Free Recklessly by A.J. Sand

Furious movies in the living room and discussing comical plotlines the story could take in the future, he was still curious to know why , as much as he tried to ignore the feeling. But it wasn’t just that, the time between the hook-up and now had only served to feed his interest about her in general and a yearning for a repeat as well.
    “Hey, what do you guys want to do for dinner?” Charlotte called from upstairs.
    “I dunno. What’s here?” Wes yelled back.
    “Not a goddamn thing except liquor,” Abel said when he came down to the first floor and walked toward the kitchen, slowly moving his recovering shoulder in a rotation. “We ate everything we bought for mom and dad’s visit. But an empty fridge is worth having the house to ourselves again.”
    “Definitely.” Wes nodded. “The morning they left, they were screaming about the toilet seat being left up, and I was ready to drown them both in the goddamn water .” Anxiety over his parents came so fast it made him shudder. They had argued the entire rest of the time they were there, not even having the decency to do it outside of earshot of him, Charlotte and Abel. 
    “So…dinner…” Charlotte said as she walked down the steps.
    “There’s nothing here, kiddo.” Abel threw his hands up. “Y’all know how this works. Nothing’s changed.”
    Charlotte gave him an annoyed look. “Fine. Well, Kiera has coupons, those digital deal things. We were talking about it earlier. We should check out one of those places.”
    Kiera pulled out her phone, and soon her thumb was swiping through the screen. “A bunch of places in Marina and Venice and Hollywood.”
    “All right. Let’s do one of them,” Wes said, slipping his feet into his shoes—Abel’s gray vintage Nikes, of course.
    His brother walked over and narrowed resentful eyes at Wes. “You’re such a douchebag,” he said, shaking his head at his formerly owned sneakers.
    “Awww! Tonight’s my treat. I feel bad,” he said.
    “You don’t even need to do that! I have two two-for-one coupons for Vices Hollywood, ” Kiera said. “It’ll work for the four of us.” Wes snapped his head to the side to look at her. Shit. Shiiiit. That’s where Lana worked.
    “Yes! They have karaoke there tonight, too,” Charlotte said, chiming in. “C’mon, guys! Wes…you and I do a mean ‘Baby Got Back.’ Remember you guys’ birthday party?”
    “Ha! I’m down.” Abel shrugged. “Let’s go to—”
    “Are you guys sure you want to go all the way to Hollywood? On a Saturday night? Instead of just walking up the street or something?” Wes said, keeping a neutral expression as he tried to dissuade them, but he knew he would never come up with a good enough reason to convince them; he was delaying the inevitable. And Abel would figure out the reasons for his hesitation the minute he saw Lana. It wasn’t that he feared running into her; he just would’ve preferred doing it without his brother, cousin and Kiera. Goddamn disturbing version of The Brady Bunch.
    “The Hollywood one serves food all night, and we haven’t been there yet,” Abel said. “Who cares about the traffic? It’s not like we’re going out tonight when we get back. You said you wanted to chill out more because of the upcoming contests, anyway.”
    “Well, I’m tired,” Wes said, noting to himself how petulant he sounded.
    “Gimme your keys,” Charlotte said. “I’ll drive.”
    If he pressed anymore, they would all get suspicious, so Wes stood up and surrendered to whatever inevitable awkwardness was about to invade his night. “Let me put on a different shirt, and then we can go.” He sighed deeply when he walked into his room and shuffled to his closet. He was yanking a shirt down over his head when Abel walked in.
    “Okay…who’d you fuck and piss off over there at Hollywood ?” Abel studied him with suspicious eyes as he stood akimbo.
    “No one, dude. I can’t not want to do something without my dick being