“I…”
My words fade in the air.
All I want is to make sense of all this. Instead I’m dissociating, like I’m free-floating somewhere above my body, watching everything in my life as it's thrown into the air.
If I look at Sev for a moment longer, I’m afraid I might actually start to believe what he said, andnothingcould be scarier than that.
He doesn’t mean it.
He’s just emotional.
Sev doesn’t fall for anyone, especially not a living burden like you.
“Stop,”I hear behind me, and I recognize Noah’s voice.
A moment later, something hard connects with the side of my face. At first I don’t even register that it’s someone punching me, because it feels more like a goddamn rock hitting the side of my jaw.
“Kieran,don’t,” Sevan says, rushing to my side as I break my fall with my forearm on the stone ground.
I squint up to see Sevan blocking Kieran from punching me again at the last moment. Noah seems to have run out after him, trying to protect me.
The pain that blooms out from my jaw almost feels like a mercy.
Finally, I feel something.
Real pain.
Not floating in dissociation.
“What’s going on out here? Are you in on it, Berlant? Getting your own sweet cut of the bribe?” Kieran is roaring at Sevan. “Guess you’re loyal to your fucking boy toy now, because the hatefuck was justthatgood.”
“Shut your mouth,” Sev says to him, keeping him in a headlock and pulling him toward a bench. “Were you working with Thorne, Kier?”
Kieran is jerking his arms around, trying and failing to find any way to struggle out of Sev’s grip. “I have no fucking clue what you’re talking about. Who is Thorne?”
Kieran seems unhinged. Like he’s on drugs, and probably took way too much.
Noah goes in and tries to help Sev restrain him, but an erratic swing hits Noah directly in the face.
It’s a bad hit.
Kieran’s wearing a couple of rings on that hand and one of them seemed to get Niko right on the cheek, and the blow hit him directly in the nose. More blood hits the stone below us and Noah sinks to the ground, crying out in pain.
“Fuck,” he groans.
Sev’s looking over, frowning as he still tries to restrain Kieran.
“His nose is broken,” Sev says. “And he’s passing out. Call an ambulance, Wes.”
20
Sev
“I’m fine. Glorious, honestly,” Noah says from the hospital bed.
“Perfectly fine, and that’s why your face looks like an ink blot right now?” Weston asks him, slightly teasing him but hovering over his bed like he’s a worried, loving parent. “You didn’t have to try to protect me, Noah.”
The low beeping sound of the heart monitor fills the air as Weston puts the back of his hand to Noah’s forehead for the third time in a row.