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“—and, didn’t you make that joke you had said you and Silas were—”

I started uncontrollably coughing as a deterrent. I didn’t know what else to do. My body was in full on flight mode, but I was stuck in the car with the thickest of idiots. The fake hacking episode sent shooting pain up my abdomen from my injury, but I couldn’t think of what else to do to get Alex to shut up before he blurted in front of Serenity how I openly discussed fucking her brother with him.

“Oh shit? You good, Noah?”

I clutched my sides and nodded. Serenity leaned in from the back seat, looking genuinely concerned.

“I’ll go get you some water,” she said, before stepping out of the car.

I steadied my breathing. That kind of worked out better than I hoped. Now, at least, I had Alex alone.

Alex was furiously patting my back in an effort to help me. “Arms up to breathe man! Arms up.”

I reached forward, snatching Alex by his shirt collar. He yelped.

“Listen here, chatterbox. I’m happy for you. I am glad that you got the girl. That’s fantastic. But stop airing out my business in front of her.”

Alex looked perplexed. “What? Noah, what’s the problem?”

I felt a migraine coming on. But I was already too far in to care. It was time to come clean about a lot of things. Alex better be ready for it.

“Alex, we haven’t had the chance to talk much, but…” I paused, releasing his shirt so I could rub my head. “What you were about to say, about the time I told you I was going to…fuck Silas Thorne…that wasn’t a joke.”

Alex was silent.

“Silas and I have been having sex. For a while. He and I—” I paused again, unsure of how to explain the rest of it. “Look, I don’t know what he and I were, and we aren’t anything anymore, but, we were…seeing…each other.”

Alex looked pale. Like actually drained of blood and color from his face. “You’re serious?”

“I am dead serious. This is why I don’t want to talk about it in front of Serenity. I also don’t want to talk about Delane in front of her. Silas he…doesn’t like Delane.” Another pause. “To put it simply.”

At that moment, Serenity came outside with a bottle of water in her hands. She stopped at the driver’s side window, handing it through to me.

“Thank you,” I said, opening it and taking a sip.

Serenity stood for a moment, trying to catch Alex’s attention, but he was staring upwards to the sky, mouth slightly ajar, frozen in place.

Please, I begged internally. Just read the damn room.

“Um, I’ll wait inside for you Alex, okay? It was nice to see you, Noah.”

“Nice to see ya.”

Alex nodded slowly, still speechless.

When Serenity was fully out of sight, Alex let out a scream that I was sure could be heard down the street. I quickly rolled up my windows.

“Noah! You’ve been keeping so many secrets! What the actual hell!”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry, Alex. Things at home…well you know…they’ve been difficult.”

Alex was looking at me now, and I was almost certain tears were about to brim over the corners of his eyes. I paused, thinking of the events that happened today. I knew I needed to tell him more so that he’d understand.

“David hit me…again.”

Alex tensed beside me, and the tears I thought he might shed only intensified the look in his eyes. He knew that David had been physical with me. Not to the extend of the torture or assault, but he knew that I’d been beaten. I could tell that the news I shared with him just pissed him off.

“Damain saw. He saw today. He stood up to David—for me. But I know it just pissed him off worse. And I am scared—” my breath shuddered out. I was rambling, just trying to get as much as I was willing to share out in the open. “I’m scared he’s going to take it out on my mom. He always does. When he can’t get to me, he gets to her.”