Page 76 of A Dead Man's B-Side
Wolf seemed to mistake my silence for something else, because he said, “Sorry, you don’t have to answer. It was inconsiderate of me to ask in the first place.”
He plucked the cigarette from my fingers and took a deep drag. Once he inhaled as much as he could, he spoke through a tight airway of smoke, his words coming out strained, “My dad was horrible growing up.” He said his next words quickly, “Not to compare or anything. Just… He just wasn’t a good person. And my mother was this shell I’d see the inside of once a year–if I was lucky.”
I tried not to let his description of his parents affect me, but in a way, maybe Ajax was right.
Do friends become friends because of their similarities, or because fate knows of the similarities they are yet to find out and brings them together?
“So, yeah, she just… wasn’t always there. I mean, she used to be. Apparently, she used to be quite the woman, strong-willed with a deep sense of justice, or so my grandfather says. But then my father happened, and now she can’t leave her bedroom without three different drugs in her system.”
His words struck a chord. “What… kind of drugs?”
He shrugged as if it were the most casual of conversation topics. “Prescription drugs, anti-depressants and that sort of stuff. I keep an eye on her intakes and ask that the staff do the same… But I can’t always be there.”
He let out a sigh so deep, I had become exhausted on his behalf. Then, it hit me.
Wolf’s father is dead, and from Callum’s words at the beginning of the year, Wolf was now responsible for his family, and that must mean the management of their source of wealth, whatever that may be.
I understood why he didn’t really bother making any friends that might take more of his time. Perhaps that explained the secrecy he kept around his dorm and its contents.
“At least you’re trying. After your father’s death and all. It must be hard.” My words were difficult to push out, and so they came out as whispers.
Wolf let his head fall back as he moved it from side to side in a massaging motion. “Yeah, but you know, one step at a time and all of that.”
I huffed out a quiet laugh that he followed in on.
He straightened and stole the almost finished cigarette from between my fingers again. “So, what was our young Sasha like as a child?”
The nickname made me flinch back into my memories. To the day I’d boarded that damned plane from New York.
“Where’d you come up with that nickname?”
Wolf continued to speak casually, ignorant of my inner turmoil, “I asked Madam Lavoisier, actually. I didn’t think ‘Alex’ was a good enough nickname, since it’s something anyone could call you. Plus, it’s closer to home.”
An abrupt laugh bubbled out of me at his last words, “Where do you think home is for me?”
Wolf tilted his head back and watched me as ifIwere the stupid one. “Uhm, Russia?”
I laughed again, this time harder. Wolf didn’t like that, though. In fact, I could still make out, despite the dim lamp’s glow coming from my desk, the red creeping up his cheeks as embarrassment overtook him. “What?… What! Stop laughing! Just tell me.”
I sobered up enough to say, “I wasbornand raised in America. Been there my whole life.”
Wolf reared back. “But–your accent…”
I shrugged. “I didn’t communicate much with others, mostly just my mother growing up, andshecame from Russia and had an accent, so… you can imagine the rest.”
My words must have sounded like the opening line of a tragedy, because Wolf didn’t speak for a long time after, and neither did I. We both fell into an awkward silence, and I didn’t know if what I’d said was the main cause.
I didn’t find it as awful as anyone else might have. Then again, I wasn’t a good judge of character when it came to things requiring deep emotional intelligence.
The cigarette finished a long time ago and I flicked it out the window, reaching for the pack to light another.
I’d barely taken a drag before Wolf’s soft tone sounded to my side, “This is the last one. We have to leave soon anyway.”
I scoffed, amused. “You’re not my keeper.”
For reasons I didn’t understand, those words jolted Wolf into action as he straightened and shoved me over, almost making me drop the cigarette out the window in the process. I dove only slightly into the night air to catch it. “That reminds me!”
“Watch it!” I held onto the wall and regained my balance with a scowl. “What’s your problem?”
