“I don’t want him here,” she interrupts like I’m not speaking, and she grabs Camilo by the front of his shirt. Her voice turns slightly hysterical. “Get him the fuck out of here.”
Before I can say anything else, a warm hand falls on my shoulder, and I look up to see Axel standing there.
“Hey, North. You wanna step out for a few minutes while we talk to your mom? You have a couple people waiting outside for you.” His voice is a low, soothing rumble, and my heart stops knocking against my ribs.
“Yeah. Thanks,” I rasp.
Camilo’s up from where he was crouching by my mom, and he steps up next to Axel. Normally, they’re like oil and water, but right now, they’re in sync. “It’s gonna be alright,” he tells me. “I wouldn’t trust anyone more than Axel to get her where she needs to go.”
I nod at them both, then turn the corner and see both Leo and Easton hovering in the doorway. They take a step back as I walk out, and then they both reach for me at the same time.
I freeze, and then Easton drops his hands first and gestures toward his brother. “Go on.”
“I—”
“It’s fine,” Easton says, and this time, he sounds like he means it. “This whole thing really sucks, and it’s okay to need someone else who isn’t me.”
Leo glances at his brother, then steps up and lets me fall into his arms. He’s shorter, but right now, he feels miles tall, and I let him drag me over to the curb and wrap around me as I start to shake apart.
The ambulance is here, and the lights are on, which makes the scene feel more chaotic than it is, and there are a bunch of people standing on their doorsteps watching. I want to tell them all to fuck off. This isn’t a goddamn circus, as much as I like to call it one. But I know better. I know how people are.
I can see my sister off in the distance, crying, Henry holding her with one arm as he balances on his crutch. My chest is aching, and I don’t know if I want to go home with Leo or fight my mom and insist on going to the hospital with her because it doesn’t matter what she’s put me through.
I’m supposed to be the one who fixes it.
“Why always you?” Leo whispers into my ear.
Shit. I hadn’t meant to say any of that out loud.
I swallow against a painfully dry throat, then shrug. “I don’t know. It’s always been me.”
“So maybe it’s time to sit back and breathe and let someone else handle it. Who did they call to step in?”
“Starr,” I rasp. “They’re trying to get ahold of her now.”
He hums quietly, stroking fingers along my arm. “You trust her, right?”
“I trust her.”
“Then let go. Just for a little bit, okay?”
Closing my eyes, I press my forehead against his temple and breathe in the scent of him. He smells like my sheets. My shower. My soap. My clothes.
Like mine.
“Okay,” I murmur back.
He holds me just a bit tighter.
TWENTY-FOUR
LEO
This was nothow I wanted to meet North’s family. I only got to see his mom in a quick glance as they had her strapped to a stretcher and wheeled her directly to the ambulance. The doors shut a few moments after, and the ambulance left with lights on but the sirens off.
The courtyard is quiet now that everyone’s cleared away. Easton’s inside with North, while their boss, Henry, and West took off shortly after their mom was gone. I can only hope that they’ll get some rest. West was shaken up, but she spent the entire time waxing poetic about how thrilled she was that her new best friend was dating her brother.
It was a far cry from how Easton reacted to seeing me and North together, and I let that comfort me as I wait for North beside his truck. He doesn’t take long either. He was locking up his mom’s apartment, and he appears from the shadows, wrapping his arms around me and shoving his face into my neck.
