Page 82 of Noxious Boys (Groveton College)

I nod again. Without argument. I’ve never been a bully, neither have my brothers. But Lynx, my blood brother, he seems a little too good at it for a boy who’s soft.

I did that.

Made him hard.

Made him mean.

He’s in love with her.

You fucked your brother’s girl.

I look up. At Flynn. An unfamiliar seriousness to his sharp features, wide jaw, crazy fucking eyes.

“You want her too.” I grind my teeth, flex my jaw, bite the inside of my cheek, digging my molars into the flesh.

“Her dad is still a problem, Benny.”

I think of the phone call, the voice, the shouting. The memory makes my ears ring.

“I know.”

Flynn doesn’t ask me how, what, why, he just says, “She won’t want us.” He swallows, still holding my gaze, blue eyes flashing. “We need to talk to Lynx first.” I sniff, nodding. “He needs to know we trust him, we love him. That we believe in him.”

“I fucked up.”

“You didn’t, you’re his brother,we’rehis brothers and we tried to do something to protect him.”

“We should have told him. About the Venom, the why.”

“We should have,” Flynn agrees with a single nod, still holding my gaze. “We can fix this,youcan fix this, with him, with her, for them.” He finally looks away from me, breaking the taut snap of tension, but his deep blue gaze returns to mine with his final words, “For us.”

“It’s not her fault,” Hendrix grinds his teeth, rolling his shoulders. “We have fucked up,” he pronounces clearly, licking over his upper front teeth, his pierced tongue clicking against them. “This is your fault,” he spits at me, and I can do nothing but agree.

I am silent, listening, taking everything they throw at me. Lynx still nowhere to be found. King and Rex side by side on the couch Flynn vacated to sit in the armchair at my side. King lifts his gray gaze onto mine, the half full, plastic water bottle between his hands crinkling as he flexes his fingers.

“I didn’t wanna fucking hurt her,” he swallows the thickness in his throat, self loathing, something heavier. “But I’m loyal,” he sniffs hard, his grip tightening on the bottle, the cracking of thin plastic loud in the room. “To you.” I hold his gaze, watching his braids fall into his eyes before he sweeps them back, palming the crown of his shaking head. “I should have fucking said no.”

Flynn shifts, clearing his throat. Rex watches silently, his eyes darting between his two leaders. One he looks to to lead because it’s the role I fell into when we were young. Whereas, the other, the other earned his loyalty through trust, friendship, all things that felt just a little harder for me to find with them. Because I was harsher, I was sterner. I had to be. To help us survive, to thrive.

“What do you think we should do?” it’s clear, my question, but silence is what greets me.

I look between all of them, from Rex to Flynn, back to King. His dark brow furrowed, he nods, light gray eyes flicking over the room.

“We need to get Lynx back here,” he says naturally, taking the lead without making a big deal out of it, and I let him.

Want him to.

Flynn’s hand comes to my knee, his chin dipped, eyes lifted to mine, his fingertips press hard into the muscle of my thigh, and he’s nodding at me. Reassurance, because I’m doing the right thing.

I’m letting it go.

Handing over the reins.

I’m gonna take a back seat and let King clean up my mess.

I just hope we still have a chance to fix things. To make it right. For me, my brothers, for her.

I think of the video posted to social media, the printed photos, all of her wet, naked body plastered over every corridor, classroom and student car windscreen. Her having to deal with it all by herself.

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