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“Well, if it’s serious, Ares and I should be here,” Sloane chimed in, and I didn’t disagree. She frowned. “What’s going on?”
Dad played referee in that moment. He shut down the talk with a pat to the air. “Let’s all just be calm.” He faced Bru. “Your mom and I can step out of the room with you, son, if that’s what you need.”
My brother was put on the spot in that moment, and his gaze fell on me last. With how the conversation had been going, I felt like this was the last place I’d be regarding the turn of events, but something told me my brother needed help in that moment.
It was the way he looked at me. There was a pleading behind his eyes, desperation, and that said something considering the argument we’d gotten into that morning. I should be the last person he’d go to for help, and that got my attention.
I glanced at Dorian who was still here, making my nod toward the door discreet. Something was definitely going on if the kid was bringing up something serious right now after I’d fucked up again.
I wanted to be part of the conversation, but I wouldn’t be if Bru didn’t feel I should be. I hadn’t been respecting my brother lately, and Dorian got the hint. Dorian put a hand on Sloane’s arm. “I’m going to go. You guys seem like you need this time.”
I noticed he wasn’t being a brute and trying to strongarm my sister into going. He wasn’t because he knew that wasn’t his place. Dorian Prinze, Thatcher Reed, and Wells Ambrose were three of the best guys I’d ever known.
Dorian did give me the eye, though, on the way out, and just because he was a good guy didn’t mean he wasn’t a nosy fucker. That eye definitely meant I’d be telling him exactly what happened in this room, but I’d have to get the play-by-play from someone else. I really did want to be here, but wanted to respect my brother. “I’ll go too—”
“No. Sloane’s right. You both should stay,” Bru said, and he forced out a breath so hard my mom placed a hand on him. She asked him if he was okay, and all he did was breathe hard again.
This really was serious. He appeared just as frazzled as I’d been making him lately, which set off alarm bells. “Kid…”
“I’ll explain, just.” He paused, huffing out another breath. “Just sit. I’ll explain.”
He’ll explain.
I did sit, confused as fuck, and Sloane took the seat beside me. Our parents chose to remain standing, but they gave Bru the floor.
“What’s going on, son?” Dad repeated Sloane’s earlier question, and all of us were wondering the same thing. The kid was pacing the floor now, and I thought he’d run a path into the hardwood.
He stopped on a dime.
“I got kicked out of school,” he said, and my parents, Sloane, and I looked at each other. Bru swallowed. “I got kicked out for underground fighting.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Bru
I felt like I was holding my breath before what I said, but the relief proved to be temporary. Within seconds, I felt as if I was drowning again, and the sensation only rattled worse the longer my family didn’t respond. Their looks of stunned confusion managed to trump what Wolf had just said only moments before.
Which said something.
This announcement hadn’t been the time. I fucking knew that, but it was eating away at me. Like I was being carved from the inside with a dull knife.
Like I had no control.
I couldn’t even be there for Fawn this morning, my hands shaking now. She was on a plane flying over somewhere, and here I was unable to get my shit together. I was the best goddamn friend of the year and was just as crappy of a friend to my brother. He’d just made that announcement and was being completely vulnerable with everyone. He really had loved Fawn, and here I was making shit about me. Fuck.
Why can’t I stop shaking?
Because I didn’t have control, and I kept my shaking hands behind my back. I didn’t want my family to see. Last night, I had to run through the woods to calm down following the fight. Meanwhile, Fawn, my sister, and Bow had been alone.
Why didn’t I know she was afraid of storms?
Again, I was friend of the fucking year.
“What do you mean you were fighting, honey?” Mom asked that, Dad’s arm around her. She squeezed my arm. “Underground fighting?”
It sounded foreign coming out of her mouth, and it had been to me until I’d started doing it.
It was the only thing that could curb the nightmares.
