Zenon's Game Chapter 167

"I'd offer you more wine but..." Annika raised the empty bottles and shook it.

It was dark outside but warm candles lit up the living room. The rest of the house was silent, as his parents were fast asleep.

Zenon stood in front of us, his tired blue eyes fixing onto me. He made a subtle motion of his head and I understood.

"I'm going up," he said, noticing that we were all drunk now.

"I'll come with you," I said, suddenly feeling a bit too tipsy for any sudden movements. So I suggested, "Maybe you can join us for a few minutes? It's not that late."

"It's 2AM."

"It's early," I agreed.

It's technically morning.

"Yeah, the evil stepmom's asleep and dad..." Jake said, resenting how much time Mr Albert spent with his favorite son. "Well Zenon, how about you tell us how dad's doing?"

"Sure," Zenon said coldly, "Maybe then you'll put an arm around me too."

Oops.

Jake had his arm around me, and Annika had her legs on Jake.

We'd all gotten a bit relaxed with our seating arrangement, though I hadn't even realized. It was a loose arm to be fair – mostly resting on the couch behind my head.

Because of the conflict with Jake previously, I understood why Zenon wasn't comfortable with this.

And to make the situation even more awkward, I needed Jake's help getting out of this position. The couch was so soft, I had practically sunk into it over the last hour.

"We were waiting for you to come back," I told Zenon, as I worked on getting up.

My boyfriend watched me and was not impressed by my struggle getting off the couch.

"We're not all athletes," I mumbled at him.

After today's drama with Art, Kaden and his father... Zenon was not patient. And dealing with the three of us tipsy, didn't help.

"Nah, we were having a good time!" Annika laughed, "A sad time at first, but then a good time."

"I won't ruin it," Zenon answered bluntly, not tempted to change his mood or join us.

He was annoyed and tired. Today had been a crazy long day.

But I didn't understand why Zenon had to be so cold to his brother. Why couldn't he see that Jake was hurting? His parents had failed him. Like it or not, Zenon was all he had.

Talking with Jake tonight made me realize how lonely he was. And I get it. I've been lonely too.

Jake snorted, "Fine. You've made it clear you want to leave, but does your girlfriend have to do what you do? Can't she decide?"

Oh Jake. I was really trying to help you for a minute there.

"She can," Zenon shrugged, not rising to the bait.

I was relieved Zenon took the mature route to diffuse the situation. But then, he added a sentence that lit a fuse on the whole conversation.

He added, "Wouldn't you like that."

Zenon. Effing. Albert.

Kissed goodbye to a peaceful night.

Annika gasped, realizing what that meant, "Candace! Did Jake like you like you?"

I didn't answer, but the embarrassment was written all over my face.

If I could climb a pyramid to undo everything I did wrong in the Jake-me-Zenon triangle, I would. One thousand times over. Unless it was illegal, which it probably is. Convenient.

Annika's gasp got louder in my guilty silence.

The brothers weren't on friendly terms before I came along, but I really hadn't helped the situation.

Then she whispered, "So no one in this family chose Jake over Zenon... including you?"

Oh, now the guilt really set in.

"I don't get it!" she exclaimed to all of us, "Jake is a dish. He's smoking hot, he sings like a heartthrob and-"

"It's OK, Annika," Jake tried to move on from the subject.

Annika's gasp got even louder still. She was inhaling so much air she almost turned purple.

She gasped, "Are you the girl from his English class? The one Jake's song is about?"

Sooo........ Annika's all caught up now.

One weekend with us and she knew the whole Zenon-Jake family back story, our almost love triangle and probably our entire life stories as well.

For the last few minutes, Annika had been the only one talking. The three of us remained in our motionless positions, all guilty of the bad relationship vibes we'd created.

All that we heard, was the sound of Annika slowly sliding from the couch to the floor amidst all her gasping.

"Nothing happened here," Jake told his brother, "So cut the self-righteous tone."

"Nothing happened," Zenon repeated with a smirk. "Let me guess what happened tonight. You told the girls a sob story so they'd fawn over-"

"Enough," I cut Zenon off.

I don't think I've ever taken this tone with him before. Both brothers were acting like kids, and I'd had enough. This is not something I can handle before coffee.

Jake was drunk and bitter at Zenon's behavior with him.

And Zenon was looking for a fight.

I get that he's angry by what happened today, and Kaden was too cowardly to make it a fair fight.

Jake, on the other hand, was strong. Maybe Zenon views fighting as therapy, but I did not.

"Have some compassion," I said, "How can Jake feel at home when he's living with the family that broke his? And when he has a brother like you who-"

"Who what?" Zenon tested me, "Are you going to take his side in this?"

"A brother who is a complete j*e*r*k to him," I finished off.

I've created enough tension between these two brothers that if I could do anything to make this better, then I will.