Chapter 8 #2
Lucas’s grip on Frankie loosened slightly. “He’s having a bad night,” he whispered into Frankie’s ear.
“I can tell,” Frankie murmured back. He glanced at his brother. Fallon was wide-eyed and clearly in some kind of shock. “I need to get my brother inside. He doesn’t look very good.”
Lucas tightened his grip. “Promise me you won’t hit him. I don’t want him having any kind of moral high ground.”
Frankie clenched his jaw, but he knew he wouldn’t be any good to his brother if he was locked up for assault. And that wouldn’t look great for his adoption case with Elodie. “I’ll be good.”
“I don’t believe you,” Lucas said with a small laugh, “but I trust you.” He started to release him, then tightened his grip again. “Come over tomorrow for breakfast. Bring your brother. I’m going to cook a comfort meal.”
“You don’t need to—”
“Frankie. Do as I fucking say.”
Frankie’s jaw snapped shut, and he realized that maybe—just maybe—he’d gotten it all wrong in the shower. Maybe he wasn’t the one to do any of the bossing around. Shit. He gently pried himself out of Lucas’s grasp and turned, gripping his bicep. “Yes, your highness. We’ll be there.”
Lucas smiled. He wasn’t wearing his prosthetics, so his long, dark lashes fanned downward. Everything about him was so fucking pretty. “I’ve always wanted to be a princess. Anyway, see you then. Show up hungry.”
Frankie wanted to say something else, but he couldn’t find the words, so he just squeezed Lucas’s arm once more, then let go and stepped over Charlie to get his brother.
Fallon moved like he was on autopilot, and Frankie gave him a push toward the door before turning back to Gage, who looked like he was just barely holding back from beating the face off Fallon’s boyfriend.
Hopefully ex-boyfriend, if he was being honest.
“You need to leave,” Frankie told Charlie.
“Fine. Tell Fallon—”
“No,” Frankie said darkly. “You will stay the fuck away from him. You have three days to get your shit out of his apartment. He’ll be home this weekend. The only thing in there of yours better be the key.”
“You don’t get to decide for him. He’s a fucking adult.”
“Yep. And so are you. Which means I can beat the shit out of you in a back alley, and it’ll be your word against mine.” Frankie took a deep breath. “I don’t think you want to test me. You have no idea where I’ve come from.”
“Is it wrong that I’m kind of turned on?” he heard Lucas murmur.
Frankie glanced over his shoulder in time to see Gage smack him and whisper back, “Dude, he can hear you. Shut up.”
Frankie couldn’t smile right then, but something went alight in his chest as he took a step back to give Charlie room to climb to his feet.
“When Fallon’s calmed down, I’m pretty fucking sure he’s going to tell you the same thing.
You don’t want to play with my family, Charlie.
That would be a terrible, terrible mistake. ”
Charlie said nothing, and after a beat, he stormed down the hall, and the mood immediately dropped. The hallway was silent and very somber.
“What did you actually see?” Frankie asked, turning to Gage.
“Nothing. Lucas heard it happen.”
Lucas swallowed heavily. “I heard your brother come into the hallway. They were arguing by my front door. The guy was trying to drag your brother out of the building, and your brother put up a fight. He said he was going to get you and the boyfriend—whatever—he called him a…” Lucas’s mouth closed quickly.
“A nasty word. Kind of rhymes with hussy—starts with a P.”
Frankie let out a shaking breath. “Got it.”
“I opened the door right when he hit your brother. I heard it. I heard Fallon go down. Gage was right behind me and knocked Charlie to the ground.”
Frankie looked at Gage. “I owe you. I don’t even know what to say.”
“You don’t need to say anything. I am not going to stand by while one more fucking person gets hurt because people don’t know how to act like people.”
Frankie knew there was more weight to his words than he was saying, but it wasn’t his business. “Will you be around tomorrow morning?”
Gage shook his head. “No. I have to take off first thing. But I’m sure I’ll see you around.” He froze, then looked Frankie up and down. “Hold the fuck up. You’re the guy from earlier—”
“Yes, he is. Moving on with life now,” Lucas said, giving Gage a shove toward his door.
“But—”
“No. Go. Let the poor man rest.”
They were still arguing as they disappeared behind Lucas’s front door. Frankie stood still in the hallway for another moment, gathering himself. The last thing Fallon was going to need was him flipping out or saying anything about Charlie.
The relationship had to end, but he wasn’t going to push the issue tonight. Tonight, he was going to take care of his brother. He’d deal with the rest—and his anger—when things were finally calm.
The commotion hadn’t woken Elodie, thank god.
It gave Frankie a chance to look Fallon over, then get him ice for his jaw.
