Mutton Busting

Alex

I looked at Damion. “You’ve never told him much about your life here, did you?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “It didn’t exactly come up a lot. Besides, he wouldn’t have understood it. He didn’t know about this life. He only knew New York.”

That made me kind of sad for some reason. It was as if Damion had left Montana behind and never looked back. I wondered if he really liked being home or if he was forcing himself to stay out of obligation. “And now?” I asked.

He shrugged. “And now I’m filling him in on bits and pieces of my childhood.”

I nodded, but I suddenly got the feeling there was something else going on. Like he was reserving judgment for later. Like he wasn’t really buying into the idea of Oliver growing up in Montana and experiencing those same things. Maybe I was reading too much into it. I shook off the feelings, chalking it up to my own problems and worries he was going to leave.

“How was school today?” I asked Oliver, steering the conversation back to the present.

Oliver