Page 58 of Justice

Looked like I’d be staying in Southampton a little longer.

Chapter 12

Matty

My mouth was stretched open in a massive yawn as I trudged blearily out of my bedroom. Dreams of Sebastian had kept me tossing and turning again. I’d had to get up in the middle of the night to change my cum-soaked underwear, only to wake up this morning with the same issue.

If this carried on, Leo was going to ask why I was doing so much extra washing. Talk about embarrassing. After our little…discussion last night, there was no way I was so much as mentioning Sebastian in front of him any time soon.

“Morning, my fave little sunbeam.”

I gave a small scream. “Cheese and rice! Danny, you scared the fork outta me.”

Danny gave me a toothy grin from the sofa. “I love the way you swear. It’s so gosh darned cute. I made you some tea. It’s by the kettle.”

I perked up, heading for the kitchen. He’d made me tea, so he was forgiven for startling me.

Both my hands were wrapped around my mug as I joined him on the sofa. “Lovely as it is to see you, why are you here?”

Danny shuffled in his seat, clearing his throat. “Something’s come up with Ferry and Leo.”

Alarm shot through me. “What’s happened? Are they okay?”

“They’re fine, don’t panic.” Danny’s hand cupped the back of my neck, squeezing me reassuringly. Unlike when Sebastian had done that, there were no butterflies. Danny was gorgeous, there was no denying that, but he was like a big golden retriever who’d never hurt a fly.

Basically, he was who I should be attracted to.

But I wasn’t.

“Ferry got news that his uncle is sick. He and Leo took off last night to go and visit him.”

“Took off?”

“Yeah. He lives in Brazil, apparently.”

“I didn’t think Ferry had any relatives.” None that he’d mentioned, anyway.

Danny shrugged. “Yeah, I didn’t know either. Think they fell out a while ago and this is a whole ‘make things better while you’re on your deathbed’ kinda thing.”

I made a sympathetic clucking noise. I might have been annoyed with the pair of them, but that didn’t stop me feeling bad. “Poor Ferry. I’m glad Leo’s with him. He’ll look after him.”

“And while they’re gone, I’ll look after you.”

I frowned at him, the annoyance from the night before returning. “Why? It’s not like I’m a child. I’m quite frequently on my own.”

Danny’s smile was tinged with pity, like he understood the loneliness that underpinned my words. “Well, you won’t be alone for the next few days. I’m going to crash in Leo and Ferry’s room. Give you a lift to uni and back.”

“You can’t come everywhere with me, I have book club tonight,” I said pointedly. “And you can’t come unless you’ve read the book.”

“Which book is it?”

“Drama Queen by Charlie Novak. It’s funny and sweet and don’t pretend you’ve read it, I’ve literally never seen you with a book the whole time I’ve known you.”

“Well luckily for me, book club is cancelled. Harlow reached out last night saying he was going to be busy. There should be a message on your phone from him.”

Sure enough, when I checked the screen, there was an effusive apology from Harlow, along with another from Lucky and a third from Oscar. A variety of excuses including a migraine, a forgotten essay, and an unexpected parents’ evening.

Strange. I’d thought Oscar had the week off for half term. I had to be getting my timetable confused. It was different to the uni calendar, after all.

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