However, I was friends with Vulcan’s family before he was a part of it. One of his men is a man named Zvi who’s also a content creator—Collin Fox. We collab sometimes, though before the Declan connection, I’d never interacted with the rest of his family.
“Think we can get Ruby up here for that?” Alka asks, a smile touching his lips.
I smile too. “We’ll see what we can do.”
“I need us to make our first plans with him ASAP. I need something in the calendar to look forward to. I’m going to go crazy otherwise.”
I nod.ThatI completely understand.
CHAPTER 19
ROUX
You have everything?” Lix asks.
I look around my dorm room, but it’s hard to say since we’re surrounded by a dozen boxes. Even my mattress is standing up, leaning against the wall.
“Sure,” I answer.
He chuckles.
I meet his eyes. “Want to stay and help me unpack? Or stay until my roommate gets here so I can make sure he’s not… crazy.” Not Trevor. That’s what I was going to say.
My brother sees right through me. The playful expression on his face softens as he steps closer and takes both my upper arms in his hands. “It’s not Trevor,” he says. Yep, totally read my mind. “You’re never going to see him again.”
“You don’t know that. You don’t even know what happened to him.”
“I know that he’s been ‘neutralized,’ and I’m trusting that.”
“But does that mean like… in jail? Dead? Shipped off to Belize? That doesn’t mean he can’t come back. Except the dead option.”
Lix shakes his head. “I don’t know the specifics, but I trust that he’s notcoming back.”
I inhale and try to have his confidence. I chose Rainbow Dorset because it’s queer-centric, close-ish to my brother, has a decent soccer team, and far away from where I met Trevor.
As soon as I got on the plane from Kala and my phone battery was charged enough, I settled in to catch up on whatever I’d been slacking on over the last six weeks. Obviously, the first thing I saw was a text message from an unprogrammed number.
With nothing to do for the three days on the island after Alka and Oscar left, I memorized their phone numbers so I immediately knew that it was Alka. There was one from Oscar later, then a group chat established with the three of us, filled with their thoughts and chatter for three days.
The emotion that overtook me made it hard to breathe for a few minutes. Tears stung my eyes. They were real. Memorizing their phone numbers had been a way of convincing myself I didn’t make them up. This is even better.
So I chatted with them as I checked my email. Lo and behold, Iwasaccepted to Rainbow Dorset just two days ago. I read the email chain between administration and my brother before emailing my brother. Now was the perfect time for a phone call, but on a plane, that wasn’t possible.
We spent the last four days running around to gather everything I needed, making sure I had clothes, soccer gear, textbooks. I’d been auto enrolled in classes based on the core curriculum not met by my transferred credits.
Honestly, I don’t care. I could suffer through a semester with boring, shitty classes. This is a new start. That’s what I keep telling myself.
“You leave anything at home that you can tell?”
I glance around my room. “Hard to say since my boxes are still packed.”
He chuckles. “Look at me, Roux.” I stop looking around and meet his eyes. “You’re safe. He’s not coming back. You will never see him again. And you didforgetsomething at home.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the credit card he’d givenme last summer. I might have tried to hide it on the kitchen table under the table mats.
Apparently, they clean under them regularly. Lix gives me a bemused look.
“You lost two years because of this man. You’re not getting a job this year. All you’re doing is focusing on schoolwork, soccer, making friends, and having a good time. I understand you feel guilty about spending my money, but I promise you, Ilovespoiling you. I love being able to take care of you. You’re my baby brother, and it means a whole lot to me that I have the means to do so.”
Sighing, I take back his credit card. It even has my name on it. He added me to his account and ordered me my own card. “Thanks. I won’t abuse it.”
