Page 70 of Boys Like You

Mercer steps forward. “Are you sure you’re okay? He can wait if you’re not.”

“I’m fine. I need to know, and if he has been struggling, we need to know and help him through it, even if my heart breaks in the process.”

“We don’t deserve you,” Rocky says, coming up behind me, his large arms going around my mid-section. “I will text you later, dad found out we were at a party and now I have weight training with Mac and Mercer and this will be fun for a change.”

“Mercer, do not smile. Be nice to Mac, I was serious when I said we are friends now.” Judging by the smirk on Mercer’s face, they are going to ride him hard at training.

“I promise not to physically hurt him.” Mercer even makes a cross over his heart. Rocky laughs. Those two are up to something.

“I’m off, call if you need me.” Levi gives me a quick hug.

Rory unlocks his Mustang, Maximus gets in the back and I take the front seat. We drive in silence back to Beth’s. Damien gets excited when we walk in thinking Mercer is here. He storms out of the room when Rory tells him he isn’t with us.

“Are you boys staying for dinner?” Beth asks.

“Yes please, if Maximus wants to stay.” Maximus gives Beth a thumbs up. She smiles at him and calls the kids to help her prepare the food. The three kids run past us and into the kitchen. Maximus and Rory follow me straight to my room; I try to keep as much distance between us as possible.

Maximus sets himself up on the couch, pulling on his headphones and taking out a chemistry book. Rory takes a seat on the opposite couch and I follow.

“I’m sorry, JD.” He places his hand on my knee.

“I believe you are but sorry is just words.” A phrase runs through my head; If you were so sorry you wouldn’t have done it in the first place.

Where the hell did that come from? It’s my own voice.

“Are you all right?” he asks me. “You zoned out.”

“Sorry, I don’t know where I went.”

“After I came to see you yesterday, Cindy called. We had an event, a charity thing. Our parents are close and have tried forcing us together. I tried to date her because it’s what made my mum happy but you’ve met her, she is impossible. Image means everything in our life. Stupid things like these events come with the lifestyle. I should have called, but I felt terrible. Cindy got wasted, and I couldn’t take her home; her father is an asshole, so I took her with me. When we got back to the hotel she passed out, so I went to shower. She must have woken up to answer your call.” He pauses, his eyes pleading with me. “She threatened to tell my mum I was in a weird relationship with you and my friends. I panicked. Mum is already unstable, and finding out I was sharing you with my friends would send her into a total meltdown. She wouldn’t cope knowing how it would make her look.”

“You should have just told me, Rory, because that wasn’t a big deal, honestly. I don’t want to push her out of your life, even if I can’t stand her. I was mad that you lied.”

“I know, I messed up, I’m not used to having a girl who gets it. When I dated Cindy, if I even spoke to another girl she would go mental. She was even jealous of Savannah and tried to ban me from going to visit Maximus, even when I told her Sav didn’t like us like that.” His thumb rubs my knee.

“No, she is in love with Mac, but you buttheads interfered with that.” His face drops and his light strokes on my knee stop. “Yeah, he told me about that.”

I feel better now he has explained himself. Maybe I’m letting him off easy, but this is new to all of us; they need to learn how to function as six, and I need to show them that I’m here for the long haul. That they can trust me, and trust isn’t something they give out easily.

“You have to understand, Savannah was pure. She had a sheltered life. She was around four when we all met her, and she idolised Maximus, so excited to have a big brother. She was the first girl that never judged us for our past. Mac is a player; always has been, no matter what he says. He isn’t good enough for her. He plans to leave next year, and she deserves someone who will stick around and treat her like the princess she is.” He glances at me out of the corner of his eye. “Did he tell you that Maximus beat him up so badly?”

My mouth falls open in shock. I don’t know the details from Maximus’s past, but I know he hates violence. In their group what one person finds a trigger, is how another of them copes. When you put all their pieces together they are one whole.

“He didn’t, though I can only imagine how pissed he was when he found out his sister lost her virginity to an alleged player.”

“So mad. Maximus is the placid one until he isn’t. He hates violence. Savannah didn’t talk to him for a month after finding out he hurt Mac.”

I change the subject back to us since we strayed off topic. “I need you to promise you will be honest with me. I accept there are times you can’t share everything but this isn’t one of those times.” One thing I have found is for some strange reason, I feel like I know every single one of them, so much so I knew Rory was lying, it was this feeling deep down in my gut.

“I promise, from today onwards, I will be open with you. Promise when I do tell you things, you won’t think any different of me? I will always put your needs first, JD, just know that.”

I take his hands in mine. “Nothing you have done in your past or will ever do in the future will make me think any different of you as a person.” I want him to know how much I mean that. He beats himself up about coming from a wealthy family, always feeling like his problems are not as big or as important as everyone else’s.

“Promise.” He looks at me with watery eyes.

“Promise.”

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