Page 28 of The Order of Disorder
Peach is curled up in Maze’s lap, running her fingers along his tattoos like she’s studying them. Occasionally they kiss. Rox doesn’t mind. She barely notices.
My skin feels electric, my heart steady and calm. The world hasn’t disappeared, but the sharp edges have dulled. Everything I was feeling earlier about Wyatt, about the club, about my whole fucked-up life, feels far away. Like something that happened to someone else.
Rox shifts closer, her eyes glassy and bright. Her fingers brush over my shoulder, then stop at the collar around my neck. She tilts her head, considering.
“This thing,” she murmurs, “is bumming me out. Let’s free you.”
Before I can respond, her hands are at the clasp. Her movements are unhurried but sure, and then it’s gone. The visceral relief of having the collar taken off makes a shiver go up my spine. The weight around my neck disappears. The hot skin gets a brush of cool air. I draw out a long, luxurious exhale.
“Better,” Rox whispers. She presses her forehead to mine. “You don’t belong to anybody, Max. You’re a person.”
Emotion swells in my chest and Rox cups my face and kisses my cheek, soft and slow. “I love you,” she whispers.
“Guys,” Peach says suddenly from the lounger she’s sharing with Maze. “I wanna go find Billy.”
She stands up and Maze looks up at her and smiles like she’s made of light. “You look too good not to be in that man’s bed, sweetheart.”
Peach turns to me, momentarily sheepish. “Is that, like…okay with you?”
“Of course,” I say, laughing before I even mean to. “Just…be careful, okay? Protect your heart. You deserve better.”
Peach’s eyes go wide. “No, Billy’s great,” she counters. “He’s so sweet. Like…unexpectedly sweet.”
My brow furrows. I want to screamno he’s fucking not, but Maze stands before I can respond.
“We should all go inside,” he says. “Sun’s going down. Let’s get off this roof before we forget how to climb down.”
I let Rox take my hand and pull me up. We pack up our stuff and it feels like we’re finishing a picnic on another planet.
I pick up the collar and fling it off the roof with a wild whoop.
Rox whoops with me. Maze claps. Peach giggles and twirls. Then one by one, we climb through the window.
And head back down to earth.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“LET’S GET OXYS,” Rox says to Maze once we’re inside.
Peach is already bouncing off, heading up the stairs to see if Billy’s in his room.
“Good idea,” says Maze, putting his arms around both of us and steering us towards their bedroom door. Rox and I giggle, but it feels nice being under his arm too. Belonging with them.
Inside, the room looks even messier than it did last night. Wyatt’s leather cut is draped over the unmade bed, stray pieces of Rox’s clothing are littered about the floor. Plates and cups from breakfast have been added to the growing stacks of unwashed dishes on most of the surfaces.
Rox lights a stick of incense while Maze unlocks the small metal cabinet in the corner of the room and pulls out a pill bottle. He dispenses one small white pill to Rox and I and then takes one himself.
“This’ll help smooth you out,” Rox explains, but I don’t need any explanation. I’ll take anything they give me. Anything to help me get away from this place.
Maze hands me a bottle of water and I guzzle the whole thing down, insatiably thirsty, and Rox and Maze laugh while they polish off their own bottles of water.
My jaw is clenching, my thirst unquenchable, my skin glistening with a sheer cold sweat, but I feel fantastic. No collar, no Billy, and it’s all thanks to Rox and Maze. I’m incredulous that I found a safe space with them, that any of this is happening, and I start telling them. How much I appreciate them. How special they are. How beautiful.
And the best part is that they meet me right where I am.Yes, Rox agrees. This is something amazing, the three of us.
“You’re so beautiful, Max,” she whispers, intense and heartfelt, stroking my cheek. And it feels so real when she says it, like she sees something in me. Something that no one else has taken the time to find.
“So are you,” I whisper back and mean it.
