I wanted to ask Ares what he was doing here; he had disappeared with Zaahra, they had clearly not had s*x, and she had stalked off alone and upset before he reappeared and strolled over casually as if nothing was going on.
Aleks obviously felt like this was some significant, special moment as we sat together passing his uncle’s drink around. He had a crush on me, and his mother may have teased him about it but she hadn’t told him off for approaching me and she had given him a chance to talk to me alone. And now he was sat with me, and Ares, and he got to feel like he was almost ready to take over from his uncle even though to me he looked like he must only just have turned 15 and he was certainly not as bulky as he would be one day.
I brought the flask to my lips again and discovered tha
