Page 9 of Revived (Lucky Ones #1)
Chapter five
Sullivan Byrne
T he sound of shoes rhythmically smacking the unforgiving concrete lulls me into a sense of relaxation. That is until Dom opens his big mouth to argue with Xavier about which shark is superior. I swear they’ll argue over how paint dries if we let them.
“Shut up!” Flynn exclaims in exasperation. “I do not care about how one of you thinks that tiger sharks are better than hammerheads.”
Dom and X both look at Flynn like his outburst just came out of nowhere instead of being fed up listening to them argue for half of our five mile run.
“Well, you don’t have to be so aggressive about it.” Dom mutters under his breath.
Knox laughs loudly at the exchange. “Come on, we still have two and a half miles to go, and I have plans to get back to.”
“So her name is ‘plans’… interesting name. But who am I to judge?” Flynn pokes at him.
“Her name is no one’s concern. However, what we’re about to do in my house is all of mine, so less talking, more running.”
He picks up his pace, which means all of us do too.
We started running together in the mornings back in high school and never stopped.
Elle has an open invitation to come with us, but she never takes it.
She says we’re too noisy and we take her out of her ‘zen.’ I don’t really understand what she means, but she means it all the same.
She was still sound asleep when we left this morning at five, and I’ll bet she will still be asleep when we get back right around six.
She’ll get up at around seven and set off on her run.
Sometimes her girlfriends will go with her, but a lot of the time it’s just her and her thoughts.
I tried that once and it wasn’t my thing.
Turns out that I like the sound of everyone else talking and joking around.
Dom makes a dramatic noise like he’s going to die if we keep going. “I hate this shit. Why do we do this?”
Out of all of us, he hates running the most. Which is such an anomaly seeing as he plays lacrosse in not one but two professional leagues.
“So we don’t get replaced by the new guys. You trying to lose the ‘C’ to a fresh twenty-one year old?” Knox asks with a raised brow.
“We’re twenty-six!” He laughs. “We aren’t exactly old. My ‘C’ is secure, and I’m not insecure about my performance on or off the field. But I’ve hated this run since high school. I just want to sleep.”
“Then sleep!” Xavier cuts in. “No one is twisting your arm to come with us. You could just simply not meet us outside.”
“You know my FOMO would never allow that.” Dom scoffs like X is being unreasonable.
“Then stop complaining and come on. The more you bitch, the longer it takes.” Flynn grumbles.
“Well, someone’s not happy.” Dom smirks, zeroing in on his next target.
“Someone is hungover as fuck and wants to get back in bed.” Flynn snaps.
Flynn partied pretty hard when Annie first died.
I was concerned, but about eight months later he snapped out of it.
Now he only gets concerningly drunk when he goes out with the team after a big win.
Honestly, I’ll take it versus all the times he called me drunk and begged me to come down here and help him.
It’s the reason I left Corey Heights in the first place, not that our brothers know that.
We needed to be together. We always have.
Being apart sucked ass, but being apart when I knew he was grieving in a new city without me for the first time was almost unbearable.
There was also that little fact that all the guys were down here and Elle was leaving to go to the gym in Pine Springs.
The decision really made itself. So I came down here, we all bought houses on the same street, and here we are.
We finally round the corner onto our street just as the burn in my hamstrings becomes more painful than comfortable.
I run in front of everyone else. As soon as my shoes touch my front lawn, I roll and land flat on my back.
My lungs scream for more oxygen while my dry throat begs for water.
My lungs win out and in less than ten seconds, more bodies litter my lawn.
No one speaks as we all pant like dogs to catch our breath.
Flynn produces water bottles from somewhere magical and tosses them to all of us one by one before he lowers himself to the grass and draws up his knees.
He looks like shit. A gray tint to his skin, sweat pouring out of his body more so than the rest of us, and an expression that tells me he’s going to go barf behind my bushes… cool…
“If you’re going to puke, do it in your own yard. Or better yet, inside your own bathroom.” He flips me off while giving me a sarcastic grin.
“That’s it. I’m not doing this shit tomorrow.” Dom wheezes like he’s going to die on us right here.
“Yeah, sure. See you in the morning, Dom!” X shouts as he jumps up to his feet and tosses a goodbye at us before making his way home .
