Page 70 of A Series of Rooms
“You hit him?” There was something like genuine awe in his voice.
“He deserved a lot worse than what he got.” Liam’s smile was short-lived, falling quickly back into a flat line. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to make this right.”
“It’s not yours to make right,” Jonah assured him. “I’ve always maintained that you’re much better than your friends.”
“He’s not,” Liam said sharply. “He is not my friend.”If he ever really was.
“Good. You deserve better,” Jonah said.
Liam squeezed his hand.Now I have it,he thought.
“Are you going to press charges?” he asked, cautious. “Against Nathan?”
Jonah’s expression went tight.
“I didn’t mean to imply that you should,” Liam added quickly. “I just wanted to let you know that I would support you if you did. Or if you didn’t. Whatever you do.”
“No,” Jonah said after a moment. “Pressing charges would open the door to months of dragging myself back to this place. To talk to police, to lawyers. That’s on top of whatever trial may or may not...” He breathed a heavy exhale, as if the thought alone was exhausting. “No. I just want it to be over.”
“I want...” Liam’s voice broke off. “I want to kill him. All of them. Anyone who ever touched you.”
“They weren’t all bad people,” Jonah said. “Most of them didn’t know.”
“Just because they weren’t terrible doesn’t mean it wasn’t terrible for you.”
Jonah didn’t argue with him there.
They lapsed into a sleepy silence. The weight of the day was crashing over him, and Liam felt his eyelids starting to droop. Without letting go of Jonah’s hand, he tilted his head against the bed rail and let his eyes shut for just a few seconds.
When he woke, probably several minutes later, it was to gentle fingers in his hair.
“Hey,” Jonah whispered. “C’mere.”
Liam sat up blearily, wiping at an embarrassing string of drool at the corner of his mouth. “Come where?” he said.
Jonah shifted his body, with what appeared to be no small amount of effort, to make room beside him. Liam looked at the empty space on the bed, then back at him. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said.
“You won’t.”
It required a level of coordination that Liam didn’t possess on his best day, but eventually he managed to slot himself beside Jonah without jostling him too much.
“Are you sure this is okay?” he asked, lips brushing Jonah’s hair. He felt the answering nod against his shoulder and allowed himself to relax.
Sleep was just beginning to claim him again when Jonah’s voice brought him back to the surface.
“Liam?” he said. “How did you get here so quickly?”
Liam opened his eyes.
“After I called you,” Jonah continued. “You were here in under an hour. I’ve ridden in a car with you, remember? I know you don’t drive that fast.”
Liam took a breath, relishing in the close proximity, in case it wouldn’t be welcome after this. “I was already in the city,” he forced himself to say. “I’m a little afraid you’ll hate me if I tell you why.”
The mattress dipped as Jonah leaned back, just far enough to see his face. There was apprehension there, but it sounded like he meant it when he said, “I could never hate you.”
Liam wasn’t sure if that was true, but Jonah deserved the truth regardless.
“After I found out about Nathan, I sort of...broke.” There was no better word for what had happened that night. “I was already at the end of my rope after a week of worrying about you and feeling so... so fuckingawfulabout how everythingwent down—”
