Betrayed By You

Ch.41 - He's Gone

 My phone vibrated a few times before I really caught that it was a phone call. I was sleeping next to Angeline, so I knew it wouldn't be her. Sometimes she went for walks in the morning and got coffee or something and called to let me know she was coming back with something. She had some odd habits. Like breaking my brain by telling me she sleeps without pants in the summer. I pulled away from her and smiled, watching her stir. I kissed her head and she calmed down. I slipped out of our room and looked at my phone. Flint had called me.

I walked into the kitchen and called him back while I started fixing something to eat. Ange and I had worked the whole week before so we'd mostly ate out or had cold cuts. I settled on a sandwich and made a mental note to get some burgers and grill on one of our days off. We both didn't take the overtime this week because we wanted to spend more time together.

"Is this you?" He asked when he answered his phone.

"Of course. Ange would only answer if I told her to pick it up."

"It's done. Everything's taken care of."

"Alright. I was debating some things. Trying to figure out some meals. Anything you'd like?"

"Actually, I was wondering... Could... Could I..."

"Could you what?"

"Could I bring Hadley over so you could meet him?" I could hear his voice changing and knew that meant he was blushing on the other end.

"Yeah. Actually, why don't you both stop by tomorrow night? It's pizza night. You, Hadley, me, Ange. It's family game night."

"That... That sounds nice. I'll talk to him about it and I'll text you."

"Sounds good to me. Talk to you later?"

"Yeah. And Duval."

"Hmm?"

"Thanks. For everything."

"Don't thank me. It's just what I do. Just who I am."

"And you don't know how good you are. How appreciated you are. Someone needs to tell you more often."

"Believe me, I'm told frequently. Bye for now." We both hung up and I went back to fixing a sandwich.

Angeline walked into the kitchen, with pants on, and hugged me from behind while I made her a sandwich. "Maybe we should grill some time? Or pick up some of those pre-made, ready to microwave burgers."

"I had the same thought about grilling. We're going to the store today anyway, why don't we grill tonight?|

"Sounds like a plan to me. Anything I can do or get ready?"

"If you want to grab the chips down that'd be nice. Sandwiches are ready. They're just cold cuts, but they're something."

"We're out of some things. Do we have a grocery list ready or is that something we're making while eating so we're not making it on completely empty stomachs?" We both laughed.

"I thought maybe a little of both. Oh, we'll need extra pizza stuff. Two more people coming over tomorrow."

"Who?"

I grinned, "You'll see."

She grabbed the chips and our pen and paper from the fridge for our list and met me at the table. "So obviously burgers, pizza dough, pepperoni, sausage." She wrote down some of the things we already knew we needed to get.

"Eggs, bacon. Let's throw some brats on there too."

"For grilling tonight?" I nodded. "Cheddar, bacon, see what ones they have at the store?"

"Let's see what ones they have at the store before we decide. See what sounds best. They might have some new flavors."

"That would be interesting. What else do we need? Condiments."

"That usually takes care of it. Let me check how much sauce I have. Might need to make a new batch." I got up and checked the cabinet where I kept my special pizza sauce. I had enough containers to last a while, but I didn't always have the time to make more of it. "Add sauce ingredients too, please?"

"I'll have to write it just like that since I don't know what all goes into your sauce."

"That's okay. I'll be able to grab everything. I've made the sauce since I was a little kid, so I've got it down by heart." I sat back down and started eating, thinking about everything that had happened in the last few days.

My brother is dead and here I sit, eating a sandwich and talking with my girlfriend while making a list of the things we need at the store. Should I feel bad that I don't feel anything about my brother being dead? He threatened me, he cheated, and he had always been a bad person, but he was my brother. Was. Until he disowned me... If I start feeling bad about him I need to remember that he threatened me, cheated in our fight when we made an agreement that we wouldn't, and he disowned me. He hadn't been the brother I knew for a long time. By the time he died, he was a stranger.

"Du, are you alright? You don't seem like yourself today."

I nodded. "I got that call we'd been waiting for a while for."

"Ah. Missing him?"

"A little. More like missing the person he used to be. The brother I actually knew. Before all of this happened. Before it was him being a shifter. Before I became a werewolf."

"I think we all might have at least one good memory of Devlin. Or maybe a funny one. Maybe tomorrow night we could all sit down and remember him? Sort of a memorial service? Maybe before our guests get here?"

"I don't know what time they're coming, so they could get here before Sam and Luke."

"Then we have a memory party and just leave out anything about shifters or weres."

"You're absolutely brilliant, love."

"So are you." She got up and kissed my head before she went to take care of her plate. When she came back to the table we went back to planning the grocery list. I called Luke and she called Sam to check about pizza stuff. She said Sam seemed grateful for the distraction when she called.

"Probably working on a new story and got stuck on part of the plot. That seems to happen to him a lot."