Page 34 of Free Me

“It’s been a busy night. Hey, Jaxson, can I take this in your room? Please? Cool, thanks. One sec, Linus.”

“No problem.”

Miko’s heavy breathing kept him company until Linus heard the distinct sound of a door shutting. “Okay, I’ve got privacy. I know I just saw you a few hours ago, but how are you? Did you get your private room?”

“I did, maybe ten minutes ago. Room seven-fifty-four. And you’ll never guess who’s my nurse tonight.”

Miko laughed, and the sound made Linus smile. “Well, we only have one practicing nurse in our extended family, so I’m going to guess Gaven?”

“Correct. It was nice seeing someone I know who isn’t related to me. He also gave me your number, because I didn’t think to ask my parents before they left. I guess my phone got lost in the accident, and I have, like, no one’s number memorized. That’s pretty bad, huh?”

“Most of us are like that. And I’m glad Gaven is your nurse. Doesn’t that make you his first official patient in our friend group?”

“It does. I should get a special sticker for this.”

Miko laughed. “I’ll draw you one. I’m really glad you called. I wish I could have seen you again before I left, but it was late and your parents basically ordered everyone to go home and rest. I already made you sob out three gallons of tears today, so I didn’t want to press my luck by asking to say goodnight.”

“You didn’t make me cry.” Linus really wanted to get up and pace, to channel his nervous energy somewhere, but that wasn’t happening for a long time. So he settled for plucking at the edge of his blanket. “You gave me a safe place to feel what I was already feeling. I’m still furious and want to cry until I throw up, but I feel better hearing your voice. You always made me feel better when you were around.”

“Hey, no past tense. I’ll be around for a long time, I promise. I’m not going anywhere, Linus.”

“I know, I didn’t mean to sound like I was saying goodbye. It’s just hard to think further into the future than…I don’t even know, my breakfast tray? Or if Gaven will remember to bring me a vanilla milkshake tonight.”

“You don’t have to think past your next meal. No one expects you to have anything figured out. There’s so much to think about, and we’re all going at your pace.”

“What if my pace wants you back with me tonight?” Linus flinched at how corny that sounded and prepared to be laughed at. He had no explanation for his need to be close to Miko, and he didn’t want one. Sometimes the why didn’t matter.

Miko made a soft, snuffling sound. “I’d say I wish I was back there too, but I don’t want hospital security to ban me when you’ve been awake for less than twelve hours.”

“Good point. And since we can’t be in the same place, can we talk for a while?”

“Definitely. Um…what about? My brain is a big blank.”

“Tell me about the fight with your parents?”

“You don’t want to hear about my problems.”

Linus grunted. “Don’t tell me what I want to hear. I’d love to hear about anything that isn’t specifically about me, my leg, my head, or this hospital. I want to hear aboutanythingspecific to you. Please m—please.” He’d nearly tacked “my omega” onto that please, but Miko wasn’t his omega. He was hisbest omega friend. Nothing more.

Right?

“It wasn’t a fair fight, but I finally said some stuff I’ve been feeling for a long time. After everything this past week, I couldn’t hold it in anymore, and I kind of blindsided them. And then it hurt even more that they were so surprised by it, and I needed to get some space so I came here.”

Linus didn’t have to reach very far back into their lifelong friendship to guess what Miko had laid on his folks tonight. “You told them how much you resent Peyton sometimes?”

Miko sputtered. “How the hell, dude?”

“As much as I’d love to praise my own deductive reasoning skills, you told me about it once.”

“I did? When?”

“Remember when we were sixteen and stole that bottle of schnapps from my dad’s liquor cabinet, because we wanted to find out the big deal about being drunk?”

“I mean, I remember us starting to drink that shit, but not much after. Why?”

Linus flushed at bringing this up so many years later but what was the point in hiding it? Secrets always came out. “You got hammered way faster than I did, because you didn’t eat as much of the pizza we made, and when you’re drunk you tend to babble about whatever happens to be bothering you at the moment.” Sweet alcohol like wine and schnapps made Miko maudlin and chatty; tequila was the only thing that (so far) seemed to make him ragey.

“Okay, yeah, I do that.”

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