Page 92 of The MC's Little Brother

I didn’t wantMel wasting her day off moving, so I grabbed the crew and Xander to move all her stuff in while she was at work. Thankfully, she didn’t have a ton, but it’d take some work to fit it all in my place.

“Ew, gross,” Xander muttered. “She forgot to clean out her fridge before she came to stay with us.”

I peered over his shoulder, wrinkling my nose at the moldy food in the fridge. She liked to say we matched when it came to our slob-like natures, but Mel took the cake in that department. My mess never went farther than my bedroom.

“Just toss it all. You can’t trust Mel’s cooking anyway,” Prez said as he packed the dishes. It was a little awkward at first when he showed up, but we pushed past it eventually.

Xander snorted and did as asked, grabbing the trash in the corner so he could start dumping it all in there.

“So, is she selling the house?” Vegas asked as he wandered through with a big box in his arms. It was labeled books, but blankets were spilling out of the top of it. I got the feeling asking them to help was only going to hinder me in the end.

“Why would she keep it?” Xander shot back.

Vegas snorted. “Chill, little Wraith. I’m only asking because I’mlooking for a new place. If I have to spend one more night listening to Rooster’s caterwauling when he babysits, my ears will start bleeding.”

Xander cracked up, following him outside to hear more stories while he took out the already full trash. Prez shook his head as he watched them go.

“Think he’ll join the crew?”

I shrugged. “Better our crew than someone else’s.” I pushed to my feet, wiping my hands on my jeans. I’d asked Xander permission to share his secret with Prez. He said I could, and asked me to tell the others so he wouldn’t have to. He was still afraid of their reactions. After that discussion, I made a plan with Mel, but I needed to talk to Prez about it first.

“Hey, can I talk to you outside for a second?”

Setting down the dishes he’d just pulled out of the cabinet, he frowned at me. “Is everything okay?”

I tipped my head toward the door. The guys who showed up to help were all over the house, and Xander didn't want to be around when they all found out. I wasn’t talking about this in front of all of them.

Prez followed me outside and onto the sidewalk, well away from the hustle of the crew. Rooster and Vegas were keeping Xander busy, racing in and out of the house to see who was fastest. I ignored them, shoving my hands into my pockets.

“What is it, Mattias?”

We only used each other’s names when it was important. He knew I had something important to say.

“Xander came out to me a few days ago. That’s why Jorge beat the hell out of him and kicked him out. It scared the ever-loving shit out of him to tell me, and he’s too scared to tell the crew. He asked me to do it instead.”

His eyebrows came up slowly, but Prez didn’t have any judgments. He was an ally, same as his sister.

“Okay. What did you need from me? Do you want me to call a club meeting?”

I wrinkled my nose. “Maybe, at first. But I had a different plan in mind. For Xander, words are just words. I had to show him he could trust me and that he was safe. I don’t just want to tell him everyone is fine with it.”

“You want to show him,” Prez nodded. “I like that. What did you have in mind?”

The first part of it was simple. I was going to get ourclub logo printed into a sticker, but add in a pride flag or rainbow colors or something. I’d put that on my bike, so Xander knew I’d always have his back. For the rest of the crew, I wanted to go bigger. He deserved the kind of support he might’ve gotten in the city if he’d been with the right people. In this tiny ass town, it wasn’t that easy.

“How about a club run?”

Melissa

I got a message from Mattias that the plan was approved by Wyatt while I was in the middle of my shift. Which was perfect, because it meant I could get a lot of support from the people here and get them to join in. Maggie had mentioned a time or two doing something bigger to show the town the crew wasn’t that bad. Something like this would definitely help with that.

Poking my head into Doctor O’Malley’s office, I smiled at him. If anyone could get word out around the hospital, it was him.

“Good morning, Doctor O’Malley. Can I talk to you about something?”

An hour later, because the man never stopped talking, I had him on board and rushed to do my rounds so I could talk to my friends, too. Most of the people who worked at the hospital were allies and happy to join in.

Janelle leaned over the desk, frowning at me. “Wait. Has he come out yet? Won’t you be outing him in front of the whole town?”

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