Page 131 of Still Bruised
Foster chuckled mirthlessly. “Ifeltmiserable.”
“Why?”
Foster eyed Anton. “Are you asking what my intentions are?”
“Something like that.”
Foster met Anton’s gaze. “I care for him a great deal.” He sighed. “A few weeks back, he told me he ran into Rick.”
“He never said anything to me.”
“Well, Rick had noticed my car parked near the shop early one morning. He made assumptions.Accurateassumptions… but whatever he said, it really rattled Jude.”
“Just seeing that fuckface rattles Jude.”
“I could see pain in his eyes, but I didn’t really get it until now,” Foster said. “But even then, I thought to myself that being near him might’ve been hurting him more than helping.” He sighed. “I don’t want to be a constant, painful memory for him. I don’t want to make things worse. I want to make them better, but… maybe I can’t be that for him. No matter how much I love him.”
“I think youcanbe that for him,” Anton said. “I’d noticed changes in him, while you and he were doing your weird vengeance sex thing.Positivechanges.”
Foster eyed Anton.
“Honestly? I don’t trust you to be there for him. Not like he needs.”
“I want to help him,” Foster said.
“He’s working on his shit right now, as we speak. I’m proud of him for it, too. He’s going to need a fuckton of patience and understanding because things are probably going to get messier before they get better.” Anton glared. “He’s going to need people who show up for him. People who don’t walk away when they get scared. Your track record isn’t so great in that regard.”
“I’m not that same eighteen-year-old kid anymore, Anton.”
“There’s something else you should know. Something I probably shouldn’t tell you, but I think you need to know.” Anton sighed. “He’s going to hate me for this…”
Foster stiffened.
“I found him.” Anton swallowed, his eyes glazing over. “I found him in the ba?—”
Anton stopped speaking, like he’d glitched and frozen up. A solid ten seconds passed before he cleared his throat and tried again.
“Right after Christmas, Jude was supposed to meet up with me and didn’t show. He wasn’t one to just ghost somebody, especially me. He’d send a text at the very least. I tried calling him a few times, but it went straight to voicemail. The longer I waited, the more this weird feeling grew in my chest. I couldn’t breathe. Iknewsomething wasn’t right. I rushed to his house.” Anton paused, his jaw tight. “I found him.” He released a slow, shaky breath. “I, ah… he was in the bathtub and?—”
Anton stopped speaking again.
Foster sensed what he was trying to say and hoped like hell he was wrong.
A few seconds later, Anton’s gaze flicked to Foster’s. “I assume you’ve seen the scars on his wrists.”
Foster winced. “I was hoping you weren’t going to say that.”
“Sorry to dash your hopes.” Anton took a steadying breath. “Rick and his friends were ruthless. And we almost lost him because of it.”
Foster wanted to rip Rick to shreds with his bare hands in that moment.
“I’d seen them. I’d convinced myself that it hadn’t been the bullying because gossip hadn’t spread around school. You know how people talked back then. Surely we all would’ve heard about it if Jude had tried that.”
“Jude’s dad was good friends with a bunch of firefighters—and the chief, too. He called them instead of 911. They did first aidwithout alerting anyone and then took him to a hospital a few townships over to keep it quiet.”
“I’m glad he was protected. God knows what Rick would’ve done with that information.”
“Right?”Anton said. “After Jude rested a couple of days in the hospital, he was sent to a facility for a couple of months, but all they did was dope him up and send him home. His dad got him help after, but Jude ran through several therapists and eventually stopped going. They were causing more harm than good.”
