Chapter 44: Just Jealous, Just Human
Conor was back in town.
And apparently everyone knew except him.
Craig stared up at the ceiling, lying flat on his bed as if gravity was doing more than its fair share tonight. The light from his phone screen blinked once before fading, leaving him in shadows and silence.
He hadn’t heard it from Conor, or their dad, or Adriana, or even from gossip in the hallway.
He found out from someone’s phone.
At the pool party.
Some guy, half-buzzed and killing time between drinks, was scrolling through TikTok next to the speakers, swiping through lives like flipping channels. Then he paused.
"Yo, is that Conor Lesnar?"
Craig turned at the name without expecting much. The guy tilted his phone so others could see and there he was — on a TikTok live. His brother. Standing on a table at Barsea like a returning king, arms wide, head thrown back in a laugh that hadn’t been seen in months. Drinks everywhere. Girls hanging on him. A whole crowd hyping him up in the background like he had never gone off the grid or left everything behind.
Craig just stood there staring at the screen. The live version of his brother — smiling, animated, present — while Craig had been kept in the dark.
No message. No call. Just a glitchy TikTok stream from a stranger’s phone at a party.