Page 66 of Boys Like You

“What happens if JD remembers her past or someone comes forward? This could have ramifications for all six of you.” Deacon just sits back in his chair and smiles; this must be how they typically deal with things. Liss taking the lead.

“We have considered that, but we’ve done the math. JD has to be around our age, and I know enough about the law to know she is old enough to make her own choices.”

I know they think it’s that simple, but we have no idea of the life I have come from.

“Levi,” Deacon says. “Is that really smart to throw the law out there? Her case is complex. Things may not be as black and white as you think.” I get the distinct feeling he knows something about me but isn’t saying anything.

“We will deal with that when we need to. Right now, it’s fun. Girls don’t usually get us, our group; that we put each other first. JD gets us, no judgement, and she accepts that we can’t tell her things about our lives until we are ready.”

“As long as you’re careful.” Liss looks at Levi, having a silent conversation.

“Ugh, we are not having sex. We have barely figured out how this will work, so you have nothing to worry about, and while we are figuring it out I’m not having sex with other girls either.”

Liss pushes her chair out and stands, Deacon follows her lead, she leans on the table and looks directly at Levi. “Still having that talk later. Deacon and I are going to sleep, we had a long shift. Take JD home, we can talk when I wake up.” With that Lissa and Deacon head upstairs.

“That went better than I thought.” I finally feel like I can exhale. I was nervous for no reason.

“They’re pretty open minded. I think the hardest ones we will have to convince will be Rick and Carmen, and I’m sure Rory’s mum will hate you being with him purely because you are not rich”

“I get the impression Rick hates me.”

Levi looks at me weird. “He won’t hate you. He is very protective of Rocky. He and Carmen couldn’t have their own kids.” I nod. I guess that explains things. “It could also be that he thinks you’re the reason Rocky has been slacking off with his training. He’s worked really hard to get him where he is today and wants him to make a career of it. Rocky hasn’t had the heart to tell him it’s not what he wants, though.”

“Am I the reason?” I would hate to stand in the way of his dreams.

“No, Rocky wants to trial a new medication and that usually makes him slower. He doesn’t know how to bring it up. He doesn’t want to let his dad down; in his mind he didn’t have to adopt him, especially as a broken six-year-old. They could have waited for a baby.”

We talk for a bit longer before Levi takes me upstairs to pack up my stuff before he drives me home. His friends want him to play ball, so I force him to just drop me off and go. I’m fine to spend the night by myself.

I watch the clock and wait for Rory to call. Levi told me the facility his mum goes to is about three hours away, so he should have been there by now. If only she’d go to one of the closer ones, so he didn’t have to travel so far. God forbid she go to one of the ‘poorer’ facilities.,

By nine I decide to leave him a voice message. As far as I know, he could have spent a few hours with his mum and crashed out.

The phone rings. I wait for voicemail, but the call connects.

“Hello?” a female voice answers.

“Hi, who is this?” I don’t even feel guilty for asking; I am dating Rory after all.

“Cindy, who is this?” Just hearing her name, I want to claw her eyes out. She would have known it was me calling, I know Rory has caller ID.

“Where’s Rory?” I cut the bullshit, refusing to buy into her act.

“He was all sweaty, so he jumped into the shower.”

I count in my head, so as not to curse her out. “I’m sure he was, get him to call me back,” I say through gritted teeth.

“He’s a bit busy tonight, I will tell him tomorrow.” She ends the call.

Why would he lie to me? He has seemed off the past week, but I put it down to stress. Sure, I’m hurt and a little jealous that he would turn to her instead of me, but I would have accepted it. What really worries me is that he thought he had to lie. I pace the floor and wonder if I should call one of the guys, but I decide against it, I can’t call them to help me every time I start to feel anxious. I decide to try and watch some mindless TV, checking my phone every few minutes to see if Rory has messaged me, surely even if he was with her he would at least message me? Logically I know they are just friends and that he continues being her friend for reasons unbeknown to me, and I accept that but this no secrets bullshit doesn’t seem to apply to him and it is starting to piss me off. I message all the guys a goodnight message, even Rory, not that he deserves it. They all message back except him and I swallow down a sleeping pill, deciding it’s best to sleep off my anger.

Rory didn’t call me back last night, or this morning. I have checked my phone over and over all day. I’m starting to drive myself nuts.

“Will you sit down? You’re driving me crazy.” It takes a lot to drive Rocky nuts.

“Sorry, he just said he would call me last night, and then that wench answered when I rang him instead. Why would he lie to me? I’m not that crazy person.” I start pacing again.

---