Page 18 of The Lost Kings

Presley

PRESENT

I stole Scotty’s phone.

He must have disabled the password, or he never set one up, which was possible because he frequently used burners. Didn’t matter. I had it, and I had finally succumbed to reading through the messages that had been forwarded to his phone ever since the twins left.

Anger was a twisted root around my heart as I thought back to what Scotty said. As if he didn’t play a role in how things ended with my two best friends. As if he hadn’t been the reason it all got messed up.

My thumb slid along the screen as I went back to the texts that had come in all those months ago.

They’d created a group chat and aside from calling, all the communication seemed to be there.

I clicked on the thread and began reading.

Kingston: Pres, can you please answer one of our calls.

Gio: We said some things that we need to explain…please answer the phone.

Kingston: Presley, please .

Gio: We need to explain why we left early…it wasn’t our choice.

Kingston: We’re both pretty fucked up not getting to say goodbye.

Kingston: we’re sorry, mi reina.

I scrolled down seeing more from the months that passed.

Gio: The stars out here where my uncle and aunt live are on another level, Pres. Wish you could see them. How are the stars back home?

Kingston: How’s my garden? I was hoping you wouldn’t mind keeping it alive for me. My mom would do it but she couldn’t keep a plant alive if my life literally depended on it. She’s a plant killer.

Gio: Please pick up, Pres.

Surely they would have texted me privately as there would be things they didn’t want the other to see. The more I swiped, the more I realized the only thing left was the group chat, and a few voicemails…which made me wonder if Scotty had deleted certain messages.

I swiped over to the voicemails and placed it on speaker phone so I could listen while I did my nightly skincare routine.

“Hey this is Kingston…I just was hoping to hear your voice. I know I have a lot to explain, Pres, but if you just give me the chance to do it then I will. I’ll tell you what I meant to say that night instead of how it all went down. I wish you’d just answer. Please pick up.”

The next voicemail started playing automatically.

“Pres, did you know that Kingston dream talks? It’s funny as hell.

He’s remembering a time that you lost your favorite stuffed cow and tried to help you find it.

I texted you the video so if you wanted to text me back about how funny it is, that would be cool.

But if not, then I get that too. Please just answer one of us. ”

I paused mid-drip as the face serum trickled down my face. There was no text with a video, which meant my assumption that Scotty had deleted messages was true. What had they said?

There were only two voicemails, one from each of them…surely there would have been more.

Just out of curiosity, I made my way down to the blocked callers and sure enough, there was an endless list of messages from each brother dating all the way back to the first week they left. I fought a smile and lost.

Once I finished up my skin routine, I snuggled under my covers and hit play.

I didn’t realize how much I missed their voices and how their laughs were so distinctly different.

Hours likely passed as each message played and the next started, until finally I drifted off to sleep to the sound of Kingston explaining exactly how all of this was indeed Scotty’s fault.

I fucking knew it.