AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I hope this is something you enjoy,” I murmured, lost in thought. “Especially after having to go through all of this. I was hoping you’d find something you enjoyed doing.”
“I won’t know until I start,” he admitted. “But it’s something that’s not minimum wage, so I can’t really bitch about it.” He shrugged. “It’ll probably take a few shit jobs before I find something I like.”
I nodded. “You called Darius to come celebrate too?”
“He’s been neglected,” Adam said sleepily. “After shit blew up, I kind of fell into a hole. Kinda reeled from all of it.” He paused and reached over the console to tap my arm. “Sorry.” He cleared his throat. “I needed to make sure we were all good. That this could move forward with no further issues.”
“He would have an issue with it,” I muttered, hoping to not gain the attention of the two men in the back seat. I pulled into the parking lot of their apartment. “He doesn’t want to be party to this anymore.”
“Probably didn’t help that I pushed you away in the beginning,” Adam agreed. “I got so caught up in all the aftermath that I just thought about myself.”
I hummed, so he knew I was listening. I focused on trying to ease the large truck into a parking spot without hitting another car. When I put it into park, I released a breath. “After everything, you should make sure your friendships are solid. Going at it on your own is hard.” I glanced into the back seat. “So you should totally help me unload your friends from your truck and carry them upstairs so we can put them to bed.”
Adam snorted as he opened the passenger door. “These fuckers can get themselves to bed.” He didn’t wait for me. He got out of the truck and went upstairs to his door.
I watched him fumble with the keys, then disappeared into the apartment. The door stayed open, suggesting that he expectedme to be just behind him. He just didn’t want to do any heavy lifting.
I released a sigh and got out, deciding Cam might be the easier one to drag in. He’d be less likely to fight me. I carefully opened the door he was leaning against. I caught him before he fell, though the one thing that kept him from tumbling out of the truck was the seatbelt he’d been aware enough to pull on. Fortunately, it was enough to wake him.
“What?” he yelped, flailing before I caught him. “What’s going on?”
“We got you home, baby. I’m just taking you to bed,” I explained quietly as I unbuckled him.
Cameron hummed, leaning heavily into me. “I like it when you talk to me like that.”
“I’ll have to do it when you’re sober,” I assured him, “because all I’m doing is putting you to bed. I’m too tired to do anything more entertaining.”
He made a noise of agreement, suggesting that he probably couldn’t even consider sex past the idea of it. He let me shoulder his weight and close the door. The truck shook, but Darius didn’t move to get out. I bit my lip as I urged the other man onto the sidewalk and up the stairs.
For some reason, knowing I’d be close to Darius made me anxious. We hadn’t spoken since he blew up at Shay after he learned about her involvement. I couldn’t blame him. He had every reason to be angry. So I hadn’t expected to see him again. I figured it would be for the best if Shay was ever gonna repair her relationship with her brother. I didn’t need to make that harder for her.
But with him passed out drunk in the back seat of Adam’s truck, I didn’t know what the right thing to do was. I couldn’t leave him there. That’d be shitty. But would he be angry ifI dragged him upstairs? Would he assume I was pressing for something? I’d have to wait to see.
Cam leaned into me as I stepped into his apartment. It was evident how tired he was, or it may have just been a reason to be closer to me. I had my arm around his waist and I gave him a squeeze, not stopping to hug him like I wanted to at that moment. I just pulled him down the hallway toward his bedroom.
Adam’s bedroom door was open, but the lights were off. He hadn’t gone to his own bed, though. We found him stretched out face-first on Cameron’s bed. The man at my side didn’t seem bothered. He directed me to the other side of the bed. He kicked off his shoes and fell back on the bed.
I didn’t bother to poke him into laying lengthwise. I turned to go back downstairs to get Darius. I found him leaning against Adam’s truck, his head bowed with a hand rubbing over his face.
“You aren’t gonna be sick, are you?” I asked.
Darius grunted and glanced up at me. He didn’t waver from his position against the truck. “Did it cost you a good chunk to keep feeding us drinks?”
I shrugged, shifting from foot to foot. “Just my share of the tips for the night,” I said dismissively. On a Friday night, the tips would have been a few hundred dollars. But I wasn’t gonna hold it against them. There was a good chance that I’d make up for it Saturday night. “Adam’s bed is open,” I said, shifting the conversation. “I know he’s not gonna mind you sleeping in it.” I paused, reconsidering. “Or I can drive you home?”
“Nah,” he grunted, and pushed himself off the side of the truck. “It’s late,” he continued, stepping forward, “I’m tired. I know you’ve got to be too.”
I nodded warily, moving to get out of his way. I let him lead us to the stairs. I gave him room, in case he was gonna be sickor just didn’t want me that close to him. I drifted closer when he looked like he was going to stumble, but I didn’t touch him.
“I’m not gonna throw up,” Darius said as we got to the door. “This isn’t the aftermath of a high school party. I’ve learned to hold my liquor since then.”
“I don’t want to piss you off by coming into your space,” I explained easily. “I know you wouldn’t like it, and I’m trying to respect you.”
“It’s a bit late to do that, isn’t it?” he asked, the seriousness biting. “Maybe you should’ve thought about being respectful before I got involved.”
“You’re right,” I agreed, not able to keep myself from matching his tone. “And I regret it came out the way it did. I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t know how to make things better. I don’t know how to make amends,” I huffed out as we continued into the apartment. “And I know I don’t deserve a second chance. Especially given how we were doing this.” I closed the door behind us. I was too tired to have a deep conversation about the mistakes I’d made. “So let’s just skip the guilt trip. Call me a bitch and let’s leave it at that.”
“You deserve to feel guilty,” he grunted, standing in the hallway. “You should feel shitty. This was a shitty thing to do to people. Because it didn’t just affect Kyle—it affected all of us.” He gestured down the hallway. “You still have Adam and Cam hard up for you. Did you even bother to apologize to them?”
