AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They were my family too, stepping into the gaping void left by my own useless parents. His parents treated me like another son. His siblings like another brother.
Finally, unable to avoid it any longer, I focused on myself. I was where I always was. At Kai’s side. Joy radiated from me as I stared at my best friend’s face. He so often shied away from attention that I delighted in these moments where he was the one being celebrated.
Fuck, we looked so happy. What had happened to us? What had I done that was so bad he wouldn’t even take my calls?
My eyes landed on Ruby again. Aside from Kai, she was the one I was closest to. I’d watched her grow from a cheeky baby into an even cheekier adult.
I opened up my thread with her and typed a quick message.You awake?
My phone immediately began to ring with a video call. I swiped to answer it, grinning when Ruby’s sleepy face filled the screen. “Hey, Rubes.”
Her hair was piled in a messy bun on the top of her head, her eyes blinking like an owl’s. She yawned so wide her jaw cracked. “Sorry, so tired.”
I gave her a sympathetic smile. “Just come off shift?”
“Yep.” Ruby worked as a nurse in the trauma unit at Southampton General. That was why I texted her first. She worked such long shifts that I didn’t want to risk waking her with a call. “But I’ve got four days off now.”
“Want me to go, and you call me back when you’ve slept?”
“No, it’s fine.” She tilted the phone to show me a mug of tea. “This’ll keep me going for a little while.”
I was burning to ask her about Kai, but I didn’t want Ruby to think that was the only reason I’d called. “How’s things?”
Ruby sipped from her mug, raising a thin eyebrow at me. “Is that really why you called?”
I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “How do you always see through me?”
“Blame it on being the youngest sibling,” she said. “Gotta have a fine-tuned bullshit metre to know when you’re being tricked, lied to, or played.”
“I really do want to know how you’re doing,” I grumbled. “I miss you, Rubes. All of you.”
Her face softened. “I know. We miss you too.”
There was a long pause before I spoke again. “Have you heard from him?”
Ruby’s eyes darted to the side like she didn’t want to look at me as she answered. “Yes. He’s been texting every day.”
It was like a punch to my stomach. So he wasn’t ignoring everyone.
Just me.
“How is he?”
Ruby shrugged. “I dunno. It’s Kai. Even if he was miserable, he wouldn’t say anything. He seems okay.”
“What do you mean?” I frowned. “Kai doesn’t hide when he’s hurting.”
Ruby took another sip of her tea as she studied me. “Really? So he explained exactly why he’s fucked off to the other side of the world during his break rather than spending time with his best friend and family?”
“No. But he did say it’s to do with me. Not you guys.”
“That I’m well aware of,” Ruby muttered. Before I could ask her what she meant by that, she spoke again. “Why’d you kiss him?”
I winced. “Didn’t realise you’d seen that.”
“Please. Even if I hadn’t been watching the livestream, I only would’ve had to open TikTok to have it shoved in my face. I’ll be honest, could’ve lived without seeing it.”
“Did the whole family see it?”