He was going to be sporting a pretty nasty bruise when the color set in.
He hadn’t said a word since Frankie walked back into the apartment, but when Frankie took a seat on the couch, Fallon tucked himself into his side the way he used to do when he was being bullied in school.
Frankie’s chest felt hot. He wanted to be able to do something—to be able to stand as a guard between his brother and the rest of the world so Fallon didn’t have to feel this way. He’d rather take the burden of everyone’s pain.
But that wasn’t realistic.
When enough time had passed, he cleared his throat softly and said, “I think you should stay here for a few days.”
Fallon bowed his head.
“I overstepped a bit. I told Charlie he had to move out of the apartment. If you don’t want that—”
“I want that.” His voice was ragged and rough.
“I don’t want to see him ever again. Not ever.
I…I put up with a lot. People say mean things about me all the time, and I get it.
I’m the weird one. They don’t understand me, and people get upset when they don’t relate to someone.
It’s why they’re so angry at trans people all the time.
They don’t want us to just live our lives because they don’t get it. ”
“I know,” Frankie said very softly. He had always outwardly supported his brother, but there had been times—when he was first trying to understand what transgender even was—that he asked the universe why. Why couldn’t Fallon be just like everyone else?
He never laid that burden at his brother’s feet though, and he got it now. He understood that Fallon was himself. He always had been. His journey was just different, and that was nothing less than beautiful.
“I can take the words. Half the time, I’m so busy in my own head I don’t even hear them. But…” He trailed off for a beat. “He hit me.”
“He did.” Frankie’s jaw felt so tense it was giving him a headache.
Fallon tilted his head up to look at his brother. “I don’t want to be hit. I don’t want to be hurt. Ever.”
“Do you want me to go make sure he never hurts you again?”
“I’d lose you,” Fallon said. “They’d take you away from me.”
Frankie couldn’t promise that wasn’t true. If he was given the go-ahead, he wasn’t sure he could stop himself from doing something very, very bad. “I won’t. But he’d better not show his face around me ever again.”
Fallon let out the smallest laugh. “I heard his voice. He’s scared of you. I bet he peed in his pants a little.”
“I think he probably peed in his pants a lot. Especially after Gage hit him.”
Fallon blinked rapidly. “The pretty one?”
In Frankie’s eyes, Lucas was the pretty one. But he nodded anyway. “Yeah.”
“His boyfriend is cute too.”
Frankie laughed softly. “They’re not boyfriends. They’re best friends. Trust me, I asked them about it, and they got super offended.”
“Oh,” Fallon whispered.
“He works at the fire department.”
Fallon’s eyes widened. “I did that calendar. But he wasn’t in it.”
“The chief though?” Frankie mused. “That was the guy with the paint, right?”
Fallon laughed. “Yeah. He didn’t like it. I wouldn’t like it either. The paint would make me feel like peeling my own skin off.”
“He’s still the chief, isn’t he?”
“I think so,” Fallon said quietly.
“Then that’s his dad.”
Fallon sucked in a breath. “Oh.”
Frankie knew where this was going, but he also knew that it was a bad idea. Fallon was going to need time to recover. And he didn’t think Charlie was going to give up so easily. “I want to call Fenton in the morning and see about you staying with him. I think you should probably move.”
Fallon squeezed his eyes shut. “I hate moving.”
“I know. Change fucking sucks, but you only have what? Three months on your lease? I don’t want him to be able to find you so easily. If he could hit you just like that, if he could get violent with you and try to force you to leave with him…”
“No,” Fallon said softly, “I get it. It makes sense. I just need time to process. My jaw hurts and my head hurts and I miss my bed.”
“Take mine,” Frankie said.
Fallon gave him a flat look. “Your body needs a bed more than mine.”
He elbowed Fallon. “Excuse the fuck out of me. I’m not ancient. I can handle the couch for a few days.”
Fallon laughed softly, then yawned, wincing when the pain became too much. “You have Advil, right?”
“Bathroom mirror,” Frankie said. “You want me to come tuck you in? Read you a story?”
Fallon stood up and flipped him off. “Be normal, please. It’ll help.”
He held up his hands in surrender, and Fallon’s whole body relaxed. “Fine. Go to bed. We have breakfast plans in the morning.” Fallon looked momentarily horrified until Frankie said, “If we get up early enough, you can see Gage before he has to leave for work.”
“I can be up,” Fallon said quickly.
Frankie held in his laugh until his brother was out of the room, and then he chuckled low in his chest as he tucked his legs up and curled under the blanket Fallon had left behind. As he began to drift, he felt the ghost of Lucas’s arms around him. Even the memory of them made him feel good.
Comforted.
Stable.
Safe.
And that feeling carried him all the way to sleep.