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I told them.
The text message thread had been silent after that. I figured none of them knew what to say.
Wells looked just as goofy as I was in his Regency shit, but at least he wasn’t wearing goddamn tights like I’d been before. He strode over in his Pilgrim shoes with gold buckles.
“You texted the group,” he said, and even though I had, I still twitched. He scanned the ER. “Where’s Aspen? She all right?”
Color me more shocked that he was concerned about her. Dorian and Wolf didn’t care so much now that I was hanging with Aspen. They knew I was going to do what I was going to do and had never believed her responsible for anything in my past anyway. They were worried about the effect she would have in my life at first, but they never ever deemed her responsible for anything. They even apologized later for backing Wells initially, which I appreciated.
Aspen wasn’t responsible, and though Wells knew that too, he was a little more jaded. The two of us were real fucking close, so I got him wanting to be protective and shit.
Which was why his concern definitely shocked me. I swallowed. “I don’t know. They took her back.” I felt like I was wavering again, rattled and panicky and shit. I pushed my hands through my hair. “They won’t tell me anything. She was in so much pain, man. I don’t know what to do.”
I felt so vulnerable here, and I normally didn’t share shit. I wasn’t completely in control of my emotions right now, though…
And my friend saw that.
Almost instantly, he left my side, demanding to see someone, and I let him. Again, I had no control over my emotions, but I followed him. Wells went right up to the front desk, and where I lacked control, he had it.
“We’ll get a doctor over to see you guys, and sorry about that, Mr. Reed,” the nurse said. “We would have gotten you answers right away if we’d known you needed them.”
The nurse saying that didn’t shock me before she left. My family and all my friends’ families had a lot of power on campus, and if I were in my right mind, I would have used my name to get more answers.
Once more, I panicked, and after Wells got someone to listen to me, he had me sit. He got me a Gatorade and himself a water.
“Thanks,” I said, accepting it, but my gaze stayed on the ground. It was the only thing I could do to keep myself focused and not wanting to punch someone.
“Thatcher, I think I need to go to the hospital…”
The look on her face. The pain. I physically felt it now like she were here, and I gripped my Gatorade bottle.
“The others were right behind me, but fucking traffic,” Wells said, cursing while his thumbs tapped on his phone. “It seemed like everyone at the event was leaving that bitch at the same time this morning.”
It was okay, and they didn’t all have to come. I guess I wasn’t surprised they would. We were all friends, brothers. The girls were a part of that too, and I wasn’t just talking about my sister. Being in Legacy was some deep shit. It wasn’t about titles or even clout.
It was family.
My family sat beside me now, texting with our other friends and holding down the fort until they came. Wells and I had been at odds, but he was the first one to show up. The first one here, and he didn’t know what that meant.
“You’re almost out. Do you need another?” he asked me, noticing my Gatorade bottle. The two of us hadn’t been waiting long, but I already drank that shit.
“No, I’m good,” I returned, now noticing how disheveled he looked. I didn’t have a shirt on, but his was completely open beneath his jacket. His dyed hair was also all over the place, and I wouldn’t have put it past my friend that he was getting pussy and or dick tonight. Hell, he might have been doing both at the same time. Wells loved to share his partners. It gave him options and being open about that kept people from getting attached and catching feelings.
Wells and I both tended to love them, then leave them. At least, that was how I was until Aspen.
I gripped my bottle, then used it to gesture toward my friend. “You seem like you were busy tonight.”
I.e., his ass was getting laid, and he smirked a little. He pointed to my lack of shirt. “Seems I wasn’t the only one.”
He was right, but like hell was I going to kiss and tell. I might have in the past, but things were different now. They just were.
I felt that difference in our awkward silence. Wells and I never communicated on a deep level. None of us guys did really, but whereas some of the others were by choice, Wells and I didn’t because we didn’t need to. We were just in tune with the other. The pair of us got one another, and it’d always just been like that. We had our own weird dude language or some shit, and it was nice to smile, to laugh after what he said, which I did.
“I saw you playing piano with her earlier,” he said, and I hadn’t noticed him when I was up there. I supposed I’d been focused on Aspen and helping her. He smiled. “Haven’t heard you do that in a long time.”
I shrugged. “Reminds me of Gram, I guess, and better times.” It did. She’d connected with me over music since she loved it so much.
“Yeah,” Wells stated, looking kind of awkward when he stole a drink from his bottle. He swallowed it down. “It was nice of you to help her.”
