{"id":4150,"date":"2019-11-15T00:00:45","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T05:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4150"},"modified":"2019-11-14T18:50:21","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T23:50:21","slug":"twenty-six-05-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4150","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-six – 05"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Matt shook his head. \u201cI guess I thought it might be painful to talk about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it is. Doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t want to. They were some of the closest friends I ever had, y\u2019know. They were family, too.\u201d Phelan smiled. \u201cAnd like I said, some of the stunts that C\u00edar pulled make some of my shit looked like nothing by comparison. Then again, I never got kidnapped and got my brain scrambled, either.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one way to put it, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Matt sighed. \u201cI still\u2014there are parts of that I can remember pretty clearly, but there are things that are all tangled up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like that for him, too,\u201d Phelan said. Their pace had slowed slightly, even as they drew closer to the edge of the tents and the cookfires beyond, as if neither of them were quite willing to end their conversation just yet\u2014or perhaps they were both reluctant to go and begin the planning that awaited them once they rejoined the others. \u201cOf course, he always kind of wondered out loud if he really wanted to remember or if it would be more than he could stand.\u201d The ghost of a smile curved his lips. \u201cClearly, he remembered more than he let on, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt heaved a sigh. \u201cThere were reasons for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood ones,\u201d Phelan said. \u201cDamn good ones.\u201d He reached over and grasped Matt\u2019s shoulder, squeezing gently. \u201cYour hearts are your own, Matt. It was the same with C\u00edar. It is what it is and will be what it will be. Never apologize for any of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He took a breath. \u201cThanks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t mention it.\u201d Phelan smiled crookedly. \u201cCome on. They\u2019re waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.] Matt shook his head. \u201cI guess I thought it might be painful to talk about them.\u201d \u201cSometimes it is. Doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t want to. They were some of the closest friends … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[299,331,14],"tags":[150,171,170,181,149,173,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-4150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-26-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-14W","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4151,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4150\/revisions\/4151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}