Page 47 of Boys Like You

“You’re welcome. I’ll see you when Beth brings you in. Tell my nephew it’s his turn to organise dinner.”

The guys walk back in carrying pizzas. “What’s wrong?” Levi asks.

“Your aunt called.” The mood in the room drops as they all crowd around me.

“Do they know who you are?” Rory asks quietly. I shake my head no.

“I have to go back to the station to talk more. I think they want to do a press release. I don’t know if I’m ready for that.” I pause, my fingers tangling through my hair. “She did say I could have other options if things get bad.” Levi sits up straighter.

“You do. Basically you are supposed to live at home until you’re eighteen, but the police won’t force you to return home if you have somewhere safe and can financially support yourself.”

“How do I get a job when I have no ID?”

“We find someone willing to hire you for when you know who you are, then it shows you have a way to support yourself.” Levi has really thought this through, it warms my heart knowing the guy who was skeptical of me has tried to find a way to keep me around.

“Who would hire me?” It’s easy to say, find a job and ask if they can keep you on standby.

“My dad,” Mercer says matter of factly.

“Looks like you have all put some thought into this.”

“We like to know all our options. It’s who we are. You know we come from shitty backgrounds, having control helps us cope,” Rocky adds. Maximus hands me a book.

“What’s this?”

“It’s our JD book,” Rory says, ducking his head. “It’s stupid really.”

I open the book. On the first page is a hand drawn picture of me curled up on the beach, the sky is dark, one of the shadows is sitting and the other four standing, this must be a recreation of the night they found me.

There are pages with info about my personality, straightforward being at the top of the list, small things they notice, my hair and nails before I removed them being an indication I may have been from a wealthy family. There is a page dedicated to each guy. I flick back to the first guy and go to read it.

The book is snatched from me.

“That’s enough of that,” Rocky says. Some of that stuff is very personal, I get why he doesn’t want me to see, but I wonder what each guy has written about me.

“So the book’s purpose is what?” I ask.

“It’s just things we notice about you. Kind of like a record, of sorts. We each have our own pages to add to. It probably seems weird, but it’s our way of coping with it all.”

“Okay,” I say, opening a box of pizza. “I’m starved.”

“Just okay?” Mercer asks, looking at me strangely.

“Yeah, just okay, I trust you.”

“It’s things like that we put in the book. Every time we ask that you trust us, you’re so easy, you don’t argue. It’s like you know how to read us.” Mercer seems slightly uncomfortable talking about this.

“Because I can, believe it or not, you’re not that hard to read.”

“Believe me, we really are. Take today for instance, Maximus has never ever let anyone other than Levi touch him when he has a moment. We know you know that, yet you were perfect,” Levi adds before grabbing a slice of pizza.

“I can’t explain it, but since we met I’ve been watching how he reacts to me. I let him dictate how or if we touch. Today I just winged it. Honestly, what was the worst that could happen?”

“He could have flipped out and you could have been hurt,” Rocky says, giving me his serious face.

“It was a risk I was willing to take. I would have backed off if I saw a change in his body language. It’s weird, I feel like I’ve known you all forever.”

“Back at ya, now can we eat this food and watch the movies? I really want to be the little spoon.”

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