Page 44 of Dire Straights

“Maddox, I can’t base decisions in my life on whether or not your mother will cop an attitude about it. Otherwise, I’d never leave the house.”

“I know, I’m not telling you to, but… You need to tell her. I don’t want to.”

“I don’t expect you to tell her about any of this. Why would you think that?”

“But if you don’t tell her, when she finds out that I was here and knew about it and didn’t tell her right away, she’ll chew me out.”

He looked thoughtful for a few moments, before sighing. “That’s fine. I’ll let her know as soon as possible. I’m picking Elly and Petyr up next weekend, anyway. Is that soon enough?”

“Yeah, fine. Just… I really, really don’t want to be in the middle of it.”

“That’s understandable.”

We were all quiet for a few moments after that. When I glanced over at Ren, his stare back at me was intense.

“Everyone is worried about you, Maddox. Especially Missy,” my dad informed me.

I groaned, pressing my fingertips into my closed eyes. “Sorry. I fucking suck.”

“Hey,” he chided me. “Language.”

“Sorry.” I’d forgotten I wasn’t by myself in school anymore.

“And you don’t suck.” He obviously didn’t know about the oral fixation I’d developed and how I’d been using Ren’s dick to curb it. “But I definitely got an earful from your aunt.” My dad’s sister was a bit of a firecracker.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you look bad.”

“Not your fault,” he promised me. “Are you ready to go back?”

I wasn’t, not by a long shot, but I nodded slowly.

The rest of the party was kind of miserable. Everyone walked on eggshells around me, especially Missy, who could barely make eye contact with me. I wasn’t used to being looked at like a freak. The sense of relief that coursed through me was indescribable when people finally started leaving and my dad told me Ren and I could go up to my room and hang out and to have a good night.

The moment my bedroom door closed behind us, I collapsed onto my bed, shuddering. “I really, really thought my dad saw us kissing.” The anxiety of that moment came flooding back to me, and I curled into myself.

He sank down onto the bed beside me, petting my shoulder and waist. “I did, too. I’m really sorry, Maddy. I shouldn’t have kissed you.”

“No, you should have,” I corrected him. “It was a really, really good kiss. I’m sorry this weekend has turned out to be so insane. I really just wanted to chill out with you.”

“We still can,” he said softly. “And anyway, we have tons of weekends to spend together. If some aren’t that great, we’ll make up for it with the others.”

“You plan on sticking around for tons of weekends, huh?”

He grinned, dropping his head down to plant a kiss on the side of my head, into my hair. “I’m definitely not going anywhere.” He paused, glancing at my door. “Um, is it okay for me to be in here like this? I mean, should I go in the guest room?”

“My dad never comes and checks on me after I go to bed,” I promised him. “I snuck out so many nights for parties and stuff and he had absolutely no idea. We’re totally safe.”

He breathed a sigh of relief, before wiggling down into a lying position beside me, so we were face to face. “That’s good. I really didn’t feel like being alone right now.”

“Yeah, no, I…” I stopped, shaking my head. “I thought I was going to throw up when he pulled up in the car.”

“You did sound really scared,” Ren said. “I felt so bad. I’ve never heard you sound like that before.”

“God,” I grumbled, squeezing my eyes closed. “I always end up looking like such a dork in front of you.”

“What?” He asked in shock, shaking his head. “Maddy, you’re like the coolest guy ever. You never look like a dork to me.”

“You’re just biased. Fully, completely biased.”

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