Chapter 7 – Dakota #3
“No, you can’t put the potatoes in there,” he mumbled, giving my pants a tug and making me grip him harder. Fuck that did not feel good. “They go in the other shoe.”
I huffed a laugh. He was kinda funny like this—when he wasn’t breaking my heart with that other stuff. I wished, for his sake, that all his dreams could be about potatoes being put in the wrong shoe.
I shut our door, then dragged my desk chair over to it and stuck the back under the handle. Hopefully that would deter him.
Reese suddenly let go of my underwear and slapped the skin of my lower back with both hands, making me hiss in pain.
“Fuck, you really know how to do some damage, don’t you?” At least he’d let go of my underwear. My balls were throbbing.
I gently laid Reese in his bed and pulled the covers over him, tucking them under the mattress so he couldn’t easily get up again, then got back in my own bed. I faced him on my side, wide awake and still feeling the burn of his slap on my skin and the discomfort in my balls.
For a few minutes, he was actually quiet. And then he started crying again, making little frustrated sounds as he snatched at his covers.
I groaned as a weary sadness pulled at my bones. “Fuck, please don’t cry, Reese.”
He got the covers untucked and stood up again, standing in the middle of the room as he sobbed his heart out.
I got out of bed, grabbed him from behind, and dragged him down onto my bed with me, wrapping my arms and legs around him so he wouldn’t be able to move.
To my surprise, he didn’t fight my hold. He made a sleepy sound of contentment and rubbed his cheek into my bicep, then sighed and stopped moving altogether.
Well, fuck me.
I propped my chin on top of his head, his soft hair tickling my skin, and closed my eyes. “What the hell am I supposed to do with you?”
Reese started snoring quietly, and I sighed.
“How are things with your new roommate, Dakota?”
Things were really wild. Reese had been sleepwalking practically every night, so I just kept pulling him into bed with me or getting in his bed.
I set down my fork and smiled vacantly at Albert. “Oh, peachy. He’s a peach. A juicy little peach.”
Albert scowled, then seemed to get ahold of himself. His smile was as fake as mine. “Does that mean you’re getting along with him? I don’t want to hear that you’re causing trouble again. Another repeat of last year and you know what’ll happen.”
Ah, threats again. Yes, if I did what I’d supposedly done last spring, he would send me right back to that place. I wanted to ask him under what authority he’d do that, considering I was twenty-two, but he had his ways and I really didn’t feel like pushing it right now.
Instead, I pretended to think about his question, then said, “You know, I do recall there being some kind of issue with last year’s roommate.
What was it again…” I squinted up at the ceiling, then snapped my fingers.
“Oh! That’s right. He wouldn’t stop destroying my stuff.
Yeah, he wasn’t easy to get along with.” Albert’s lips pursed in a very unattractive way.
“But this new guy seems great. Thanks for the present, Albie.”
The intense stare he leveled me with might have turned anyone else to ash, but I was used to him trying to intimidate me with his looks. It hadn’t worked when I was six and it didn’t work now.
He took a deep breath, then smiled and dabbed at his lips with his napkin and turned his attention toward his perfect son. “Everett, how’s fencing this year? Is Garrett Gorman still taking private lessons with that French fellow?”
I leaned forward in my seat and looked expectantly at Everett, who was politely chewing his filet mignon with his mouth closed.
How Albert and Evelyn had thought we looked alike, I’d never know. And though part of me wished they’d never adopted me in the first place, I usually told that part to fuck off because then I wouldn’t have Val.
I wouldn’t have anyone at all.
Getting to have Val as a brother was worth all of Albert’s inept parenting Everett’s bullshit.
Evelyn was just sitting there, staring unseeing at the plate of food in front of her. She looked like she’d popped a few too many pills before this wonderful family event.
She was looking paler and thinner by the day, and Albert was looking fatter and redder.
It was like he was sucking the life out of her.
He probably was; they’d never been a super lovey-dovey couple, and maybe I would’ve liked Evelyn had I met her before Everett’s twin died—but then again, maybe not.
She was the kind of person who’d married a man like Albert.
In my eyes, he had zero redeeming qualities.
He might not be outright evil like Everett, but he was painfully ignorant of the things his oh-so-perfect son had done.
He refused to believe Everett was capable of anything outside of perfection, which meant Val and I had to suffer because of his denial.
Mostly me.
It was a relief that Everett left Val alone most of the time, that he utterly despised only me.
