to make them.

"Well, if you had a phone you could have reminded me. I turned down sex with Michelle to celebrate your birthday," Harley's friend, Jonas, pouted childishly. He and his girlfriend were always on each other, on top of each other, behind each other; any position imaginable they've probably tried it. They had more sex than rabbits on stimulants.

"I'm poor," Harley said monotonously, giving Jonas a deadpanned look.

"We're all a little poor compared to the one percent."

"Well, I'm orphaned child poor."

"Are you technically an orphan if your dad's still alive, just incarcerated?"

The deathly glare Harley gave Jonas was enough to wipe the shit-eating grin off his face and move on to other, more acceptable topics of conversation. "Whatever. I have a phone now anyway."

"Really? No shit. You buy it yourself?"

"Nah, my brother got it for me. Said he wanted to make sure I could get a hold of him if I needed to."

"Wow, your brother sounds like a really cool person."

"Yeah. . . He is," Harley mumbled, for the first time in his life not feeling very keen on talking about Axel.

"How's it going living with your brother?" Jonas asked, painfully unaware of Harley's discomfort surrounding the subject.

Harley sighed disdainfully, closing his eyes in acceptance that Jonas wouldn't so easily switch conversation topics. "Pretty shit, honestly."

His best friend frowned, harshly shoving a chip in his mouth and chewing aggressively. "What do you mean? You've been waiting to get away from your aunt for years."

"I know, it's just-" Harley pursed his lips, staring down at the table. "It's a big change, so it's difficult even if it's something I really wanted. My brother lives with multiple other people, so I have to figure out how to coexist with lots of personalities. And this one guy. . . I don't know what his problem is, but I think he hates my guts for some reason."

"Who is he? What happened?" Jonas was leaning in closer now, ever the sucker for dramatics in other people's lives. His cushy Northside life didn't provide much for interesting stories.

"I think he's like my brother's best friend, I overheard them talking one night, and they seemed close. But they were arguing... about me. And then at breakfast this morning, things got a little heated between me and Lucas, and Axel stepped in. He pretty much told his own friend that when it came to me, nothing else mattered. You should have seen the look on the guy's face, Jonas. He looked like someone ran over his dog," Harley huffed, sinking further into the granite counter. Jonas let out a low whistle, shaking his head.

"Dude, my feelings would be hurt as hell if my best friend said that. I can't blame him for hating you."

"I know! I can't blame him either exactly, but I still don't like him because he's a complete dick to me. Technically I haven't done anything to him."