Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
God, he never noticed how many fucking noises this house made in the dark.
Jason sat on the edge of the bed, listening to all the things—from the wind to the snoring to the creaking.
It was fucking insane. Really. He couldn’t sleep because waking up sucked.
He couldn’t wander because, even if this was the house he’d grown up in, he didn’t know it well enough.
He couldn’t listen to the TV because that’d wake everybody up.
If he had to sit here until the morning, though, he might lose what was left of his mind.
He still had his jeans on and it only took a few minutes to find his boots. He knew where Bax’s truck keys were. He had a good idea where the truck was parked. He’d just go sit and listen to the radio and have a couple of smokes where no one’d scream at him.
It took forever, and he kept his eyes squeezed tight, pretending that if he opened them he could see. He made it down the hallway, fingers dragging on the wallpaper. Then he stumbled a little until he found the back of the sofa, the sofa table behind.
That got him to the kitchen, the floor feeling slick as shit under his feet. He whapped his hip good and hard on the table, the sting enough to make him stop a second, bite back the scream that wanted out of him.
After that, getting the truck keys and getting down the steps was easy.
Of course, finding the truck? Not so much.
Everything was fucked there, from the wind distracting him to the weird sound of the grass on his jeans to the bugs flying on his bare chest. He was lathered in sweat by the time he hit the fence, and he grabbed a hold of it and just shook it, snarling and cussing under his breath.
Then he fucking turned around and tried again.
God damn it.
Jason didn’t have the foggiest fucking idea how long it took, but he finally did it. He found the motherfucking truck, he got the key in the door, climbed in.
And if he had himself a good long scream, complete with pounding the living shit out of the steering wheel before he got the radio going?
There wasn’t nobody to fucking see it. The radio drowned out everything outside, and Jason could put his head back and pretend he was just waiting for Bax to come on out of the arena, avoiding all the kids who wanted autographs.
Jason sat for a good while. Maybe ten songs. Maybe twenty before the pounding on the driver’s window had him jumping out of his skin.
His eyes popped open and he turned to look, that panicky sickness hitting him again. Fuck. He scrabbled for the buttons, doors unlocking and locking, the passenger window sliding down and back up before he found the right one. “Whut?”
“Jason? Jesus, Jason, what the fuck are you doing?” Bax’s voice sounded different when a man couldn’t see that sharp-featured face. Right now it had that added note of panic, too.
“Listening to the radio. Is it morning already?” He wasn’t ready to go in yet.
“Well, technically, yeah. It’s almost four. I just… I was coming to check on you and you…” Panting. He could hear panting. Bax must’ve run.
“I’m cool. I couldn’t sleep. Go on back to bed, man. I’m just going to sit.”
“I cain’t just leave you out here, Mini.” Bax’s fingers stroked his elbow, right where it crooked against the door frame. “Come on. I’ll keep you company.”
“You got to be tired.” Hell, he was tired, and he kept dozing off in the truck.
“A little, yeah.” The man didn’t back off, though, just tugged at his arm a little. “Come on, Jase. We’ll get something munchy and sit and jaw.”
He bit back the urge to snap and tell Bax to back the fuck off. Bax was being decent to him and fuck knew, the man’d have to leave in a couple of days for North Carolina. And didn’t that ache some?
Shit.
Even when he’d been hurt, he’d gone with.
“Okay. Come on. I’ll go back to the bed, let you get some sleep.” He’d talk to the doc today—find out how long he was gonna have to wait this out.
“‘Kay.” Bax waited until he got the truck turned off, got himself on his own two feet. Only then did Bax offer his arm.
Jason took it, telling himself it wasn’t for long. It couldn’t be. He’d just bumped his fucking head.
Bax led him back the way he’d come out, less the detour to the fence, all the way back to the bedroom, where Bax pushed him right down on the bed and started tugging at his boots, silent as a ghost.
“I can do it.” He was going to scream again, he could feel it bubbling up in him.
His left boot thumped to the floor, sounding like a fucking bomb hitting ground zero.
“Fine. Fine, Mini. You just go ahead. Sorry I fucking bothered you.”
“Don’t snarl at me, Bax. Not right now.” That was the only warning he was fucking going to give.
“I’m just trying to help,” Bax said quietly. “I don’t know what else to do.”
“Me either.” He couldn’t fucking do this too long. He’d just put a gun to his head and get it over with.
Sighing, Bax pulled at his other boot, then pushed him down to wrangle his jeans off. The air felt almost cold against his skin, goosebumps rising up. Bax paused, hands on Jason’s knees.
“Right now you need to sleep, Mini. I could stay…if it would make it better.’
“I…” God, he was a girl. “I just keep hearing all these noises, man, and it just… It ain’t right.”
“Well, that’s probably regular enough, when you can’t see what they are.” The rustle of the sheets was the only sound for a minute, then Bax slid into bed next to him, solid and heavy on the other side of the mattress. “This okay?”
“Yeah.” He reached out, needing to know for sure, Bax’s arm warm and right and there.
“I got you.” Bax’s fingers slid up, twined with his. “I got your back.”
“Thank God.” He couldn’t figure it otherwise.
Couldn’t even start to.