She turns her gaze on me and I look down. “Both of you.”
Evan looks up, nostrils flaring, defiance in his eyes. “I can’t apply for that course. I lied to you.” His jaw is clenched.
“Why not?”
“I got a disciplinary at work, because of the fight.”
“That’s not fair!” Theresa takes the words right out of my mouth.
“Evan, we can fight this,” I say.
He shakes his head. “Bob said he won’t let me lose my job. He thinks I should give the guys who jumped us up to the cops.”
“You should,” Theresa says.
Evan shakes his head. “They know where we live.”
“So what?”
“They’ll terrorize you and Stace. No, Ma, you won’t convince me to do that.”
“So what? They just get away with it?”
“If I give them up, they’ll get community service, maybe a little jail time. Then they’ll be out there, doing it again. This time, it’ll be you and Stacie. I promised Dad I’d look out for you both.”
“I’ll give them up.”
They both look at me.
“I went to school with them, too. I know their names. And it’s me who got injured. I could even threaten to sue them, scare them off coming after you guys. Let me use Bryce’s connections for something good for once.”
Theresa smiles. “I think that’s a good idea.”
“I think you should stay out of it.”
“Evan!”
“No Ma, I won’t let Nate get hurt again. No fucking way.”
I soften. He keeps his eyes on me.
I put my hand on the table, heart pounding in my ears as I wait to see if he’ll take it in front of his mom. He does.
“You don’t have to take care of everyone all the time, Ev. It’s okay sometimes to let people take care of you.”
He drops his gaze, looks down at our hands clasped on the table.
“Nate’s right.” Theresa says. She leans closer and plants a kiss on top of my head as she stands.
“Make sure you two get some sleep. I’ll see you both in the morning.”
We crawl into bed, both too exhausted to do anything but sleep. I have classes in the morning and Evan has work. There’s so much to unpack, but I know he’s fragile right now. We need to take everything one step at a time.
18
NATHAN
Seeing as they had to cut their Bahamas vacation short, my mom and Bryce decided to go to Martha’s Vineyard for a few weeks once they’ve seen I’m fine and my arm isn’t going to fall off, so I have the house to myself again.
