Page 16 of Breaking the Habit

She steeled herself. Her desires had no place in this conversation.

“Bye, Levi.”

He pushed out of the studio, and it might have been her imagination, but she thought she sensed a cloud of disappointment behind him.

She could only see it because it clung to her, too.

Chapter 6

It wasn’t often that rejection found Levi.

But when it did, it came crashing through the wall like a demonic Kool-Aid Man. The type of surprise punch to the gut that left Levi reeling and grasping for his tried and true fallback.

Going out and getting into trouble.

He’d done it a thousand times before. This coping mechanism was nothing new. Forged from heartbroken necessity after both his parents had died on the same stupid-ass night, in the same stupid-ass wreck caused by a tipping semi and a too-tight curve, he didn’t have a lot of options as a young, single guardian looking after his disabled brother.

His life was taking care of Gage, and letting off steam the only ways he knew how: fighting or fucking.

Except when he’d gone out the night after Riley made it more than clear she could give a shit about him. Even that steam wasn’t enough. He’d fucked up a dude’s face in an alley behind a shithole bar in downtown LA and told anybody who would listen that he was a professional MMA fighter who was gunning for a title. Zero women were involved, which shocked him maybe more than anything else.

Fucking was his go-to. But for some reason, only his fists wanted to fly. Not his cock.

And he worried it was because he thought he still had a chance with Riley. Like an idiot.

A few cameras came out to catch his spectacle. That, at least, he could remember through the drunk haze.

But he’d really expected there to be some sort of paparazzi following him by now. He was good at making a scene. Hell, it was the only reputation he had anymore. That and stupid dad jokes. Levi in a nutshell. He was fine with it. That’s all people needed to know about him.

Any more and he’d start to get uncomfortable.

The days leading up to the first match were predictably intense. Riley came around for pictures and disappeared as soon as possible. Within a week of a fight, Levi’s personal rule, backed up by Travis, was no alcohol and no sex. So that ruled out his tried and true methods of stress relief.

Which meant he turned into a raging bull by the morning of the fight. He rocketed around his apartment like pinball let loose in an eighties sci-fi-wonderland pinball machine. Gage shook his head and continued playingCall of Duty.At sixteen years old, Gage found pretty much anything Levi did anymore embarrassing somehow.

That’s what made the fine line between guardian and brother even thinner. As Gage’s brother, he should be allowed to act out and go get drunk and get arrested a time or two. Whatever. But as Gage’s guardian and stand-in father, he needed to set a good example.

Not like Gage would be standing up and heading to a bar on his own anytime soon because of Levi’s actions…but still. Levi needed to be the good guy in Gage’s eyes. Which meant that he didn’t tell Gage about what he got up to. No girls came around the house.

Once Levi became famous and the news started slipping out of its own accord…well, Levi would handle that when he got there. For now, he needed to continue the balancing act.

“Can you stop hopping around like a demented rabbit?” Gage snarked. “I can’t focus.”

“Sorry, bro.” Levi took to pacing the width of the apartment, flipping the back of Gage’s hair each time he passed. Gage grunted, jerking the controller along with his head as he tried to dodge Levi’s reach. “You coming to this match or what?”

Gage sighed, not bothering to rip his eyes off the screen. He’d been going through a thing the past several months—basically since they’d gotten to California. He didn’t want to go outside; he didn’t want people to see him; he didn’t want the home health nurse to accompany him anywhere. Their outing last week had been the first in a while, beyond the required daily trek to school during the week days. Levi figured it was part acclimating to a new home, part teenage angst.

But to be sure, Levi had scouted a psychologist for him. Their first session was later that month.

“Nobody gives a shit about your chair,” Levi said. He’d said these words a thousand times already.

“Easy for you to say,” Gage muttered.

Levi huffed. “You want me to get a chair too? I swear to God, I will.”

Gage smirked but didn’t say anything.

“I’ll fight from the chair, too,” Levi said, swooping in to make eye contact with Gage. His brother was fighting a grin now. “Instead of a cage fighter, I’ll be a chair fighter.”

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