My stomach turns and I start to feel worried. Justin and I make eye contact again, but he just shrugs.
“I have no idea what’s going on, but maybe we should go?”
I nod just as an address appears on his screen.
Justin removes his wallet from his pocket and leaves some cash on the table, enough to cover both of our drinks plus a generous tip.
“Where are you two kids off to?” Becca asks, voice slightly suspicious. I’m sure she’s thinking we’re taking off to hookup. Sadly, that’s not the case.
“We have to go get Owen out of some jam,” I say.
Becca frowns. “Is everything okay?”
Justin looks down at his phone again and what- ever he sees on the screen makes him shudder. Okay that is just weird, because I’ve never once in my entire life seen Justin shudder.
“It’s some type of sex emergency,” I whisper toward Becca.
“How exactly does one have a sex emergen- cy?” Becca asks, loud enough for the entire table to hear.
God bless drunk Becca. The girl has absolutely zero filter.
Teddy’s the one that answers. “It’s Owen, the dude’s inventive, what can I say?”
“Elise?” Justin asks and my gaze swings over to his. “We better go.”
“Right.” I nod.
I give Becca and Sara a quick hug.
“Call me later,” Becca requests just before Jus- tin and I head out.
I can tell she’s curious about what’s happen- ing, but honestly so am I, in a slightly morbid kind of way, because Owen is my brother, and there’s a solid chance that once I find out whatever this emergency is, I’ll be scarred for life. God, the things you do for family…
Since we’d planned to spend the night out drinking, neither of us has a car, and we have to catch a ride over to the address Owen indicated, but it doesn’t take us long to arrive since there’s no real traffic this time of night.
The car rolls to a stop in front of a brick apart- ment building, and while it doesn’t look like any- thing sinister, I’m suddenly even more worried than I was before.
“Is he okay? I’m kinda scared to go in there,” I say in a tentative voice to Justin as we step out of the car and onto the curb.
Justin chuckles, the sound low under his breath. “He’s fine. He’s a fucking idiot, but he’ll live.”
I swallow, and nod. Then I feel Justin’s hand close around mine and we start up the stairs for the third floor. It’s chilly out tonight and the staircase is open to the elements, so I pull my fleece jacket tighter around my body as we trudge up the steps.
We stop in front of apartment 316 and Justin knocks twice on the door before pushing it open.
The living room is empty, just a lonely beige- colored couch facing a flat screen TV. There’s a scratching post for a cat, and then an orange tabby cat appears from around the corner, eyeing us with curiosity.
This is so freaking weird.
“Justin? That you?” Owen’s voice calls out from a back bedroom.
“Yeah. It’s me and Elise is here too.”
“Fuck.” Owen curses from the other room. “She needs to wait outside.”
Justin’s gaze swings over to mine. “Well, you heard the man.”
What are we doing here? Part of me doesn’t
want to know, and the other half of me is dying to find out what my old brother has gotten himself into this time.
“Stay put, okay?” Justin says, releasing my hand with a faint squeeze.
I nod, feeling slightly terrified and slightly amused.
Justin disappears inside the bedroom and his sharp bark of laughter is immediate, followed by the sound of groaning. I hear them exchange a few words, but can’t make out what’s being said. That might be for the best, because I’m not sure I want to know what my big brother has gotten himself into this time.
When Justin emerges a few minutes later, Owen trails behind him, buttoning his jeans and throwing his sweatshirt on over his head.
Owen won’t meet my eyes, and I have the strangest feeling that something bad happened to him. As we follow Justin to the front door, I jog to catch up to him, touching his shoulder until he turns to face me.
“What happened, Owen? Is everything okay?” I ask.
Owen’s expression is more somber than I’ve ever seen it. “I feel violated.”
Justin chuckles. “Pretty sure you got what was coming to you.”
“What the hell is going on?” I press again for details, but they’re both moving again and I’m left with no choice but to follow.
“Let’s never speak of that again,” Owen says, closing the door behind us.
“Roger that,” Justin agrees as we begin de- scending the stairs.