Ready Or Not

It Would Be Bad

**Theo**

Lydia was well on her way to “forgiving” me. Her torso was draped across my lap, her feet over Daniel’s, and her arm around Anna’s shoulders as my little sister sat leaning back against the couch, covered in her various animal companions.

“You know what I think is bullshit about this movie?” Lydia asked.

I knew. She’s told me.

“Brad Pitt doesn’t look good enough shirtless to fuck your bestie over for, intentional or not. There’s no way you’re so blinded by his abs that you just leave a self-professed robber alone in your room.”

Anna chuckled. Daniel barely reacted. He’d been distracted all evening. He’d been at the office all day, and stayed late. I wanted to believe he was just tired, but I was getting the feeling there was something on his mind.

Lydia nodded. “Pretty faces come and go, but bitches who will drive into a canyon with you are forever.”

I pinched her and gestured to Daniel with my chin. Her eyebrows knitted together.

“Oh god, remember the time we drove that car into that ravine, Teodoro?”

I burst out laughing and Anna turned to us in surprise, sending her cat skittering away and earning her an annoyed look from the dog.

“I thought I’d heard every Thydia story!”

Daniel turned his head to look at Anna. “Thydia? Really?”

We’ve never driven into a ravine. Lydia has threatened to drive me into a canyon. Specifically, she has threatened to lock me into the trunk of a car and send it off a cliff. But we have not had that particular adventure together.

I looked very seriously at Anna. “No one has heard all the Thydia stories. Sometimes we do things we don’t remember until decades later. Sometimes we scrub shit from our memories. Things like… Alaska.”

Lydia had been giggling, but as I spoke she went stiff and silent. After a moment, she whispered “Alaska,” her eyes distant. She gave an exaggerated shudder and climbed all the way into my lap, pulling her feet off of Daniel and curling into a ball, burying her head in the crook of my neck as I pretended to soothe her.

“The fuck happened in Alaska?” Daniel asked.

Lydia unfolded herself and pulled her face away from me. “Nothing. I mean, Theo pissed off half of Anchorage, but I’m not really cut out for living that far north, so it was whatever.” She casually assumed her previous position, stretching her long body across both me and my fiance.

Anna grabbed a pillow and tried to beat us senseless with it, laughing. Daniel chuckled and shook his head, but went back to brooding. I was pretty sure by now that’s what he was doing. I’d talk to him once we left. If he wanted to talk, he would. I wasn’t going to force him to do it in front of our sisters.

Lydia grabbed the remote from the end table and turned off the end credits. It didn’t take her too long to surf through the channels and land on something that had us all sitting up a little straighter (those of us that were sitting, anyhow. Lydia just stiffened and stopped breathing).

An aerial shot of squad cars and black vans, and what looked a helluva lot like a SWAT team cornering one man. There was something off though. SWAT for one guy who was out in the open? And since when was their gear so bulky?

Daniel leaned forward, suddenly paying much more attention than he had to anything else all night. “Shit. It’s true.”

I was about to question him when the voice of a reporter carried through the TV speakers and bold text splashed across the bottom of the screen.