Now Kaiden rambled away his own self-doubts, his own insecurities. What he spewed came from a need to reassure himself more than to validate his choice to Dylan or Rus.
“No having to deal with a house full of judgy, whiny family members. No last-minute babysitting. No unexpected bills I need to cover. No hiding who I am in my own bedroom. No tiptoeing around people. I get to be me. If that means I work a shitty part-time job over the holidays, fine. I get to make the choices to support my life in my home for my goals.”
Dylan cracked a smile and approached. “Can I speak?”
“Not if it’s to poke holes in my decision or note how impulsive it was.”
“No holes, no poking. Well, unless it’s the fun kind of poking,” Dylan said, wrapping his hands over Kaiden’s arms.
Kaiden let out an exasperated chuckle. “Okay.”
“I’m proud of you.” Dylan’s smile grew. “And if you’re happy, that is literally all that matters to me. I’m just here to wave my Kaiden flag of support.”
“Personally, I think it’s badass,” Rus chimed in, pressing a hand to Kaiden’s lower back. “You saw what you wanted and made it happen. On your own.”
“Thank you.” Kaiden tilted his head, pressing it against Rus’ as a small gesture of gratitude and affection for his kind words.
“My boy’s a bad bitch,” Rus said with a grin. “I couldn’t be happier.”
“Shut up.” Kaiden nudged Rus.
“Tour?” Dylan asked, slapping a hand on top of a stack of boxes.
“Well, there’s the guest bedroom, which will probably turn into Rus’ smoking room during the winter.”
“Please,” Rus scoffed. “Like a little chill’s gonna stop me.”
“Maybe a gaming room,” Dylan said with wide eyes of excitement.
Kaiden dismissed the idea. They could keep the gaming to Rus’ apartment.
“This is the living room, obviously.” Kaiden gestured, then pointed through to the kitchen and dining room, which meshed together in this very spacious open-floor plan.
“It’s like five times the size of my apartment,” Rus said, following Kaiden through the kitchen.
Kaiden showed them the washer and dryer hookup.
“I can get you a real good deal on those,” Dylan said. “Jasmine knows everyone when it comes to furnishing a place. I’ll ask her about couches and stuff.”
“Definitely a TV,” Rus added.
“Oh, yeah.”
“Please, don’t,” Kaiden insisted.
He didn’t want to be a burden when it came to getting his place together. Unlike the teens Dylan worked with, Kaiden was an adult and needed to prove he could do this like one. It might be the first time in his life he’d made the difficult decision to stand on his own two feet.
“You gotta have a TV,” Rus said. “It’s practically a necessity.”
“That’s what my phone is for.”
“You’d honestly be doing us a favor,” Dylan said. “Jasmine pays out the ass on storage units, but if we don’t hoard it, we lose out on a lot of really good stuff.”
“Like?” Rus asked.
“Richy riches will donate entire furniture sets in great condition simply because it’s out of style,” Dylan said. “Jasmine knows who to schmooze when it comes to grabbing them up. Better than some charity thrift store that’ll jack up the price and only donate a penny on the dollar to those in need. Plus, a lot of the former residents get to live in style once they move out.”
“Nice.” Rus nodded as Kaiden led them into the master bedroom.
