Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
ONYX
A knock on the bathroom door has us both looking up. Lie pokes his head in with a smile. “Dr. Hill will be here in ten minutes. Want to come out of the bathroom, or are you going to nest in there?”
“Thanks. I’ll clean up then—”
“No,” Lie says, cutting off Cash’s words. He grabs Cash’s hand and drags him out of the bathroom. “Come out here, and I’ll get the maid to clean.”
I raise my eyebrow as I follow them out.
“Maid, huh?” Cash asks.
“Yes. That’s me. I’m the house twink or kept twink or something. I haven’t decided what title I want yet. We’re weighing the benefits of each.”
Cash laughs and then grunts, covering his face. “Don’t do that. My lip is never going to stop bleeding if I keep tearing it open by laughing.”
“No offense, Cashy, but I want you to keep smiling. If I ever see you cry like that again, I’m going to lose my shit.”
I nod in agreement. How broken and bloody Cash looked is going to live vividly in my head for a very long time. I didn’t do that to him, and yet, I feel so fucking guilty. Like it was entirely my fault it happened. As if I somehow opened that situation up to happen.
Which… maybe I did. I was reckless, kissing him in the garage. I’ve only ever shared affection with him in the privacy of one of our bedrooms.
The garage isn’t public, exactly. But it’s a common space for his family. It’s been the space Ben has spent so much of his life in since it’s where the band practiced. If we were going to run into Benson anywhere, it would be in the garage.
I let my guard down. I became too comfortable. Too caught up in our conversation. In Cash. Too overcome with emotion because he said he wants to be with me.
That’s why I feel so guilty. I didn’t actually punch him. Never in this life or any other would I lay a hand on him like that. But I got reckless and kissed him in a space that might as well have been Benson’s bedroom.
I come out of my thoughts when I’m standing in an open space surrounded by totes and boxes and stacked clothes.
“Are you preparing for the apocalypse?” I ask.
Lie snorts. Laiken laughs quietly.
“We just moved my things out of my room at my parents’ house,” Lie says. He looks around, bemused. “I had no idea I had so much shit.”
“Just wait until you get the things stored at my house,” Cash says.
Lie grimaces.
“There’s more?” Laiken asks, raising an eyebrow.
Lie looks at him with wide, innocent eyes. A well-practiced expression, if I’ve ever seen one. “You’ll still love me if I say yes, right?”
Laiken huffs and presses a tender kiss to Lie’s forehead. “Of course.”
“It’s just penis-shaped things,” Cash says.
“Ah,” Laiken says. “More of your hidden collection.”
Lie and Cash nod together.
“It wasn’t so much about running out of space as it was hiding it from my mom,” Lie admits.
“She’s long since stopped cleaning my room, but she did do my laundry sometimes, and sure, she didn’t put it away, but she did bring the basket into my room.
What if she wanted to hang something in my closet?
” He shrugs. “I just didn’t want that confrontation when I already disappointed her with literally everything else in my life. ”
“Lie,” Laiken says quietly and wraps an arm around his waist.
Lie shrugs again. “I’m not the kid she wanted. She accidentally never let me forget that.”
Cash leans into my side as he watches Lie with concern on his face. Empathy.
“It’s not fun seeing people you thought you knew in an uglier light when their true character is revealed,” Laiken says quietly. “I think we’ve had enough of that for a while.”
Our somber conversation is interrupted by a knock. Cash tenses. I’m not sure he does it intentionally, but he takes a step away from the door and behind me. Which means everyone in this house is now between him and the front door.
I hate his fear. Or maybe wariness. Whatever it is, I hate it. I hate Benson for creating this in him.
It’s not his brother. I’m not sure any of us truly considered the idea that it would be. It’s Dr. Hill. Cash sits at the counter on a stool while Dr. Hill looks at his face. He asks a couple questions, which neither of us is really able to answer.
I think Benson hit him three times, but time felt like it became distorted, and I’m not sure I remember it all. Maybe it happened in seconds. Maybe it was an hour. I just don’t remember.
Was he wearing anything on his fingers? Did he have anything in his hand? Was it his fist, or did he slap Cash? Did he have a weapon?
Cash and I looked at each other blankly. I determine it happened too quickly to register those little details.
