older he gets, the smoother those edges get. He hates having me over here, though. He’s constantly asking when I’m going to be back home, but he loves that I’m playing football, and he’s totally my biggest fan. If I make it to the NFL, I can picture them selling all their stuff and moving into an RV and following me to every game.”
I laugh, picturing an older version of Arlo driving a giant motorhome and cheering for him over a PA system.
“Now my brother, that’s where I drew the short straw. He’s a pain in my ass.”
My laughter grows.
“I’m not kidding,” he says. “Theo is literally the biggest asshole you’ll ever meet, but he’d give you the shirt off his back. I saw him cry once when he had his girlfriend over, and they watched The Notebook, so I know he’s not completely possessed by demons. I’m pretty sure he’s just still pissed off that our parents named him Theodore.”
I clamp a hand to the stitch in my side, a result of laughter rather than our walk. “Oh my God, I can’t breathe,” I say between giggles. “I’m guessing you’ve told him that?”
“Oh, he hates his name, so it’s one of the few pieces of ammo I have against him.”
“I used to hate my name,” I tell him.
“What? Why?”
I shrug. “Because when I was little, a friend had a book that told what the meanings of names were, and she read that my name meant olive, and so everyone called me olive for like two years. My dad still calls me Olive Oyl—though completely unrelated because it was from Popeye.”
“Did you tell them your real name is Tatyana?” he asks, breaking out his fake Russian accent again.
We walk the rest of the way to the aquarium in comfortable silence, the sun peeking through the gray afternoon clouds on multiple occasions, teasing us about spring’s arrival.
“All right, your call. No pressure. Rae Rae won’t be offended if we don’t want to hang out.”
“No. You should message her. It was really kind of her to give us passes.”
“That’s an obligation answer.”
I shake my head. “No. Seriously. Message her. I know nothing about marine animals except what I’ve learned from Shark Week on TV, and I only watched that when my little brothers were watching it.”
He holds the door open for me. “You’re sure you’re up for company?”
“Positive.”
He nods and reaches for his cell phone, typing out a quick message. Within moments, Raegan appears. Her long blonde hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and she’s wearing jeans and a sweatshirt with giant rubber boots that reach her knees.
“Hey, guys!” she says, waving as she approaches us. “I’m so glad you guys came by today. I’m in desperate need of a pick-me-up. Let me just grab you some passes, and we’ll head on back.” She walks to the counter, which is slow due to it being the middle of the afternoon and a weekday. When she returns, she hands us each a sticker for our shirts and waves for us to follow her.
“What’s with the gloomy mood? Did Lincoln do something?” Arlo asks her.
Raegan shakes her head. “The government is moving to de-regulate commercial fishing. It’s going to impact an area on the east coast, but these moves are often like dominoes, and when one falls, more follow.” She leads us past several large exhibits. “The existing regulations are already so poorly enforced and underfunded that it’s a battle to protect these regions, so animals don’t become endangered or extinct, and to completely get rid of them makes it so there’s not even a fighting chance. And the kicker is, it’s all science-proven that these regulations need to happen for fishing to be both economically and environmentally stable.” She sighs. “It just feels like a big loss when we work so hard to stop harming the already fragile marine ecosystem.”
“Rae Rae is going to save the planet one ocean at a time,” Arlo explains, pointing at her.
“Someone has to be their voice,” she says.
“She almost died last year trying to save a dolphin, but we don’t talk about it much because it triggers Lincoln’s time of the month,” Arlo explains.
Raegan laughs outright before shoving Arlo. “I have no idea how three alphas live in a house without killing each other.”
Arlo flexes. “They won’t fuck with me because I’m the biggest.”
Raegan rolls her eyes but doesn’t respond. “Come on. It’s time for Snoopy to be fed.”