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“I pushed him and told him to shut the fuck up. Then Frankie stepped in and hit me. When I fell, he started kicking me. That’s when Toby got involved and then some other guys joined in.”
“You know guys like him say that shit because they’re afraid, right?”
When Lucky’s eyes lifted to mine, I said, “They’re afraid of people who aren’t like them. And they hide that fear by lashing out… by trying to make others feel like less.”
“I couldn’t just let him say that about you,” he murmured.
I sighed and stifled my need to ruffle his hair. No need in giving Calvin more ammunition to use against Lucky. “I know,” I responded. I had no doubt Lucky would have been able to ignore the taunts if they’d just been directed at him. I stood up and held out my hand to help him to his feet. “Why don’t you try to get some sleep? We’ll talk more in the morning.”
Lucky’s fingers toyed with Bear’s head. “Can… can Bear sleep in my tent?” he asked hesitantly, but I realized he wasn’t talking to me.
I looked behind me to see Xander standing less than a dozen feet away. He’d likely heard everything Lucky and I had said.
“Sure,” Xander said with a smile. “But be warned, he snores… and farts.”
The comment made Lucky smile. He nodded and then he patted the dog. “Come on, Bear.” Thankfully, the dog followed him without any kind of hesitation.
I turned to go toward the fire, but stopped when I saw Aiden standing near the entrance to his tent with his arms crossed. He waited until Lucky disappeared inside the tent he was sharing with Toby and two other kids before he strode across the camp towards Xander and me.
“Lake, now,” he snapped. I winced at the sight of the bruise on his jaw. His normally perfect hair was all over the place and his clothes were covered in dust. There was a small tear in his shirt.
Xander and I followed him down to the lake so we’d still be in sight of the camp but out of hearing range. Aiden was fuming, and I didn’t blame him in the least.
“You two need to get the fuck over yourselves now. This shit ends, do you hear me?”
“Aiden—”
“Shut the fuck up, Bennett. I’m talking.” His eyes shifted back and forth between me and Xander. “No one wants you guys to get past whatever this”— he motioned between us with his hand— “is more than I do, but not at the cost of the kids!” He took in a breath as if trying to calm himself.
“I called for you three times when the fight started. The fucking dog heard me and came running,” he snapped as he pointed towards Lucky’s tent. “Now, I don’t need to know what you were doing, because I have a damned good idea. The fact is, this shit between the kids has been brewing for days, but you two have had your heads so far up your own asses, that you either didn’t see it or you didn’t care. And you’re both idiots if you think they haven’t noticed that you two can’t say one single goddamned nice thing to each other.”
Aiden focused his attention on me. “Remember what you told me, B?” he said, his voice softening. “You remember what you wanted this trip to be for them?”
I nodded. “A game changer,” I murmured. When I’d asked Aiden to chaperone the trip with me, I’d told him how I wanted each kid to have that one moment in their life where they realized they weren’t resigned to the shitty hand life had dealt them. None of them came from big money and most had some kind of trauma in their lives, whether it was abuse or a crappy home life or whatever… I’d wanted them to know there was a whole world waiting for them if they just had the guts to reach for it.
“You have a few days left to make that happen. Both of you,” Aiden said as he looked sharply at Xander. “This is your life,” he said as he motioned to the wilderness around us. “But most of those kids will never see this place or anything like it ever again. You really want them to remember it as the Bennett and Xander Ripping Each Other to Shreds show?”
Xander didn’t answer. Neither did I. And Aiden clearly wasn’t expecting one because he quietly said, “Work it the fuck out” before calmly walking away.
Leaving Xander and me to figure out how the hell we were supposed to do just that.
Chapter 15
Xander
I felt like a complete ass. Because of me and my selfish pity party, Bennett and I hadn’t given our full attention to the kids. The trip’s entire focus was supposed to be on those kids, but what had I done instead?
