The Things We Hide at Home by Nem Rowan

Author:Nem Rowan [Rowan, Nem]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Published: 2020-01-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

The rain had passed by the time I left work, but it was dark and gloomy, thick clouds amassing in blankets of grey, blocking out any stray rays of sunshine. The air was damp and a shiver ran through me as I pulled up to a stoplight in the rush hour traffic, turning down the volume on the radio and snapping my phone into its hands-free mount so I could make a call. The ring-tone repeated as I took off the handbrake and moved forward several metres before the lights turned red again, forcing me to pull up behind the car in front.

“Hello?” Gerard’s voice answered on the loudspeaker.

“Hey, it’s Tenny,” I replied before stuffing several pieces of chewing gum into my mouth.

“Hey, what’s up?” he inquired. I could hear music playing in the background.

“Not much. Just wanted to check in. So, a little bird told me you went out for dinner with Growler last night.”

“Oh, yeah, who was that?”

“I saw a selfie of you two.” I smiled amusedly even though he couldn’t see me.

“Yeah, we went out with some friends. Nothing exciting,” he stated nonchalantly. I heard someone else’s voice in the background asking who he was talking to.

“Is Growler there with you right now?” I questioned mischievously. The thought of them dating seemed bizarre since Gerard had never implied he was interested in boys, but I guess looks could be deceiving. I grew up with him always stating that he was “into the ladies,” so the thought of him suddenly being into my best friend, who also happens to be male, certainly came as a surprise. I figured that Growler practically looked like a girl anyway, especially if you saw him from behind, so maybe I should have seen it coming. Maybe Gerard was attracted to femininity itself, not gender. If anything, it made me love my big brother even more.

“He might be.” Gerard had a slight chuckle in his voice.

“Oh, come on, I can hear him in the background.”

The phone made a clacking sound, and next thing I knew, Growler spoke to me. “Just so you know, I’m not doing anything with your brother that you wouldn’t, so you can leave us alone now. You don’t have to check up on us!”

“You’re on hands-free,” Gerard grunted nearby.

“I wasn’t checking up on you. You just incriminated yourself anyway. If you’d kept quiet, I wouldn’t have known you were there!” I laughed, following the traffic as it funnelled off one main road and onto another.

“You were checking up on us—”

“Come off it, you wanted him to know you’re here,” Gerard cut him off and I heard a smacking sound and both started laughing.

I laughed with them. “Well, you have my blessings if you are up to no good. I’m meeting up with Vanessa tomorrow night—do you guys wanna come?”

“Well, we’ve actually got something planned for Friday night, so we’ll have to pass on that,” Gerard confessed awkwardly. It was the first time I’d ever heard my brother sound embarrassed.

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