Chapter 19
AUGUST
Raised voices and the breaking of glass shocked me out of my sleep sometime far too early in the morning, and I shot out of bed with my heart racing.
Confusion fogged my mind, but a quick check of the next bed told me Torin was still soundly asleep, sprawled out like he needed to touch every inch of his mattress all at once.
What just woke me?
The events of the day before came slowly back to mind as I rubbed my eyes with the heel of my hand. The high wires in the rain, Noah’s fall. The sheer fucking relief when we realized he’d been caught by a safety net that none of us had even noticed.
Noah was hurting, but he was alive… Ah, that’s what it was! Raised voices of an argument downstairs between… Was that Noah and Xavier? Crap. That checked out.
Throwing off my blankets, I quietly slipped out of the bedroom without waking Torin.
We’d stayed up pretty late on the CB-Live, which was unlike us.
We usually hit the agreed timeframe and ended it, but last night was fun.
Maybe because it was four of us and the banter was good, or maybe because Noah was in the comments trolling us all with his sassy remarks.
The fans had been going feral for the interactions, too.
They didn’t even need Noah on camera; it was enough to see the four of us interacting with his comments.
Maybe they had seen the way Tor lit up like a damn Christmas tree when he spotted Noah’s profile appear as “watching” our stream.
Maybe it was because Sally wasn’t micromanaging us as hard as Fred often did.
She had her usual whiteboard in hand to guide our answers from behind the camera but barely used it.
“…and I was right, too!” Xavier roared as I started down the stairs. “You’re just too fucking stubborn to say thank you for literally saving your life, Little Dude.”
“You weren’t right, you arrogant fuck,” Noah snarled back, displaying a level of anger I hadn’t ever seen from him to date.
The most worked up I’d ever seen him was when he confronted Xavier about his Peaches addiction, but that was cold, almost detached disgust. This was something else entirely.
“I watched the footage, Xavier, and you are the one who knocked me off balance. If you hadn’t grabbed my arm and jerked me off my footing, I never would have fallen.
And then you have the fucking audacity to drop me after putting me in that position to begin with? So much for teamwork!”
Wow.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I caught Skye hovering in the foyer looking really guilty. When I arched a brow at him in question, he just shrugged and spread his hands helplessly.
“I’m not eavesdropping,” he quickly offered before I could say anything. “I just heard them and was trying to decide if he needed me to intervene or…what.”
“I didn’t jerk you,” Xavier yelled back. “I was protecting you, and right now I’m starting to seriously wonder why the fuck I bothered!”
I huffed a laugh. “Which one of them do you think needs backup? Sounds like Noah is holding his own against Xav pretty well.” Which was no small feat. Xavier had a foul temper when he got a bee in his bonnet and was one of the most stubborn bastards I’d ever met.
Don’t get me wrong, I fucking loved him anyway. But shit, I didn’t envy Noah for poking that hornets’ nest.
“Good point.” Skye grimaced. “But Noah… He’s not as tough as he acts.” He rubbed the back of his neck, eyeing the entryway to the kitchen indecisively, then sighed. “Fuck it, let’s see what started this.”
He led the way and I followed, making our way through the living area to where Xavier and Noah were locking horns in the kitchen. Confusingly, Noah was sitting cross-legged on the kitchen counter with a petulant scowl on his delicate face and his platinum hair in a frazzled mess around his head.
Xavier was on his hands and knees, cleaning up shards of glass between throwing harsh retorts Noah’s way.
“Uh, hey, guys,” I said cautiously, eyeing the mess with confusion. I had a heavy dose of trauma associated with violent arguments and needed to ball my hands tightly to get a grip of my own emotions. “What’s going on here?”
Xavier shot me a frustrated glare. “The coffeepot broke,” he growled, standing up with a careful pile of glass shards in hand. “So just steer clear.” He gestured to my bare feet, and I took a cautious step away from the crime scene.
“The coffeepot didn’t break itself,” Noah scoffed, still comfortably cross-legged on the counter. His feet were also bare, which explained why he was sitting there. No doubt that’d been a factor in their argument at some stage. “Xavier has anger issues.”
