Page 30 of Honeysuckle
I shoved him off the rest of the way and stepped back from Dean with cloudy vision and warm blood dripping down my face, the copper tang hitting my lips as it cascaded from my nose.
“What the hell was that about?” He asked me, when the mess hall doors swung shut.
“I didn’t start that,” I said, trying to clear my head.
“I didn’t ask if you started it, I asked what it was about.” Dean stepped forward and I stepped back. He sighed and cocked his head to the side with his hands in the air. “I just want to see if it’s broken again,” he said, pointing at my nose.
“It’s not, just agitated,” I replied, carefully rubbing the bridge of my nose between two fingers to feel if anything was out of place. “I’ll go see, Doc.” I said, refusing to use Silas’ name. It was definitely broken, but the thought of Dean getting close enough to set it straight made my stomach sick, so I lied.
“Good. Are you okay?” He asked me.
“I’m fine, Tuck,” I brushed him off. I was impatient to get out of this conversation. “They were just hazing the new kid. It’s out of their system now, so maybe we can finally play some baseball.”
Dean watched me for a moment before stepping to the side and letting me walk past him toward the exit. I knew the answer wasn’t what he wanted, but it was the only one I had to offer. I turned back to look at him and he was still standing there, muscles tense and chest heaving, as the adrenaline rolled through his body.
“Logan,” he warned, before I pushed the door open. “If you don’t figure yourself out, I’m going to have to send you home.”
“Not sure you have that authority, Tuck. Thanks for the save though. " I pushed out into the sun and heading straight for the cabin. There was about an hour before we had to be grouped up for this afternoon's activities so I was going to clean myself up.
Cael was sitting on his bunk with one of his long legs dangling down from the mattress and his hat pulled down over his face. He tipped the brim up at the sound of the door and eyed me carefully as he sat up.
“What the hell?” He exclaimed, taking in the blood stained collar of my hoodie. “You were alone for, like, ten minutes man!”
“Yeah, well, a nose breaks in under thirty seconds. Will you…help?” I asked him, and approached the bed.
He slipped down and hit the ground softly on both feet, positioning himself in front of me. I braced my hand on the mattress and closed my eyes so I didn’t have to stare into his as he reset my nose.
“One, two…” before three he clicked it back into place and pulled back from me to grab a dirty towel that hung on our bunk, handing it to me. “You really need to learn to keep your mouth shut,” he said with a smile.
“Wasn’t even my fault, Cody. Todd and his band of merry men jumped me in the mess hall.” I waved him off and sunk into the rickety chair in the corner of the cabin with my head tilted back to control the nosebleed.
I could see the annoyance on Cael’s face as he stared toward the door.
“Tuck dealt with them, it’s over. Sit down, you’re shaking like a worked up chihuahua,” the words came out an exhausted grumble.
I closed my eyes, trying to sit still to let the raging headache I was suffering from pass, as my thoughts were bombarded by old memories. I had made a mistake telling Todd what I did; the chances of him running his mouth were low after he was embarrassed by Tucker, but not zero. Soon, his close friends would know about the fight and the rumors would ripple out until they all had their assumptions about what had happened.
The suffocating truth about that night would stay locked away forever behind walls of concrete and steel. They could assume what they wanted about me; I didn’t care and none of them really did either. It was just sick curiosity. They wanted information that could be used in warfare. But I was good at protecting my secrets, and even better at the art of bloodshed than any of them could have imagined. I had been fighting my entire fucking life just to survive, and I wasn’t about to let some hyped-up, drunk, college assholes ruin it for me.
My chest tightened and the worry of what my mom was doing flooded back in; whether or not she was okay. It had been nearly a week of no contact and it was eating at me, so badly that sleep was hard to come by, and I spent way too much time wandering around just trying to get a signal on my phone long enough to call the shelters she frequented.
As predicted, spring camp had been a nightmare.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Cael asked as he moved around the cabin. I heard the bed creak and could feel his eyes on me.
“I’m fine.” I opened one eye and forced a weak smile to my face. My head was pounding and my nose would hurt pretty badly for the next few days but otherwise I was in good shape. “Ella hits harder,” I said, just trying to comfort him.
That was the problem with Cael. No matter how upset I was, or how little the situation had to do with him, I always wanted to make sure he was okay. Comfortable. Safe. That made him laugh though, and he relaxed a little.
“Hey, do you think you could get me a day pass? I need to go into the city.” I looked over at Cael.
“I could try.” He shrugged and stood up. “Change your shirt before team building.” He pointed to the blood drying on the collar, and I nodded at him.
As he left, silence settled in, giving me a few minutes to collect myself before I had to face the wolves again.
TUCKER
Theguysallstoodaround, chatting amongst themselves, when I showed up. I had gone straight to Silas and told him about what had happened so that he could help me keep an eye on Todd and the guys. I knew that ,eventually, they would try to get Josh alone; I just didn’t think it would end that way.
