Page 111 of 16 Forever

“It’s okay.” Lincoln takes another sip. “I’msorry about you and Maggie.”

“Are you?”

Lincoln raises his eyebrows and looks around the room, as if he’s sayingYeeshto an imaginary studio audience. “Yes, CT. OfcourseI am.”

“Iknow you were annoyed by us being together. And Ialsoknow that you were fully aware I’d already dated and dumped Maggie’s older sister, but I guess that never seemed worth mentioning to me, huh?”

Lincoln groans and puts a hand over his face, looking pained. “I know. It’s... I’m just glad Maggie finally told you.”

“She didn’t! I found out by mistake.”

“Oh god.”

“You’re awake!” Dad says, peeking into the room from the kitchen. “The Cohen brothers, reunited!”

“That’s right,” Lincoln says. “Get ready forFargo 2.”

“Can I make you something to eat?” Dad asks me.

His fight with Mom from last night rises to the surface of my brain. I push it down.

“Eggs? Pancakes?”

“I’m good,” I say. “I’ll get myself something in a minute. Also, happy birthday.”

“Thanks, bud.”

I’m weirdly jealous of how simple his birthday gets to be. He wakes up, he’s a year older. Easy. Dad goes back into the kitchen and says something to Mom. Thankfully, the vibes between them seem pretty chill.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Vivian,” Lincoln says, tugging at both ends of his hood’s drawstring. “I wanted to, but...”

“But what?”

“Well, last summer with Maggie, when that first happened, I felt like,Oh man, Carter needs to know he dated her older sister.But then... I don’t know. You just seemed so happy.”

“Oh.”

“Like, happy in a way I hadn’t seen you in a long time. So I didn’t want to ruin that, you know?”

I nod, but I only feel more infuriated. I don’t need to hear about how happy I was with Maggie. “So what about this time? Why lie to me this time?”

“I wasn’t trying to lie!” Lincoln stands up from the couch andpaces away, then back toward me. “I didn’t think it was my place to tell you if Maggie wasn’t going to, you know? Maybe that was wrong. I don’t know! This whole time, CT, again and again, year after year, I’m trying to help you. But it feels like whatever I do just seems to piss you off!”

“How about trying to behonest!” I shout, rising to my feet. “It’s not that hard. Just say,Hey, bro, you actually dumped Maggie’s sister, Vivian, and then all this shit started, so maybe there’s a connection there! Maybe apologizing could help all this!That would be a GREAT thing to say!”

“That wouldn’t do anything!” Lincoln shouts.

“You don’t know that,” I say. “It might!”

“Idoknow, CT! That’s not the reason you’re stuck.”

He says it so confidently, it’s almost confusing.

“How do you—What?”

“You’re not stuck because you dumped Vivian Spear.” Lincoln floats down to the couch, as if he’s just opened a parachute. “You’re stuck because of me.”

Lincoln