“Well, that’s not news to us,” Skye said with a chuckle, pulling up a stool at the island. “We’re all decently acquainted with Xavier’s temper. But, uh, breaking shit is new. What happened?”
Xavier deposited his pile of glass in the trash, then threw up his hands with frustration. “I didn’t do it on purpose!” he yelled, directing that statement at Noah, like it wasn’t the first time he’d said it.
“Yes, you did!” Noah barked back, “because it was right after I said I was too fucking tired to play ego games and that I needed to caffeinate in order to clap back properly, and then blam! No more coffee.”
“Oh right, I deliberately sabotaged your coffee so that you couldn’t insult me.
Tell me, Little Dude, how’s that working out for me?
Last I checked, you’re doing just fucking fine without the coffee.
” Xavier grabbed a broom and started aggressively sweeping the floor for the smaller shards of glass, and I watched the two of them in stunned confusion.
They were ready to claw each other’s eyes out, but… over what?
Noah gave a feral little growl, launching off the counter and clearly intending to leave the room. It all happened lightning fast—Xavier dropping the broom and catching Noah around the waist before his bare feet could reach the glass-covered floor.
“Are you fucking dense?” Xav snapped, carrying Noah out of the kitchen and depositing our smallest member safely clear of the broken glass. “Once again, here’s the part where you say thank you.”
“Eat a dick, Xavier.” Noah glowered back, extending his middle finger. “And stop fucking calling me Little Dude. I’m not that fucking little.”
Xavier barked a laugh, returning to pick up his broom. “Yeah, you are. Little Dude.”
“Jesus, Xavier, let it go,” I muttered with disbelief. It was well-known he had a feral temper, but I’d never seen him rise to the bait so easily before. The two of them were both like dogs with a single bone here. “It’s not his fault he’s short.”
“I’m not short!” Noah exclaimed, swinging his glare my way.
Crap. “I’m five foot eight, which is literally one inch below the national average for men.
It’s not my fault that you guys were all apparently crafted for the female gaze by some half-assed romance author or some shit.
I’m average, which makes Xavier freakishly tall.
How about that, huh? How about I start calling you Godzilla, huh? ”
Well, at least his anger had shifted back to Xavier. Whatever had started this argument, it must have really gotten under Noah’s skin in a big way.
“Have at it, Little Dude!” Xavier shot back. “I’ll be waiting on that thank you when you calm the fuck down.”
“Hold your breath while you wait,” Noah retorted. “Do us all a fucking favor.” Then he stalked out of the kitchen, and a shocked silence fell over the three of us remaining behind.
For a moment, the only sound was the sweep of Xavier’s broom collecting up glass shards, then he blew out a long breath and muttered a curse.
“So…wanna talk about it?” Skye asked cautiously.
Xavier glared absolute venom at our little kangaroo, and I reeled back on Skye’s behalf. “No, Skye, I do not,” he spat angrily.
“Dude, chill,” I intervened. “You and Noah clearly have some—”
“He’s a stubborn, arrogant, judgmental little fuck, you know that? He plays at being this loveable little puppy, but it’s all a front for how much of an asshole he really is!”
Skye gave an irritated sound, straightening up to slide off his stool.
“Or, wild theory, he actually is a loveable puppy and you’re too much of a self-centered dick to appreciate that fact.
Maybe, Xavier, maybe you’re projecting your own shitty personality traits onto Noah because you can’t handle the fact that he’s a genuinely decent person who doesn’t want to put up with your crap simply because you’re Xavier Stone. ”
Then Skye was storming out of the kitchen as well, leaving Xavier staring after him with his mouth agape.
“What the fuck was that about?” he asked in disbelief, shifting his perplexed gaze my way. “Why is Skye mad at me?”
I shrugged, kinda irritated myself about the lack of coffee pot since I was never usually awake so early. “You insulted Noah, dude. And Skye loves Noah. So essentially, you insulted Skye.”
