Page 139 of Restitution

“Meet you at the Graveyard” by Cleffy plays from Base’s phone while we sit around the coffee table. I try to sit up and fail, so I pull my phone out instead.

Me: Might miss lunch.

Me: I can barely see.

Me: Also, marry me? I have four hundred million in my bank. I can use that for a ring? Would that be enough? I know you don’t care about money but think of how fucking nice that diamond would be?

Me: Can you tell Luciella to talk to Base about all this pregnancy shit? He’s a mopey prick and annoying me.

Me: I nearly sent my mum a picture of my joint. Maybe I should call it quits and go to bed.

Me: Might miss supper.

Me: If you don’t get your phone from the bedroom and respond to me, I might just take your ass while you’re asleep.

Me: That sounded bad. Sorry. But please let me fuck your ass again. It’s very pretty, but it looks even better with my dick buried inside it. I’ll go slow and very, veryyyyyy gentle.

Me: This conversation is awfully one-sided, Freckles. I’m a little offended.

Ewan glances at my screen when I laugh at myself. “Oh, Jesus, Kade. I don’t need to see that vulgar crap.” He scoots away from me on the sofa. “You’re definitely your father’s son.”

I screw my face up at him. “Don’t look at my screen then.”

“What was it?” Dez asks, taking a huge hit from the bong.

Ewan shakes his head. “You don’t want to know.” He looks at me. “You might not be my blood, but I raised you from birth and you’re still my son. Please don’t show me that again.”

“You’re the one who looked at my phone!” I say again, laughing. “How stoned are you?”

Base chuckles deeply and passes the bong to me. “Are you asking to fuck Stacey’s ass again?”

I stop laughing and growl at him, packing the bowl of the bong and lighting it to take a hit. The rage I get when any of them mention her and something sexual is instant. Base read my texts to her last month, the same way Ewan absently did, and I got into an hour-long debate about giving and receiving, and he said I should definitely let Stacey peg me.

I punched him in the face for that one.

My haziness gets intense as I pass Ewan the bong, but he shakes his head and gives it to Dez. My phone dings, and I sigh in relief when I see Stacey’s reply.

Freckles: You’re cute. But you need to leave my ass alone. I couldn’t sit for a week last time, so no. I’m in our room now. Luciella’s with me. She’s taking one of the tests we had under the sink.

I gulp and look up at Base, slouched in his seat, ankle settled on his knee, elbow leaning on the armrest with his middle finger to his temple. He cut a line into his eyebrow the other day, and he weirdly suits it.

Me: And?

Five minutes later, she replies.

Freckles: Positive. I’ve never seen her cry like this.

Me: Hug her. But she needs to tell Base. He needs to be involved.

Freckles: She’s going to text him now. I miss you.

Dez leans back in his chair. “Tylar loves it. Sometimes she prefers anal.”

“So does—” Base pauses, looks at me and Ewan then shakes his head. “Never mind.”

I grimace.

Ewan stands. “I’m leaving before I hit one of you.”