“Suuuuure, Gage,” Kevin said, laughing. “And that’s why you’re drilling holes through him with your eyes. Not worried at all. Gotcha.”
What the fuck was he going on about? Oh. Peter was halfway up The Liquidator and I hadn’t even noticed him start to climb. But showmeup? Come on now.
I snorted, shaking my head. “Dude, Peter’s already struggling.”
True.
“Besides,” I added. “I wasn’t actually watching, my eyes were just pointed in that direction. I was thinking about Noah.”
Uh… also true, but why the fuck had I blurtedthatout?
Kevin’s eyebrows shot up as he turned to stare at me. “Is that why he’s not here today? You two get in a fight? Has hell frozen over?”
“What?” I scoffed. “’Course not.”
Noah and I didn’t fight. That would be like… like gravity disappearing or water not being wet. Or, yeah, like hell freezing over.
But then, for no apparent reason, I added, “Just wish I was with him to run interference right now, you know?”
“Uh, no?” Kevin said. “I don’t know, actually. What do you mean? Run interference with what?”
Why the fuck did he care?
More importantly, why the fuck was I about to tell him?
“Noah’s stuck having breakfast with his mom and dad,” I said, suddenly feeling like I was at serious risk of oversharing worse than a drunk chick on TikTok.
Shit, was this what happened when one guy touched another guy’s junk? Like some kind of weird gay side effect? Because I wasn’t generally the type to go dropping personal info on people, and I definitely didn’t normally do a bunch offeelingsor whatever, but now, fuck. Swear to Jesus, I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling Kevin how bad it was killing me to think of my boy being elsewhere, just because his fucking parentals had decided to throw a wrench into our carefully crafted and damn-near-perfect weekend routine. Or that I fuckinghatedthat Noah could possibly be feeling like shit at this very moment. That they might be dumping on him, when that was thelastfucking thing he ever deserved, without me there to protect him from the kind of bullshit fuckery they always pulled, and…
And, Jesus. I had to get a grip. Seriously, what the actual fuck waswrongwith me, almost blurting all that shit out to Kevin? Like, what, him asking me one simple question was suddenly enough to turn me into the poster child for male bonding now or some shit?
“So… Noah’s parents are dicks?” Kevin asked, clearly oblivious to me trying to come to terms with my new sensitive side or whatever.
“Yep,” I bit out. But then, to be fair—another gay side effect?—I added, “I don’t think they mean to be, though.”
Sure, the way they treated Noah pissed me off, but I also knew they loved him, so I figured it was true. And yeah, it had always kinda weirded me out how involved in his life they were, but maybe that was my own fucked-up sense of perspective, given that my set of parentals had always been more of the checkbooks-solve-everything school of neglectful child-rearing.
But still, good intentions weren’t enough, in my book. Because—
“They just don’tgethim,” I told Kevin, full-on emoting and shit now, like I was suddenly hanging with Karamo Brown and just couldn’t help myself. Jesus, and Noah had been worried ascarfwould make him look gay.
But Kevin just shrugged. “I mean, what parents ever do?”
Fair point. But still…
“This is different,” I said, since Kevin clearly wasn’t getting it. Noah’s parentals tended to treat him like he was a problem when he was fucking perfection, always came down hard on the authoritarian side when they thought they knew what was best for him, and generally ended up making him feel like he was somehow not good enough every time they talked, which was the opposite of true and made me fuckingmental.I wasn’t so far gone that I’d spill all that, though, so I just went with, “Just sayin’, I’m worried he might need me.”
Kevin’s lips twitched. “Why didn’t you just go to breakfast with him, if you’re so worried about it? Aren’t you guys usually joined at the hip?”
I snorted. “Yeah, no. His parentals specifically told him that option was off the table.”
Kevin laughed at that, the asshole. “Let me guess, you’re not their favorite person? Why doesn’tthatsurprise me?”
“Fuck off,” I said, my lips twitching now too, because yeah, yeah, we all knew I was a bit of a dick to people at times. It was part of my charm. Enough of all this emotional bonding bullshit with Kevin, though. It was starting to make me antsy. I gave him a shove toward the wall. “Climb already, bro.”
He smirked. “Yep, that’s what I’m here for,” he said, pulling on a set of climbing gloves and getting to it.
I should do that, too. Kevin was right, though. Noah’s parentals weren’t my biggest fans. They’d never appreciated my habit of speaking up and butting in whenever they got on Noah about some bullshit or other—bullshit shit that had always seemed to me to serve no purpose other than to stress him the fuck out, ramp up his anxiety, and fuck with his confidence—but no apologies.