Xavier’s eyes widened, and he stared at me like I’d grown another head. Then he groaned and looked to the ceiling like he was seeking help from a higher power…or wishing Ace would swoop in and fix the mess he’d made with Noah and Skye.
“Goddammit,” he muttered, sweeping up the last of the glass shards into a little pile.
I took pity on him and fetched the vacuum cleaner to help clean up the smallest of the glass fragments so no one would blame him later for an injury.
“So, what started that argument with Noah?” I asked as we finished. The curiosity was getting the better of me, and honestly I was worried. “Seemed pretty heated, and you guys have been at odds for a while.”
He nodded, leaning against the counter with a tired look on his face.
“Uh, he was upset that I ate the last of the Coco Pops and left the empty box in the pantry.” His lips pursed as he met my confused gaze, then he rolled his eyes.
“And maybe I also finished the milk and left the empty carton in the fridge.”
I snorted a little laugh, shaking my head. “Okay, I probably would have reamed you out for that, too. But that argument was a lot more than milk and cereal…”
“Little Dude doesn’t like me,” he replied with gritted teeth and a sour expression, “and apparently needed to tell me all the ways I was the worst kind of human for setting up that safety net yesterday. As if it didn’t save him from becoming a stain on the pavement!”
I nodded slowly, getting a better grasp on their fight.
“You do remember that Noah thought he was going to die yesterday, right? Like less than twenty-four hours ago? He felt you let go of his hand, and then free-fell for eight stories before hitting that net. Call me crazy, but I reckon that’d have a little lingering emotion that needed an outlet. ”
Xavier spread his hands defensively. “So it’s okay for him to dump that shit at my door?”
“Well, yeah.” I moved closer and clapped him on the shoulder.
“Bro…he felt you let go. You didn’t tell him there was a net.
You just let go. Regardless of the fact that you knew he’d be okay, he didn’t know.
So yeah, it’s kinda okay for him to be a bit worked up about it all.
Don’t you think? Can’t you be the bigger person here and let him process without lashing back? ”
Xavier’s brows knitted together with bewilderment, and he slowly shook his head. “No, it’s not just this. He’s been cold toward me ever since that shit about Peaches. This was just—”
“Dude, you’re trying to justify being a dickhead, and it’s not flying.
The kid had a traumatic event yesterday, and we all need to be supportive as he works though the emotional fallout.
Not yelling insults and breaking coffeepots.
” I squeezed his shoulder to show that I wasn’t mad or disappointed… just trying to help.
He scowled. “I might see where you’re coming from.”
I smiled. “I knew you would.”
“Fuck, August,” he groaned, dropping his head in defeat. “Why does literally everyone else on the team have such an easy time hanging out with him? Every time we speak it’s like he’s just waiting for me to fuck up so he can call me out.”
I laughed at that, releasing his shoulder as I headed for the fridge. “Ah, it’s because his pretty face has half the team questioning their sexual orientation, bro. You’re just too straight for your own good.”
He grunted, not denying that accusation. “You too?” he asked with an edge of disbelief.
I paused at that question, thinking it over. “Jury’s out,” I finally replied as I grabbed a chocolate protein shake from the fridge. “But I’d be real careful talking shit about him around Tor and Minnie…and you just saw how Skye reacted.”
Shit, now that I’d said it out loud, a rush of dread flooded my gut. Noah had real potential to destroy our team, if he chose. And my best friend’s heart in the process. Even if their affection for him wasn’t purely platonic like Tor kept insisting.
I wet my lips, forcing a relaxed smile as I turned back to Xavier. “Guess we have to hope he’s as straight as you, huh?”
Xavier blinked at me, looking stricken. “Yeah,” he said with a weak smile. “I guess so.”
Crap. He’d probably just come to the same realization about Noah’s power over our team, but what he’d do about it was what had me more worried than anything.
As anxious as I was to not let Noah change things, I also didn’t want him to leave.
I liked him even more now that I’d seen him rip Xavier to shreds, the little spitfire.