Page 66 of Glorious Ruin
The two of them looked like weird, perfectly opposite copies of each other.
“Uh, baby,” I said slowly, leaning against the doorframe. “I don’t think that’s going to work for you like it does for women.”
Silas didn’t move, he just blinked slowly as his upside-down brown eyes shifted to glare at me. “You’re gross.”
Maverick didn’t even look away from the TV.
“Why the fuck are you upside down?”
“You were using the blender,” he said casually, as if that explained the universe.
“Yeah… And?”
Silas’s brow furrowed. “It helps the sound not hurt as bad. The noise from the blender causes the back of my head to feel like there’s TV static in it. It burns and itches under my skull. If I flip upside down, the pressure pushes the static out.” He looked at me with genuine confusion. “You don’t get like that?”
“He’s done that since he was a kid,” Maverick chimed in, and my jaw dropped. Without even turning his head, he added, “Probably should have warned you about that one.”
I looked from Maverick back to the professional wrestler hanging by his kneecaps.“Babe. I’m getting you tested.”
Silas’s brow furrowed further. “Tested? For what?”
I threw my free hand back into the kitchen. “Well, let’s see. The blender running gives you itchy static in your brain and your solution for it is to become a bat…”
“I wanted to get him tested back in ‘98,” Maverick grunted, flipping the channel. “Told Doc the boy wasn’t wired normal after he cried for two days because the new shoes I bought him sounded too loud on the dirt. Doc told me he’d outgrow it. Clearly, he didn’t.”
Silas’s eyes went wide. He whipped his head to look at the recliner, seemingly forgetting he was upside down, and ended up just staring at the coffee table leg.
“What the hell, Dad!” Silas gasped, his voice cracking. He scrambled, righting his long limbs so he was sitting properly. Static electricity now clung to his hair, causing a wild, messy disaster that he tried, but failed, to fix. “Wait. Do you guysactuallythink I’m autistic?”
I looked at my husband, the man who categorized his wrestling tapes by emotional distress levels. Who hated the texture of velvet and who had just hungupside downto combat the noise of a blender.
Despite the irritation I still held with Maverick, I couldn’t help the loud, helpless bark of laughter that ripped out of my chest.
“Baby.” I walked over and handed him my drink. Leaning down, I pressed a kiss to his chaotic hair. “The test would be wasted anyway. It’s painfully obvious at this point.”
Silas took a sip of the smoothie, his eyes taking on this far away thoughtful look. “ Do you think that’s why I can memorize every match I’ve ever seen?”
16
MONDAY — MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
Now playing: My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up) - Fall Out Boy
Aftertwoweeksofthe most intense, fragile, and beautiful isolation of my life, the bubble truly burst.
“You okay, husband?” I asked, the word feeling like a secret weapon every time I let it slip past my lips.
Silas stopped, his shoulders dropping just an inch. He turned to look at me, a small, weary smile breaking through the tension that lingered on his face. “Yeah. Just…waiting for the other shoe to drop, I guess. It’s one thing to be outed while we stayed home. It’s another to walk through a crowded airport after the fact.”
I took his hand to lace our fingers together. “Then let it drop. We’ll just kick it out of the way. We’re in this together. No more scripts, Si.”
“I love it when you’re the brave one.”
I leaned in to press my forehead against his. “I’m not brave,” I whispered. “I’m just tired of being afraid.”
The Minneapolis International Airport was exactly as I expected: loud, crowded, and smelled like floor wax and overpriced coffee. Usually, when we traveled together, we were the pinnacle of calculated distance. We’d walk ten paces apart, eyes fixed on our phones, maintaining the illusion of two co-workers who traveled together.
As we stepped off the plane and into the terminal, Silas walked slightly ahead of me. His posture was stiff, and his eyes scanned the crowd. I didn’t care who was watching. Didn’t give a thought to the teenage girls giggling with their phones ready to record, or the middle-aged men who might recognize us. I reached out and took Silas’s hand, pulling him back toward me until our shoulders met.