If Evelyn put down the oxy for a few days and decided to join us back in the real world, maybe she’d see things as they were and try to do something about it. But the fact was, she’d decided to just take an extended break from reality and I had strong doubts she ever planned on returning.
Val deserved parents that actually gave a fuck about him; he was the sweetest person I’d ever met, and it boggled the mind that he was related to any of these people.
But I supposed there were few of us in life that truly got what we were owed.
I tried to do my best to be the kind of family he deserved, and he was the only reason I put up with the rest of it.
I’d never leave him to deal with them by himself, no matter what Everett or Albert did or didn’t do.
Everett’s voice became an annoying drone that I tuned out as he talked to Albert about fencing.
These family dinners were the absolute worst, but I’d never let Val face them alone.
He was too soft.
My thoughts drifted to Reese and how soft he was. Everywhere. His hair, his skin, his body—despite how thin he was, he was squishy. So squishable. I’d slept better than I had in a long time just holding onto him.
And he smelled so fucking good, too. I’d buried my nose in his hair and just sniffed it to sleep like the weirdo I was.
I could spend every night like that.
I wondered if he’d let me.
Ha. No, definitely not. He’d scratch my eyes out before he let me touch him.
After dinner ended, Val and I were getting ready to leave when Albert said, “Ride back with your brother.”
A laugh escaped me. Fuck that, I wasn’t getting in a car with Everett. “No. We’re good. It’s a lovely evening for a walk.”
“Ride back with me, bro.” Everett’s smile was as unkind as his eyes, and so was the one I gave to him in return.
“Nah. Come on, Val.”
“Bye Mom, see you next week!” Val called with a wave to Evelyn, who was just staring into space. She was on an entirely different planet.
I saw the hurt he tried to hide as he turned away from her, and my heart broke for him.
He was too good for this family. I hoped one day he’d accept my offer to permanently break away from them for good, but I wasn’t sure when that day might come.
He was adamant about loving them in spite of their many flaws, in spite of how much they’d hurt him—and me—and I couldn’t tell him to just give it up, that they’d never love him the same.
That would just add to his hurt.
We left the manor and made our way down the long drive.
It was a nice evening; a full moon was beginning to appear as the sun set.
The trees were changing colors fast, leaves of gold and red swaying in a gentle breeze.
The cicadas were still going this time of year, and for a while there was only the sound of insects and the crunch of gravel and dead leaves under our feet as we walked to the gate.
We were halfway down when the quiet calm was punctured by the sound of a car. I barely had time to grab Val and pull him out of the way when Everett came speeding down the driveway. He waved through his open window, his laughter carried away on the wind as he drove past us.
That fucking asshole.
“Are you okay?” I looked Val over, whose eyes were wide as he stared at Everett’s car.
“How can Albert not see?” he asked, his fear morphing into anger. But even his anger was soft. He gestured at the car in the distance. “It’s so obvious!” He kicked at the gravel, sending tiny rocks flying into the leaves and grass.
“Yeah. I think he knows, he just pretends not to.” Which was even worse than not knowing in the first place.
“She looked awful,” Val said quietly, his anger gone. It never lasted long.
“Yeah, I don’t think she’s doing well.” I put my arm around his shoulder and pulled him against me, and he wrapped his arm around my waist.
“Do you think we should call Dr. Burns?”
I wasn’t sure what he would do for her without Albert’s consent. If he tried talking to her directly, well…that would be a very one-sided conversation. If he went to Albert, he’d just wave him away and keep pretending nothing was wrong with her.
“We can if you think it’ll help,” I said, knowing it probably wouldn’t.
“We have to do something. We can’t just let her…let her…”
He wouldn’t say the words, and I didn’t say them for him.
“I want to call him,” he said with conviction. “Let’s call him in the morning. Okay? We’ll see if there’s something he can do. Maybe somewhere she can go to get help. I can’t just sit around and watch her fade away like this anymore.”
I rubbed my hand up and down his arm and kissed the side of his head. “Okay. We’ll call him in the morning.”
“And let me do the talking.”
I huffed a laugh. “You mean you don’t want me to ask him how his fifteen cats are doing? Or if he’s found anyone who might put up with all that hair?”
Val pinched my waist. “Maybe some other time, you demon. Although I do wonder how he deals with the hair. It’s a valid concern.”
“He must spend all his money on lint rollers and vacuum bags. Albert’s money is going to a good cause,” I said.
Val laughed, and a comfortable, familiar silence fell over us as we walked back to Ashbrook.