“I’m sorry,” I say after the dozenth question I don’t have an answer for. “I think I blacked out.”
Dr. Hill gives me a smile. “Let me see your hand.”
“He didn’t hit me,” Cash says defensively. “It was Benson.”
“I know,” Dr. Hill assures him. “But it looks as if Onyx hit someone.”
“It wasn’t me!” Cash says, getting annoyed.
“He knows,” Lie says quietly and squeezes Cash’s hand. “He’s hinting that he wants the whole story.”
“Oh,” Cash says, though he’s watching Dr. Hill with narrowed eyes, not quite believing him.
“I beat Benson for… a while after,” I say, shrugging. “I’m fine.”
“Let me see your hand,” Dr. Hill insists, so I let him.
My knuckles are a little swollen and maybe bruised a bit. Cash’s eyes get wide.
“He has a hard head,” I defend. “Clearly.”
Dr. Hill struggles to hide his amusement. He turns his questions to me, and I do my best to answer. Thankfully, when the questions are about what movements hurt my hand and where, I’m able to give him actual answers I’m confident in.
After thorough examinations, Dr. Hill says we’re both going to live, though he’d like to see Cash in a few days to look at his eye again.
Benson hit him in such a way that he broke a blood vessel in his eye.
He also wants to check on my hand to make sure I didn’t break a bone.
I think I’m fine. It’s not like I do anything strenuous with my hands anyway. I’m not even playing drums anymore.
Hmm. I should get my drums from the Hinky Dinky Bar.
Finally, we’re left alone in Laiken’s cluttered house. Cash leans into my side now that there isn’t someone here watching us. Sitting against my side isn’t close enough, though, so I bring him onto my lap. Cash is happy enough to curl up against me.
“Want to stay here tonight?” Lie asks. “There isn’t another bed or anything, but you can stay in my new penis display room.”
Cash giggles.
“We can also stay at my house,” I offer.
“How about we get some of the totes and stuff out of the way while you relax for a bit?” Laiken suggests.
Lie nods. “I’ll get some more dicks on the shelf, so if you decide to stay, they’ll keep you company. Oh! I think I have a light-up one for a nightlight. Let me see if I can find it.” He’s already down the hall before he’s even finished the sentence.
Laiken chuckles and picks up a tote to follow.
Cash sighs. “I’m glad he has somewhere to set up his collection so he doesn’t have to hide it anymore. He gets to be who he is finally. Unashamed.”
“It’s really sad that he had to hide so much.”
He sighs. “I know.” A second passes before he looks up. “Can we stay here tonight?”
“I’ll stay wherever you want to be, Cash.”
“It’s just that, I think maybe a lot of people already saw me running and screaming down the road covered in blood, and this might be surprising, but I’m not in a hurry to be the center of their gossip chain again today.”
I laugh under my breath, tightening my arms around him. I have a feeling the gossip train has now left the Lie-Laiken-Nason station. Cash is going to be the primary topic until everyone figures out what happened.
I won’t be surprised if there’s speculation that I hit him. Laiken certainly thought that when I chased him while unconsciously cradling my hand to my chest.
“I don’t mind spending the night at your house, though. I like it there. Your room is cute. I really like your mom, too.”
“Cute, huh?”
He looks up at me with a grin. It’s big enough that a bead of blood pools at the split in his lip that he just pulled apart with the size of his smile. “You still have rocket ships on your wall.”
“To be fair, I spent most of my time at your house. I stopped seeing the rocket ships on my wall after a while. I hadn’t even remembered they were there until I brought you into my room for the first time.”
“Okay, but they’re still cute.”
I huff. My fingers trace over his uninjured cheek. “We can stay here, Cash. For as long as you want. I don’t care where we are.”
He sighs. “Thanks.” A beat passes, and he adds, “Maybe I might need to be with Lie, too.”
“That’s okay.”
Lie and Laiken tend to the totes until they’re all out of the common space. When Cash ensures that they don’t mind if we stay, Laiken remembers that maybe he has something that might be more comfortable than the floor.
We watch him leave the house and disappear into the shed for a few minutes. He comes back with a rolled-up mat and a couple of sleeping bags. Lie and Cash look at him, perplexed.
“This is a weird collection of things,” Lie says as he takes one of the sleeping bags.
