Page 3 of Sam & Justin

Luckily, my phone buzzed and kept me from stalking a high school crush. Normally, I might have ignored Axel’s text to go out and have a few beers. It was getting late, and I had to be up early in the morning for work. Giving therapy to at-risk youth while hungover seemed a touch hypocritical and like it just might be a recipe for disaster. But if I stayed home, I’d probably give into temptation and cyberstalk my former tutor.

I told him I’d meet him at the Rusty Nail in twenty minutes.

I changed out of my sweats to a pair of jeans and headed over to meet up with Axel. He was already at the bar, perched up on a barstool, talking to some blonde chick I’d seen at his tattoo shop a few times. I could tell by his body language that they were flirting, and I was tempted to back out the door and send a text that something came up. The only thing that stopped me was him noticing me and waving me over. I slid onto the empty barstool on Axel’s other side and joined in the small talk until the blonde excused herself to get back to her friends.

Axel’s head was practically on backwards watching her go back to a table of giggling women.

“You know, I can head out if you wanted to take her home,” I offered when he finally turned back toward me.

He grinned. “Nah, me and Lana have a good thing going.”

That was news to me. I raised an eyebrow at him. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, been hooking up for a few months now.” He had a shit-eating grin on his face. “If we wanna get together later, we’ll figure it out.” He flagged down the bartender for another beer like his news was nothing.

“How come I’m only just now hearing about this?”

“Never asked,” he said with a shrug.

Guess he had a point. Most of the time, I didn’t bother asking him who he was seeing. I figured if he had something worth sharing, he’d have shared it already. It wasn’t like he was known for being particularly shy. I’d heard more stories about his bedroom antics than I ever wanted to in the years since I met him at this same bar, shortly after I got to King’s Bay. It wasn’t entirely one-sided either. He’d heard a lot about my ex when me and him started seeing each other.

He hadn’t heard a lot in the three years since we broke up though, mainly because there wasn’t a lot to tell.

“So, tell me about this thing with Lana? Serious?”

He shook his head. “Nah, man, we’re not serious. Just hooking up. She just got out of a shit situation last year, and she’s not looking for anything real.”

“And you are?”

“Not looking, but you know I’m not gonna turn it down if it comes my way.”

That was one area where me and Axel had always differed. He was always there taking chances. I used to be like that when I was younger, but time had changed things. I wasn’t the reckless little shit I’d once been. Wasn’t sure I was even that guy when Iwasthat guy. I was just pissed at the world and kind of hated myself. I’d grown out of that, and when I had, I’d left behind a lot of the other shit.

I didn’t have the samelaissez-faireattitude toward life that Axel did.

Didn’t really know how the hell he did it.

He told me a little bit more about him and Lana. He didn’t go into too many details, which was weird. I was starting to think that things might not be as casual between the two of them as he was acting, but I knew better than to say that shit. He’d figure it out on his own time. It was the same as with my clients. It was important to let them come to the answers themselves. But unlike with my clients, I didn’t have a reason to guide him toward the obvious conclusions.

“Anything new in your life?” Axel asked after we exhausted the subject.

“High school reunion’s coming up,” I told him with a frown. “Been thinking back to high school a lot.”

“Wasn’t that shit last year?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Nah, I was a dumb kid. Took me five years to graduate.”

“You thinking of going?”

I sighed. “Not sure what the point would be,” I admitted. “Wasn’t really friends with a lot of people at my school, and I wasn’t a huge fan of Gomillion.”

He’d heard a few stories about my past. He’d been the one to pick up the pieces after I’d come out to my dad, when he kicked me out and told me I wasn’t his son anymore. I hadn’t had a tight relationship with him even when I was younger, but it still hurt. Axel had come over and found me drunk in the living room of my shitty apartment. He made sure I didn’t drown in a pool of my own vomit. I told him a bit that night. Hell, maybe I’d told him more than a bit. Memories of that night were cloudy, but we’d come out the other side with an unshakable bond.

“I think you should go,” he said after a few thoughtful sips of his beer.

“Why the fuck would I want to go?”

“Show them that you’re not the same guy you used to be.” I raised an eyebrow. “You told me that you were the kind of guy that no one thought would go anywhere, right?” I nodded. “You’re not him anymore. You have your own fucking practice, man. You went to fucking grad school, and you got your shit together. You even have a nice ass apartment.”