Carlton ✔

23| The Implausible Secret

He didn't sound very angry. Instead, he looked frustrated from fatigue. "It was dangerous."

He looked away, shaking his head as if disappointed. Pushing away from the ledge, he said, "I thought we were brothers. Seems you've got a new brother now." He pushed past me, bumping my shoulder on purpose.

I got furious, although embarrassment was flooding like poison in my blood. "You can't hate me for caring!"

Before leaving, he turned around. "If you keep lying to me, one day I won't believe a word that you say."

And he left, the glass door swinging rampantly after his exit.

I was dumbfounded, angry, frustrated. He was making it a bigger deal than it actually was!

Was he doing this only to annoy me? Because it was working.

But Dylan as I knew him, wouldn't purposefully annoy me.

I heard voices from behind the door just before Damien entered the terrace.

He pursed his lips, giving me an understanding smile. "I'm sorry. He'll be fine."

"I know." I closed my eyes. "But he needs to grow up."

Damien was pouring wine into the glasses I had brought. "He's probably worried that you don't understand him."

"Understand? What's there to understand?" I took the glass from him, giving it a little shake to observe the smooth texture of the elixir.

Damien was quiet for a while as he took a sip. "Don't worry. He just wants to support us. And I think that he looks at things way more differently than you do. He really values friendships and relationships."

"Are you saying that I don't value friendships and relationships?"

He paused, giving me a sharp, side look, confirming that I was serious. "I never said that. I said that you look at them differently."

"And how is that?"

He sighed, out of annoyance I suppose. Did I really annoy people that much? "I don't know."

"How do you look at them, Damien?" I challenged him, smirking at him while I sipped the ambrosial wine.

He was becoming shifty again, just like every single time I asked him a challenging question.

It was as if he was insecure about something all the time, and there was always something that he wanted to say, but didn't.

Secrets were good. I had secrets too.

But Damien's secrets felt as if they were making him insecure and antisocial.

He never liked hanging out with anyone. He never dated too much either. He was just so busy all the time and I might actually be the only friend in his life. And that was bad for his business.

"I..." He thought uneasily for a while. "I think emotional relationships of any kind are hard to understand."

"Why? They seem pretty easy to me." Okay, I should really shut up and let him talk. Maybe he would tell me what's hurting him. Then we would work on it together.

"Well...because...you don't know why the person means so much to you. I mean, they just keep pushing you away and they seem like the worst person ever but there's just something about them. I don't know." He was giddily scrunching his shoulders and looking up at the night sky dreamily.

I could relate. I felt that for Breanna all the time. Was there someone that Damien Price had his eyes on?

I giggled, staring at him all reddened. "Who is it?"