“Nason and I once thought we’d take up camping, so we bought all the stuff we’d need.”
“Ohhh,” Lie says. “That’s why we had two tents and a bunch of solar-powered lanterns in the shed.”
Laiken laughs. “Yep.”
“How many times did you go camping?” Cash asks.
Laiken looks at him with amusement. “Zero. Once we moved to Kala and realized there was nowhere to camp, our gear ended up split between our sheds, and there it sat for twenty years.”
“Wow,” Lie says, laughing.
The amusement dies down as Laiken’s words settle around us.
Memories of Nason. I have a feeling this is going to be a common thing for a very long time.
Nason is so integrated into both of their lives that so few of their memories don’t include him.
It’s hard to have good memories when the star of them is also their nightmare these days.
We set up what Lie calls a nest on the floor of the new dick room. There are boxes and totes stacked against one wall yet to be unpacked, and already, there are a whole lot of figurines, art, games, and other random dick-inspired things all over the shelves.
Lie calls Cash a sweet little omega. Neither of us truly knows what that means, though it clearly means something to Laiken as well.
“If I’m an omega, what is Onyx?”
“The way he went all feral on Benson for hurting you and then went off on your parents for not being parents?” Lie looks at Laiken. Laiken nods, and Lie looks back at us with a mischievous grin. “Alpha. All day long.”
Typically speaking, the men who call themselves alphas are actually misogynistic incels, so I’m not sure I like being called an alpha right now.
“Don’t worry,” Lie says, smirking at me. “In this case, it’s a really good thing.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” I say, though I’m not necessarily sure.
He leans in with a wicked grin, lowering his voice. “Alphas have really big dicks, knots to lock those dicks into tight, little holes as they fill their whining omegas up, and bite to leave pretty claiming marks.”
“Oh my god,” Cash mutters, face flaming red. He brings his hands up to hide, and I share Lie’s grin.
Maybe I don’t know what he’s talking about, but it doesn’t sound so bad after all.
We hang out with Laiken and Lie for a few more hours.
Eat dinner. Watch a movie. Cash and I go to bed relatively early, curling up together on the floor.
To be honest, it’s not as uncomfortable as I thought it might be.
Must be all the blankets and pillows Lie added to construct the nest for Cash’s omega status.
He’s asleep in my arms almost right away.
It’s been a long, stressful afternoon, so I’m not surprised.
For a long time, I stare at the glowing dick night light and try not to let my anger fester.
It’s more challenging than it should be since Cash’s phone keeps ringing.
After the sixth call in an hour, I carefully extract myself from Cash and take his phone into the living room.
I don’t need to look at the missed call log to see that his parents have been calling. The next time the phone rings, ten minutes later, I answer.
“Stop calling,” I say as I hit the green button.
“Is Cash okay?” Troy asks, voice anxious.
“You know, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to excuse the fact that you’ve done nothing to force Benson to grow the fuck up.
You ignored Cash’s concerns for years as if he were being a dramatic child tattling on his older brother.
I know that you’ve heard all the bullshit behavior Benson spews at guests and attacks his brother at the bar.
You witnessed in person the level of his derangement when he tried to break into Cash’s room in the middle of the night and then wished Cash dead.
Yet he was still allowed back home! I don’t really fucking care that Benson is an adult and should take responsibility for his own actions at this point.
He’s made it clear for almost a decade that, left unchecked, he was going to continue to spiral, and what did you do?
Fucking nothing. Now Cash has been hurt.
Under your roof. The place he was supposed to feel safest. Because you allowed Benson home again, knowing that Cash was his target. And you want to know if he’s okay?”
I don’t receive an answer. I know they’re there. I can hear them breathing.
“I miscalculated and let Benson get his hands on Cash. It won’t happen again.
Until you get your heads out of your asses and fucking do something to prove that Cash’s safety is your concern, you’re also not going to see Cash again, either.
I won’t let him go somewhere he’s not safe, and you’ve assured that his own home isn’t safe. ”
I give them another thirty seconds to answer. When they don’t, I end the call and block both of their numbers. For good measure, I block Benson’s as well.
Yep, I took some liberties here tonight. I don’t even care. I don’t care what I have to do to protect Cash moving forward.