Chapter Twenty-One
A Great Day Goes Terribly Wrong
Gabe
It’s been a little over a week since we went back to the club—a little over a week since I almost said ‘I love you’ to Ender.
That feeling has only gotten stronger and harder to keep to myself.
The more time we spend together, the more I’m enamored by everything about him.
He doesn’t seem as guarded as usual and, in turn, has been sharing more pieces of himself and his past with me.
Ender’s father suffered from an injury at work and needed pain meds to cope while he recovered.
That’s how his parents’ drug habit began, or at least how he thinks—he was too young to know all the details.
By the time he was old enough to understand what had happened on his own, they were neck-deep in addiction.
That’s the extent of his parents’ addiction he’s told me about.
Anything is better than nothing, and it means he’s putting his trust in me.
It makes me believe Connor and Kaden could be right.
Today, we’re finally getting to redo our rage room date, and I can’t wait to see him let loose. I’m taking him to my favorite spot for a quick-bite-to-eat place afterward.
When he opens his door, I melt a little from that perfect smile he shows so often now, but I’ll still never get tired of it.
“What are you up to, Blue?” he says, sniffing the stargazer lilies before taking them from me.
I follow him into his kitchen and watch him add water to a vase. He arranges the flowers and sets them on the counter, all with his back toward me.
“They’re beautiful,” he murmurs, sniffing them again as I come up behind him.
“What’s wrong, Bean? Did something happen?” I wrap my arms around him from behind and breathe him in. He doesn’t allow me to for long, quickly turning around and kissing me with such passion he steals my breath away.
When he’s had his fill of me, I can feel his wet lashes flickering against my face before I pull back from him. “Bean, what just happened?”
“Thank you,” he says in a breathless whisper.
I pull him in close, and my lips find their way to his temples, knowing it’ll soothe him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
“No. Don’t be. They’re happy tears, from good memories,” he tells me, nodding to himself.
After the first visit with my parents, Ender told me the story of the last ‘normal’ vacation his family took before everything went to shit.
Their family went to Oregon to see his mother’s parents.
During the trip, he spent time with his grandmother in her massive garden.
Apparently, she had a green thumb better than anyone he’s ever met.
She showed him the stargazer lilies she had grown for years and explained how they were her favorite flowers—also the reason she named his mother Lily.
It was his last memory of his grandmother, and of his parents actually being happy.
His father’s accident happened the following month.
“They’re my favorite. You remembered?”
“I remember everything you tell me, Ender.”
His genuine smile brightens my day even more every time he graces me with it.
“Gabe, I lo…”
“Darling, I’m home!” Connor shouts as he walks into the apartment, interrupting what I believe was Ender telling me what I so desperately want to tell him too.
We both take deep breaths while our eyes say what we can’t seem to yet.
“Whoa. What did I just walk in on?” Connor stands in the kitchen for way too long.
When we still don’t acknowledge him, he takes the hint and slips off to his room. Ender’s phone buzzes in his pocket, breaking the trance both of us must’ve been in.
“Let’s get going.” I kiss him softly and lead us toward the door. “We don’t want to be late.”
For the past forty-five minutes I’ve watched Ender get lost breaking shit.
He’s destroyed a car, a toilet, two sinks, a TV, and countless beer and wine bottles.
When he first started, he was in pure rage—screaming each time he swung the crowbar.
After twenty minutes, his rage turned into something different.
He had completely stopped and just laughed uncontrollably for a couple of minutes before he started again.
Since then, he’s had the biggest smile on his face, only faltering slightly when he stopped to give me a kiss every few minutes.
“Are you sure you don’t want to take a swing at anything?” he says while trying to catch his breath, still in disbelief that I’m perfectly content to just watch him let loose and have fun.
“Nothing can make me happier in this room than watching you free yourself from your demons, Bean.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He side-eyes me and laughs.
When our buzzer rings, signaling our time’s up, Ender drops his goggles and runs over to me, jumping into my arms and wrapping his legs around my waist. Luckily, I’m standing close to the wall, and it catches us as we fall back from the impact.
“Ooof. Warn me a little bit next time, would ya?” I tease him, loving every second of his playfulness.
He drops my goggles on the ground, and I sigh from the tenderness of his lips caressing mine and knowing I need him to be mine forever.
“Thank you, Blue,” he says, squeezing me tightly with all four limbs. “For everything.”
“You’re welcome, my love.” I briefly regret my words when he freezes—I hold on tight—then I breathe a sigh of relief. His body relaxes back in my arms, and when our eyes meet, there’s no doubt in my mind we both feel this.
He opens his mouth to speak, but the buzzer goes off again, and the door opens on us.
“Hey guys, sorry to interrupt, but we have to get the room setup for the next customers.”
Ender drops his legs from my waist, and I gently set him down. “We’re just heading out,” I let the guy know as I take Ender by the hand and lead us to our next stop for the day.
We get to Camp North End in less than ten minutes, and we’re both starving. I could hear Ender’s stomach growling over the cars and street noise the entire way. I take him to my favorite Asian street food place with the best beef bulgogi in town.
“You’ll love the food here,” I tell him as we’re walking up to the line of people waiting to order—not one person caring how long it may take because the food is that good.
“Well, if it tastes anything like it smells from here, then I’ll…”
“Kyle?” A female voice calls out that dreaded name, stunning Ender into silence.
I turn in her direction and see a small, frail woman on the other side of the railing, separating the street and the platform by the food vendors.
Immediately, I know who the woman is and who she gave those same color eyes to. I would know them anywhere—I’ve been staring into them for months now. My attention darts to Ender, only to find him paler than normal. I grab his hand and squeeze tightly—he doesn’t even react to my touch.
“Kyle, is that you?” The woman makes her way up the ramp toward us, and I debate whether to take Ender and walk away or see what she has to say to him. I don’t want to make a decision for him, but I’m almost certain this is not going to be a happy reunion.
“Ender, do you want to get out of here? Say the word and we walk away,” I mutter to him before she approaches us.
The only response I get is a soft, “no.”
“Hey, boy. It’s been a while.” She makes no attempt to hug him. “Your father died, did you know that?”
I keep my eyes fixed on Ender, waiting for the moment this seems too much for him.
“I’m not a little boy anymore.” Ender’s monotone statement doesn’t do anything to deter her from continuing.
“He had an accident last year. Died on the spot.”
I can’t take this bullshit already. “Lady, what the hell is wrong with y—”
“Don’t.” Ender’s grip tightens.