Page 40 of Poles Apart
Chapter Twenty-One
Dom
When Dom arrived home on Friday morning, he was surprised when Jordan wasn’t up already and waiting for him.
“Jordan!” he called out. “Where are you, babylicious?”
When he didn’t reply, Dom got worried. Jordan never went out on his own, but he couldn’t see any sign that he’d been up this morning. He moved to Jordan’s room and knocked gently. Still no reply. He slowly opened the door. What he saw had him running to his brother’s side. He was lying completely still, a look of absolute agony on his face.
“Fuck, Jordan. Why didn’t you call me? How long have you been like this?”
Jordan reached for his hand, a look of despair on his face. “I can’t fucking move, Dom.” He looked on in horror as his brother’s face screwed up in pain. “It started this morning, about six, maybe?” The strain on his face was almost more than Dom could bear.
“Shit, shall I call an ambulance? Tell me what to do, Jordan. How bad is it?” Dom was frantically searching his room, looking for painkillers, anything that could help his brother.
“Call the doctor. I couldn’t reach my phone to call you or him.”
Dom was furious with himself. This was what happened when he went out to have fun. He should have known he couldn’t have both. His brother needed him, and where had he been? Out fucking around with Jacob, and as much as he’d loved spending the night with him, he knew that it couldn’t happen again. He realised he was being irrational as this had never happened when he spent the odd night with Seb, but it drove home to him that his brother did need him. He should be putting him first.
He took his phone out and called the doctor, explaining the situation. They promised to get someone out to them as soon as possible, so all Dom could do was wait. He’d make sure Jordan was OK and then let Jacob know that as much he loved last night, it was over.
After an hour, the doctor arrived. He examined Jordan, and after a few questions, decided that he’d overdone it with his exercises, which had caused the spasms he’d felt in his back. He prescribed some new medication to ease the pain and instructed Jordan to take it easy with his exercises and not to overdo it again.
Once the doctor had gone, Dom went back to his brother. “I’ll go and get these meds for you. Then you and I are going to have a talk, and no fucking arguments, Jordan.” Dom was as cross with his brother as he was with himself, and theyweregoing to have to discuss what had happened.
Half an hour later and Dom was back. He took out the right amount of medication and a drink and went in to see Jordan. He thought he was asleep, but his eyes opened as soon as he walked in, and he tried to sit up but grimaced at the effort.
“Jordan, stop. Let me help you.” Dom rushed to his side and attempted to gauge how his brother was feeling. He sat on the side of the bed and managed to get Jordan to a position where he could take his tablets.
Jordan sighed. “Thanks, I’m sorry to have caused you problems—again. Seems all you’ve done for the past twelve months is take care of me, take me where I need to be, dose me up.” Dom was sad to see him look so dejected, and the annoyance he’d previously felt, faded.
“Hey, no more of that. I told you I’d be here to look after you, and I am. I’m not going anywhere.” He kissed his brother lightly on the forehead. “I’ll always be here.” Dom had already decided to end whatever this was with Jacob. He was foolish to think he could have anything with anyone with his brother the way he was. He needed looking after, and it was unfortunate that he was the only one around to do it.
“How was last night?” Jordan asked, the strain in his voice evident.
“It was good; the dance went well.” There was no way he was going to let Jordan know of the trouble at the club. He had enough to worry about without that added pressure.
“And you stayed with Jacob? I take it you had a good time.”
“I did, but it won’t happen again. I told you before. You’re my first priority. I’ll be here now. It was good while it lasted, but…” Dom couldn’t finish the sentence as his voice broke. He felt so guilty. Jordan had been lying here in agony, and Dom had been fucking around. He couldn’t let that happen again.
“What do you mean, won’t happen again?” Jordan tried to sit up again, but Dom eased him gently down.
Dom didn’t want to talk about this anymore. He pulled the covers up around Jordan.
“Don’t worry about it. We’ve got enough to deal with without adding a boyfriend into the mix. We’ll be fine, you and me.”
He stood up and left the room, not wanting to hear the protests he knew his brother would have, but he couldn’t in all good conscience turn his back on his brother. He knew what he had to do, but he didn’t quite have the courage to carry it through.
By now, it was mid-morning, and he didn’t know what to do with himself. He could call Seb, but he didn’t want to explain what was going on with him at the moment when he had so many problems of his own to deal with, so that left Hayden. Would he keep his secret?
He got out his phone and dialled Hayden’s number.
“Hi, Dom. How did it go last night?”
By a stroke of luck, Seb nor Hayden had been able to go to the club last night, so neither of them had witnessed his humiliation at the end of the set or the lap dance he’d given to Jacob.
“It was good, thanks. The dancing went well, but some jerk at the end decided it was a good idea to try and get handsy with me all because I didn’t give him a lap dance.”
