Claire nodded. "It's how he shows love. I've told him a bunch of times that just saying 'I love you' is a lot less strain on the back." She laughed and tucked her hair behind her ear. It was funny, but up until recently I had never noticed how much she looked like her brothers. Specifically her oldest one. Her hair was lighter, but they shared the same hazel eyes that went green depending on what they were wearing and today she was wearing a fuchsia sweater that made them look very green. Just like Jonah.
He really was a good looking guy. Too bad he was a complete dick.
Luckily Claire had no idea I was thinking these thoughts about her brother. She flicked unseeing through her menu. "The shed is almost empty. It's going to be weird not having anyone live there."
"You think you might move in?" Sadie asked. Claire had been sighing about needing her own place, especially since her brothers kept showing up unexpectedly.
Claire closed the menu. "Maybe. I'm not sure. Finn and Beau were making noises about it."
"You should have first dibs," Willa seethed in solidarity. "For once."
"You'd think that, but..." Claire trailed off and we all fell silent for a moment.
When the Kings started singing at festivals, it was always with Claire in tow. She had a bright, clear voice, a kind of piercing siren's call like Neko Case or Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine.
But when the Kings were discovered, it was by a manager with eyes on the next big boy band. In spite of her dreams of singing with her family, Claire was passed over just for being a girl.
Sexism strikes again.
"I might move out entirely," Claire went on. "It's kind of silly now. My parents and I, we're just roommates, anyway."
"Roommates who do your laundry," I grinned.
"Yeah, see now that's definitely a perk I'll miss if I move out." She twisted her napkin and lowered her voice in that way she had of making us all lean in. "I can't really see moving into the shed though, you know? That's Uncle Gid's place. And before that..."
"It's where your brothers practiced," I finished. I kept thinking about her brothers. Brother.
She nodded. "It's like I'm not allowed in there, you know?"
"Bullshit," Willa almost shouted, just in time for Sunni to come over to take our orders. We all froze like my students caught talking out of turn.
Sunni glowered and just held up her pen and pad of paper. "Green curry," she said to me, and it sounded like an accusation, especially accompanied by the stabbing of her pen.
"Yes, um, no bell peppers either," I stammered.
"Yes yes, no peppers," she sneered. "I know. Next?"
"You're so weird," Sadie whispered at me. "How can you not like peppers?"
"If you don't cut it out, I'll make you eat a mushroom," I whispered back.
She tried to ignore me as she argued with Sunni that no she wasn't actually having the pineapple fried rice today, she wanted the Massuman curry, but the faint greenish tinge to her face let me know my jibe had landed home. Just the idea of mushrooms was enough to make Sadie dry heave.
Willa knew better than to argue with Sunni and just let her write down 'the usual' without any idea of what she might actually receive. But Claire seemed tuned out when it came to her turn.
"What would you like?" Sunni repeated, somehow making four polite words sound like a curse.
"Did you order already?" Claire asked, looking at me.
"No bell peppers," I repeated, with a hesitant smile. "Remember? We went through this."
"Oh. Right." Claire looked at her menu again like it held some kind of answer for her. Her lips were pursed into little lines of distress.
"You liked the stir fry last time," I prompted, nodded my head as I did so. It was the same kind of encouragement I'd give to a kindergartner struggling to figure out how to hold a pencil.
"Right," Claire sighed in clear relief. "Stir fry is good."
When Sunni had stomped off I reached across the table and closed her hand in mine. "You okay there, Claire-Bear?"
"I'm fine. Just..."
"Gid?" I asked.
She looked at me and her face fell a little. "Now I feel bad. I was just going to tell you guys about what happened to Jonah."
I clamped my lips shut again and tried to look like I had no idea what she was talking about.
"He's still here?" Willa asked, sounded derisive. "I would have thought he would have blown this two-horse town by now."
"Hey, we have at least seven horses," Sadie deadpanned, sipping her overly sweet Thai iced tea and then spooning even more sweetener into it. Sadie was a sugar hound. I often accused her of being a hummingbird.
"No he hasn't," Claire sighed. "Because his manager fired him."
Sadie sputtered into her drink. Willa's mouth just fell open and I had to duck away before Claire could see my complete lack of shock.
"What the hell was he thinking?" Willa immediately demanded, suddenly on Jonah's side in all this. "Did he suffer a brain injury or something? That's Jonah fucking King."
Claire gave a small grin. "I don't know. It's not like Jojo told me." Her grin widened. "I was totally eavesdropping through the hole in the wall."
"You never grow up, do you?"
"Little brat forever," Claire said with such misguided dignity that I had to laugh.
"Poor Jonah." Sadie was still stuck on the idea of Jonah being fired from anything. "What's he going to do?"
"He should take up knitting," I said, just because I sometimes can't prevent my mouth from moving.
Claire gave me an odd look. "Oh my god, can you even imagine the poor sap trying to teach him? He'd be insisting he knew what he was doing even before he picked up the needles."
The memory of how quietly he had sat there and allowed me to wind my yarn made me want to speak up. To defend him. That maybe this version of Jonah King wasn't the same overbearing asshole we all loved to trash talk about. As much as I'd had my eye out for that asshole, I hadn't actually encountered him yet. After a few days reflection, I had to admit that ordering for me was not the huge problem I'd made it out to be. I had been hungry. I had been looking for the waitress. I could see why he thought he should get an order in. He'd been trying to do the right thing.
The truth was I had no idea what it was about Jonah that made me so angry with him all the time. It was like reality and the idea of him kept clashing together and the result was me feeling motion sick and really grumpy about it too.
But Willa and Sadie were already laughing, miming Jonah picking up knitting needles and pretending they were guitars or drumsticks. I fell silent and sipped my jasmine tea, wondering why the hell I wasn't joining in with the trash talk.
Claire noticed immediately of course. "Now it's my turn to ask you if you're okay, Ruby-Roo," she said, poking me with her finger. "You okay over there?"
I straightened up. "I should have told you, sorry. Donovan volunteered me to head up the Spring Play."
A variety of emotions passed across her face. "Really?" she said softly.