As if I cut him deep, he shook his head, still staring at food he wasn’t eating. “Jesus, Brass. Unbendable tonight.”
Tossing my fork onto my plate, I shrugged, sitting back in my chair. “Then announce.”
His fork also clanked. Then he sat back, crossed his arms over his chest, and looked me dead in the eye. “You’ve been adopted.”
The audible gasps were almost louder than the cracks shattering my heart.
My mouth gaped. My ears rang with adrenaline. And I was speechless.
We both just sat there, staring at each other as my fellow fosters jumped to their feet, all yelling their protests. Sarah even threw her plate. It hit a wall, creating a mess that resembled what my life had become all over again.
I wanted to tell Dale that I hated him for this. I wanted to scream at my lungs full capacity, but I had to help Finn first. As he ran from the table and up the stairs, I knew where he was headed.
Sure to keep eyes locked with Dale as I rose to my feet, I grabbed Sarah’s hand and kissed it, proud of her fight. Most who lost a best friend and a lover within such a short amount of time would be on their knees, clueless how to ever stand again. Then I left the dining room to stop a friend from self-destruction.
In the attic—soon to no longer be my bedroom—Finn was searching high and low. Hearing me come up the stairs, he groaned, “Where is it?”
Calmly, hoping it would help him, I went to the vent in the floor and retrieved the razor still wrapped in the tissue. Finn rushed to grab it from me, but I lifted it into the air above my head while holding my other arm wide.
He had a choice. With me. Always.
Finn broke into tears and took the refuge I offered. I held him as he cried, “I can’t be here without you.”
I leaned my head to his that hid in my shoulder. “You can. You will, until you go to college. And it would be an honor if you would move in here until then.” Maybe if he slept away from the empty bed in his own room, he wouldn’t be so lonely.
His fist grabbed the T-shirt at my back. “Don’t. Go.”
“If I had a choice, I would choose you. Do you understand? But, until the law says we are in charge of our own lives, I have to follow the rules. Look at me.” Finn lifted his head and met my gaze. “I need you to watch over them.” My throat tightened. I was losing my family, again. “This is going to kick them in the balls.” Just then, Sarah shouted, “No!” from downstairs, apparently still giving Dale hell. I grinned, “Including hers,” causing a tear that I hadn’t known had formed to slip down my cheek.
It felt foreign to have another male’s lips on mine, and it was over in a second. I didn’t correct Finn for kissing me. I knew it would never happen again. I knew he understood I wasn’t gay. I also understood he needed the affection in this crucial moment.
He exhaled, nodding, “I won’t fail you.” He swallowed before repeating a word I had called him once. He sounded sad yet deeply sincere. “Brother.”
Even though Finn was slightly older than me, I now felt like the elder, so proud of him for this bravery. I think my smile told him so because he smiled back, a bit of relief present in his exhale.
I told him, “No matter where I’m forced to go, you will always be my family.”
Every foster child probably waits a mental eternity for such words, but I had found true diamonds in the rough. Like Dad and Grandpa before that, I now had lifers, yet they had no idea who I truly was. Johnny Watts was only a name that I would, as soon as of age, be shedding to honor the men whose blood pumped in my veins. Once eighteen, Johnny Watts would no longer exist. Therefore, if these fellow fosters wanted to ever find me after they also became their own, how would they? If I dared tell them my true name, would that put them in danger as it did Noma’s friend? Dad’s brothers? I could never do that to these Misfits. Noma did her best to protect her people. I would do the same.
“I have an idea.” I held up the tissue, hiding the razor.
Finn lifted a daring brow. “I am intrigued.”?2
With a grinning Finn following me through the living room, that was now a bit of a war zone for Dale and a crying Harmony, I didn’t slow my stride. “Sinners, come with me.”
As if willing to follow me anywhere, they all gave Dale a shitty look then silently fell in line with me and Finn.
Outside, no questions were asked as I led them to Caleb. Standing next to his unmarked grave, I faced them. Sarah’s face was beet red as she told me, “Tomorrow, Johnny. You leave tomorrow!”
That was okay. All I needed was tonight.
Gage and Ethan were pacing like caged tigers.
Sebastian stared at me as if expecting the earth to open and swallow me whole.
Oh, my dear friends. For a moment, I actually felt guilty for becoming such a force in their lives. Had I set them up for failure? To count on me only to let them down?
“The day my dad died in a bridge explosion, I was blown into the air and landed—” Don’t give too much away. “—in an ocean.” I rubbed the back of my neck before holding up my disfigured hand.
