“Fuck you, Theron. What do you want? What will it take for you to be gone because I can't deal with you right now.”

His lips move into the shape of a smile, but there’s darkness behind it. “It’s what everyone wants to know. How to get rid of Theron for good.” He looks around the room, eyes falling on the decanter of scotch against the far wall, and stands. “You ever get tired of it?” he asks, moving toward the drink.

“Tired of what?”

“Of being yourself. What’s the expression? Wherever you go, there the fuck you are.” We study one another for a long moment before he shakes his head and turns his attention to the bottle of scotch. “May I?”

“A little early, don’t you think?”

He shrugs a shoulder.

I gesture for him to go ahead.

“You?”

“No, thank you.” I haven’t had a drink since that day. I don’t trust myself to stop if I start.

He pours for himself, toasts air, and drinks a sip. He stays where he is and watches me thoughtfully. “What I did to Mercedes…”

I wait.

“Hurting her like I did, scaring her.” He drinks the contents of his glass and sets it down. His jaw clenches. He’s steeling himself. I wait until he meets my eyes again. “I should never have hurt her, and I owe her an apology at the very least. I owe one to both of you.”

This is different. Not what I expected from Theron. Him actually taking responsibility. I stop myself at that because who the fuck am I to cast stones?

“What happened to you? The last few years?” I ask.

He pours himself another and drinks a long swallow. “I found myself some trouble like I tend to do,” he says dismissively.

“I paid a lot of money to some very bad men, Theron. That’s not going to cut it.”

He swallows the rest of his scotch and sets the glass down, then slips his hands into his pockets, and all of a sudden, he looks like he used to when we were kids. When we were friends.

“Learning I was a bastard… finding out like I did, it fucked with me. What the old man did was cruel.”

“I know. But you need to get over it. He’s dead and gone.”

He snorts. “Get over it. Easy for you to say.”

“No, Theron, it’s just fucking reality. You move on, or you’re stuck in the past.”

“I hated you, you know that?”

“Oh, I know. And if I ever forget, I have the scar you left to remind me.”

He drops his gaze, looking ashamed. The truth is, I have long understood why he did it. And I have long forgiven him.