Page 14 of Sunrise

“I don’t want to hear it,” I whisper-growl. Fucking hell, my temper is a hair-trigger today. “Just drop it. It’s not important tonight. We’re here forher.” I point at the bathroom. “She needs comfort and safety from us. Not two boys fighting over stupid shit.”

Vault looks like he wants to throat punch me. Guess calling the sunrise thing “stupid shit” rubbed him wrong. Oh fucking well. He started it.

“Fine.” He crosses his arms over his chest and leans his hip against my kitchen counter. “What are your boundaries, then?”

I don’t think I have any. This is new territory for me and I’m clueless about expectations with them both in my bed. “I won’t touch you. You don’t touch me.”

His Adam’s apple bobs big time with his next swallow. Our little staring contest gets more intense. “What if she asks us to?”

“She won’t.” I know that for a fact.

“But if she does?”

Why is he acting like he knows her better than me? “She won’t.”

“But—”

“Jesus, Alex.” I slip past him and head into the living room. If Sophie asks us to touch, I’ll do it. It’ll tear me up inside because it’s the one thing I want most, but she’s not going to ask. She’s been scared tonight. Triggered by something. That means she wants to be held and kept safe, and nothing more.

This isn’t the first time she’s come to my house for a cuddle sesh in the middle of the night. My girl has nightmares, too. Does Vault know that?

On cue, Sophie comes out wearing a pair of my sweatpants and a T-shirt. They’re too big for her, which makes it extra hot, in my opinion. “You ready for bed?”

She nods and disappears into my dark bedroom.

Vault and I look at each other for a hot second before we follow her. Sophie pulls the covers down and climbs into the middle. Like well-trained dogs, we each take a side and pull the sheets over us. Fully dressed.

“Thank you.” She closes her eyes and tucks up against me, making me feel like a winner. “Happy Birthday, Knox.”

I kiss her head while staring at Vault. “Go to sleep, we’ve got you.”

She drifts off just as I’m falling down memory lane…

“Happy birthday.” Vault pulls out a cake box with a plastic window on top. Icing is smeared all over it and one corner is crushed.

“What did you do, sit on it?”

“It was in my bookbag. Sorry.” He lifts the top offand whatever it said is now a blue blurry mess. “It’ll still taste good.”

Yeah, it will. The scent alone is sugar overload. And it’s chocolate, my favorite. I’m having a sleepover with my best friends and my pops is going to be gone all night at the club, which means we can do whatever we want. I hid a bottle of Wild Turkey in my closet for later.

Vault points at the bruise on my arm. “What’s that from?”

“He had a bad night.”

It’s no secret my pops hits me. I don’t hold it against him. He’s got PTSD and if something triggers him, there’s no stopping the blows. He’s not hitting me, he’s fighting his demons. My mom took off about two years ago because she couldn’t handle it anymore. I couldn’t just leave him, too. It’s not his fault he’s this way. I heard him tell a friend that therapy hasn’t helped, so he’s been using other methods lately. Last night was a bad one though, and the fresh bruise on my arm is going to look worse by tomorrow.

Five minutes later, the rest of the party shows up.

“Happy Birthday, motherfucker.” Dmitri steps into my house with a pillow and a bag of chips.

Ryker’s right behind him. “I ordered a pizza.”

We eat like kings. Music blasts so loud, my windows shake, and we play hours and hours of video games. Ry lowers the music somewhere around midnight, saying he didn’t want the cops called on us. I shoveled half the chocolate cake onto my plate earlier and am now working on polishing off the rest that’s left.

Oh shit, I forgot about the Wild Turkey. “Who wants some?”

Dmitri passes.

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