“What the fuck!” Tommy said.
“But Adam’s okay. Bas got him home, and Adam’s parents took him to the hospital. He’s pretty drugged up on painkillers.” Katie looked at Ru. “You need to calm down. I don’t think you know just how difficult this is gonna be for Adam. He needs you to hold it together. When he was panicking, he was begging for you to be there.”
“And I wasn’t. I was in San Diego when I should have been with him.”
“Ru, that’s not what I meant. What I mean is that he needs you now. He’ll need you to be normal, to do day-to-day things with him. Go to get pizza. Watch a movie. Do normal things so he knows his whole world hasn’t been messed up by this guy. He’ll be jumping at shadows for a while, worrying that everyone is going to attack him. Stuff like this, leaves a mark. It’s up to you to show him that not everything is out to get him.” Katie grabbed Ru’s guitar. “Play for him. Sing him ‘Start Something’ again. Remind him that he is safe and loved.”
“What about Nate? We can’t let him get away with hurting Adam. And AJ is just going to make it worse by putting it in the papers.”
“Not true. I have a dozen people out working on killing the story by telling the truth—that it was a school bully and an assault. The more AJ pushes this, the worse it looks for him.”
“Oh my God.” Ru nearly swallowed his tongue. “I gotta see Adam.”
Tommy put his hand on Ru’s shoulder. “We’ll stop by Adam’s house. Just look in on him, then head back to my place for some sleep, okay?” He gave Katie a tight smile. “You know he won’t rest until he sees Adam.”
“Fine. But one of you is sleeping on the couch since you’re keeping me up so late.” Katie pulled Ru into a hug as they made their way out of the airport. “Let’s go check on your boy.”
Ru spent almost ten minutes just watching Adam sleep before finally agreeing to leave. He wanted to take the bed in the spare room to be close, or better yet, wrap himself around Adam, but Mr. Corbin suggested that Adam might be too jumpy for that right now. When they got back to Tommy’s loft, it was after 5:00 a.m., and Ru barely remembered falling asleep before Katie was shaking him awake.
“Is he up yet?” Ru asked. It was almost nine.
“No. But I’m going to head over and talk some things over with the Corbins. This is going to have media whether we want it to or not.” Katie had a stack of papers in hand. Tommy looked more awake than Ru felt, but he’d also slept on the plane and in the car.
“So what is the plan?” Tommy wanted to know as they got in the limo, with Binks at the wheel, and headed back to Adam’s house.
“It sounds like the Corbins are going to press charges. They’ve already been up and talking to the principal of the school and some of the school board members. Northern has a no-bullying policy, and Nate’s actions were seen not only by a couple of kids at school, but by the guys working in a food truck that had been hired for Homecoming.” Katie pulled out her iPhone and answered a few calls on the way. “I believe they’ve threatened to pull Adam out of school unless Nate is expelled.”
“But Nate’s the quarterback. And I checked the Northern High website last night. Looks like they won,” Tommy pointed out.
“It will be for the school to decide. Adam’s a very good student, and he’s well-liked by most of the student body and the faculty. He may not be the most popular kid in school, but everyone knows who he is.” Katie reached out to brush Ru’s hair back. “And all that is him, and nothing to do with you. So making your relationship public isn’t going do anything bad to him.”
“You’re sure? The paparazzi aren’t going to come pounding on his door?” Ru wondered if that was just something they did to Kris.
“No guarantees on that. But because of the nature of the assault, and the fact that both Adam and Nate are minors, most of the papers are killing the story that AJ fed them. I think if the two of you put a positive face to your relationship, the rest of this stuff is going to die pretty fast.”
“How are we going to do that?”
Katie grinned. “First, the two of you are going to go on a very public double date at Dimitri’s with a LGBT reporter who’s been dying for an exclusive. I already talked to Ryan Hart, and he’s agreed to bring his partner of four years to dinner for an interview. The meeting should be pretty un-intrusive, and I trust Ryan to keep it positive. He’s been covering all of your LGBT youth appearances, buying tickets for the different areas you’re in, and handing them out to kids in need. I just need to talk to the Corbins, get their approval. Just because you’re legally able to make your own decisions doesn’t mean Adam is.”
Ru nodded. “Adam’s folks are great. They take really good care of him.”
Tommy messed up Ru’s hair. “And you too. I can’t wait to eat some of that home cooking you’ve been telling me about. And don’t you dare say I can’t come to dinner too.”
