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“Same, man,” Aiden said, flipping through a binder of popular designs on the counter. “Wouldn’t mind punching someone though, if you need me to, just not Theo.”
“I’d like to take a swing at him,” Cal said as he flipped through another binder beside Aiden. “But since he loves hurting himself, he’d probably like it.”
Max’s mouth fell open. “What the hell is he talking about?” he asked me.
“Theo cuts himself when he’s upset,” Aiden said in a bored tone. “He claims it makes him feel better. I guess taking a punch to the face would work too, so you better not, Cal.”
I glared at my two best friends, but they kept flipping through the designs like they were about to select a spur-of-the-moment tattoo. Nothing good could come from Max knowing about my cutting. He’d worry himself sick and probably force me to strip once a week to make sure I wasn’t hiding anything.
“What?” Max looked from Aiden to me, then over to Cal, who looked up from the binder and nodded. Max’s hands shook slightly before he gripped the counter. “How long?”
“They’re making a bigger deal out of it than it is,” I said.
They all ignored me.
“He started that shit while he was waiting for his trial,” Aiden said.
Max glared at Aiden, then Cal. “And you’re just telling me this now?”
Aiden closed the binder and looked Max in the eyes. “No offense, but we didn’t know you well enough to tell you. We’ve kept tabs on him. If he’d gotten worse at any point, we’d have filled you in.”
“But we figured anyone who’d get themselves handcuffed to protect Theo was someone we could trust to keep an extra eye on him,” Cal added.
“How did I miss it?” Max asked.
“He got good at hiding it by the time you met him,” Cal said, walking away from the counter and staring at the framed photographs of some of my best work. He looked completely at ease, strolling around the shop, but I knew he wasn’t. He had his hands shoved in his pockets, no doubt balled in fists. “You have to know what to look for. If he cuts his legs, his walk changes.”
Max paled and gripped the counter harder.
“Go ahead and puke if you need to, Max,” Aiden said. “I know I did when I found out.”
“I punched a hole in my closet door,” Cal said casually. “Cost me my security deposit.”
“Y’all never told me that,” I said. I didn’t think I could feel any worse today, but I did.
Cal and Aiden looked everywhere except at me. Max took deep breaths through his nose and out his mouth. Gradually, the gray left his complexion. Throughout the conversation, Aries’s footsteps had pounded overhead, but in the quiet, I could hear every drawer he opened and closed.
“Sounds like a herd of elephants up there,” Aiden said after an uncomfortable stretch of silence.
“Kid better hurry the hell up,” Max mumbled.
As if Aries had heard him, the sound of boots thudding down the stairs echoed through Marked. Aries walked through the front room without sparing a word for any of us and out the door carrying everything he owned in a trash bag before turning and giving the bird to the shop window. He spat on the sidewalk and headed toward the bus stop down the street.
Max gripped my shoulder. “When was the last time you hurt yourself?” he asked, staring me hard in the eyes.
“Recently,” Aiden answered for me.
“They’re making it sound like I’m suicidal or something,” I said. “I’m not. It’s just—”
“Unacceptable,” Max said. His grip tightened on my shoulder, and he pointed a finger at my face with his other hand. “If I find so much as a paper cut on you, I’m taking you in for a psych hold, got it?”
I nodded.
“We’re not done talking about this, but it’s been a hell of a day. I’m canceling the rest of our appointments, and you’re coming home with me.”
I shook my head. “You have my word, Max. I won’t hurt myself. Go be with your girls. Don’t worry about me.”
“I don’t think there’s any way I’ll ever stop worrying about you, Theo,” Max said rubbing his forehead. “It’s not in a parent’s nature.”