head so violently, his shaggy dark hair lashed his face. "You'rewhat ?"
"We're getting married. And if I want to let him bite me, it's none of your damn business. And, anyway, you don't know what happened or why, so just shut your mouth, Shane." Her voice was trembling now, but she was trying to look sure of herself. "No, never mind. Open it and congratulate us. You owe us that."
"No."
"Why not? Because you don'tapprove ? Youasshole !" Eve shoved him, and Shane let her push him back, off Michael. He sat on the floor, suddenly limp, staring down at his open hands. His knuckles were bruised--they'd been bruised a lot lately, and cut and swollen. Claire had assumed at first that it had been martial arts practice, but now she was thinking...it was fights. Real fights.
Like this one.
Michael sat up, putting his arm around Eve. She touched his face where he'd been hit and said, "Does it hurt? Are you okay?"
"It stings," he said. "Shane packs a hell of a punch these days." He looked into her eyes for a long few seconds. "I didn't think you wanted to tell anybody yet."
"I didn't," Eve said. "But it just--it just kind of came out. Sorry. I wanted to have a big party for the announcement, you know, but...I had to say something to make himstop ."
"He wasn't going to hurt me. Not much, anyway."
"Maybe not, but you were going to have to hurthim if he didn't back off. And I didn't want that."
Claire didn't know how she felt about all this. Sure, she loved Michael and Eve, and she knew they were together, but this...this seemed fast and final and odd. Like they were rushing into something.
She felt anxious about it, and she had no idea why.
Michael pulled Eve close again and kissed her with authority. Eve sighed and snuggled against his chest, and both of them looked at Shane and Claire, who was kneeling beside him. She wanted to ask Shane if he was all right, but it would sound stupid under the circumstances. Ofcourse he wasn't all right. This was so not all right.
None of it was right.
She reached out, placed her fingers under his chin, and tipped his face up. His eyes were shimmering with tears, and he looked young and terribly frightened.
Lost.
"What's happening to me?" he asked. "God, Claire, why did Ido that? I don't do that. I don't get angry for--for nothing. I didn't used to, anyway." He swallowed. "Do you think...? Is it...? Maybe it's because...my dad...He wasn't always an abusive asshole, you know; he just got that way. He'd get in these moods and he'd...he'd..." He gulped for air, as if he was drowning, and the misery and pain in his voice made her ache inside. She didn't think; she just put her arms around him and held him, fiercely loving him, afraid for him, afraid forall of them. "I shouldn't be doing this. It's wrong. It's all wrong. I don't want to be like him. I don't. I can't. Please help me."
"You're not," she whispered, lips close to his ear. "I swear you're not."
"Then why did Ido that? I wanted to kill him, and it's like I couldn't stop myself."
She didn't know, either. She held him and they talked in soft, almost wordless murmurs, and his arms around her were strong but shaking, and she pretended not to feel it when his tears soaked through her shirt.
Michael and Eve left sometime during all that. The food sat cold on the table when Claire raised her head to check. Shane's skin felt cold and damp to the touch. "You should eat," she said. "You'll feel better if you eat."
He laughed wretchedly. "You think if I eat I'll stop being a complete dick?"
"You're not."
"Only because I'm not good at anything. Including that."
God, he was just falling apart, and she didn't know what to say. Claire got him to stand up and then sit down at the table. She carried the food back into the kitchen to warm it in the microwave and found that Eve and Michael were in there, engaged in a quiet, intense discussion themselves. They stopped when they saw her.
"We should eat," she said, and pushed microwave buttons.
"Something's wrong with him," Eve said. "You saw. You know."
"Let's eat," Claire said. "We're all tired and hungry and nervous."
"Claire--"
"Please."Her voice broke when she said it, and she had to wipe her eyes to keep tears from falling. "Just sit down andeat !"
But when she