He’s right. Dom says this every single morning. He’ll be the first one in front of my house in the morning. He bitches the entire way, but he’d never miss this time in the mornings that we carve out for just the five of us. It’s how our friendship has lasted this long; we prioritize each other.
We all make our way to our feet before separating for the day. We’ll meet back here in the morning, but in the meantime I’ve got shit to do before the dinner from hell tonight.
***
My head is all over the place as I mess up and have to refix my tie for the fifth time since getting dressed.
The press knows who the hell I am. Of course they do.
It’s well known that Flynn and I are identical twins, and it’s also well known that the Byrne four have younger identical twin brothers.
They did a great job shielding us from the press aspect of it, but I have a feeling that the four of them being in DC tonight is about to blow up the box we put them in when we left.
You can’t see the Byrnes watching another Byrne on the ice and not connect the dots.
Flynn and I ended up with the lightest eyes and hair of the bunch, so our similarities to our brothers are more easily concealed.
Luckily we’re going to some restaurant that they’ve rented out, so no one will see me or Elle there with them.
More important than me not being connected to them is her keeping her anonymity.
She goes by Elena Rory in the gymnastics world, and no one would dare connect her back to the ‘ Theo Rossi of Jersey City.’ Which also means she, under no circumstances, can be connected to the BOCG Byrnes.
I’m fixing my tie for the sixth time when Flynn walks into my bedroom all dressed to go to the rink. Most of his hair is hidden by his navy beanie, which is such a contradiction to the navy slacks, light blue button up, brown loafers, and thick navy topcoat he wears. I didn’t even hear him come in.
“Twintuition told me that you’d be in here freaking out and messing up your tie.” Without a word he takes the ends of the tie from my hands and begins making the Windsor knot that we’ve been doing since we were about five.
“I’m not freaking out.” I grumble.
“Right, you just forgot how to do something we’ve been doing since Kindergarten for funsies. Got it.” He smirks as he finishes up the knot.
“Okay, fine. I’m nervous. It’s one thing to wear my typical clothes and go sit in the stands cheering you on at least once a week.
Hell, I don’t even mind when they throw me up on the jumbotron and show everyone your clone is in the stands.
It’s just a whole other ordeal when I have to do dinner and the game with them .
I have to get dressed in the way that I now despise and act like them. I don’t want to do that.”
“Yeah, that’s what’s bothering you. It’s not at all about Elena being so close to them and the possibility of being caught by cameras.”
“So you mean to tell me you aren’t even the least bit concerned?” I raise a challenging eyebrow while looking into eyes that mimic my own so closely.
“I never said all that. I just know that the suite they have is tinted. A detail someone conveniently left out for you. No one will be able to see you. You know Rowan wouldn’t do that shit against your wishes.” He gives me a face that says use your brain, idiot .
“I don’t know, Flynn. He’s pissed that we reject them so much.”
“Yeah, well I’m pissed that they inadvertently killed the love of my life. So they can deal with it, or I’ll cut them off completely. Makes no difference to me.” He shrugs like it really is no big deal for him to do.
Flynn’s tried extremely hard to leave Jersey in Jersey.
He rarely answers calls from anyone except for the girls and the kids.
I guess I’m not much different in that department, but our reasons are different.
I’m trying to keep them away from the life I built here so it can’t be ruined.
Flynn’s running from the ghost of Annie and every single person who had a connection to her, with the exception of me and our best friends.
“It’ll be fine. Elle and I will be there, and you won’t have to be alone with any of them.”
He smiles sadly. “Thank you, Sul. I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better spare.”
And just like that… Moment ruined.
“Shut the hell up. You’re two minutes older. I don’t think that calls for an heir and a spare analogy.” I playfully push his shoulder. He’s such an asshole when he’s trying to lighten the mood.
“Two minutes or two years. Older is older, brother-man.” He quickly skips out of the way of my fist swinging out half-heartedly. “No, but seriously. You look good, Sul. Elle will be drooling over you all night.”
I can’t help the laugh that bubbles out. “You’re an idiot. It’s just a black suit, and have you met her? She’s going to go all out for this because she loves dressing up.”
The ringtone that’s set for Elle’s dexcom goes off, drawing both of our eyes to each other.