AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We’re a pile of sorry flesh after the first round, and I’m quickly engaged in a battle with my eyelids. They won’t stay open, but I don’t wanna stop looking at him. He’s out cold, his leg over mine, curls tumbled everywhere, snoring softly.
Yeah, I’m his. I’m his as much as he’s mine.
“I belong with you too, Alderchuck,” I say for practice, knowing he can’t hear me. When Casey sleeps, he turns into a rock. My eyelids flutter, and I lose the battle as sleep pulls me under.
But unlike Casey, I sleep like a guard dog. The smallest of sounds and movements wake me. My phone rings and while all he does is shift a little, I’m up and answering, my heart pounding. Nothing good ever happens at this time of night.
“Hey, Charles? Everything alright?”
“Yeah, I mean, nothing bad’s happened, but I’ve been having trouble sleeping. Sorry, I’m calling so late.”
I rub a hand over my face, slowly pulling away from Alderchuck, heading into the living room so that I can give Charles my full attention. His life’s upside down, and I get that. From the sounds of it, his mom is doing okay, but that doesn’t mean things are good. He’s a caretaker at fifteen, and I can hear it in his voice—the weight of everyone on his shoulders.
We chat for a few hours until I pull some genuine laughs from him, but once we’re off the phone, I can’t help wondering—for the gazillionth time—if I’m doing the right thing. Charles needs a real parent. Can I find him one? That’s what prompts my text to Lane.
Me
I think it’s time, Curtis.
I don’t expect a text right away, considering the time, but he’ll know what I mean. It’s time we think about getting the boys … something. I don’t know how that works if their mom is technically okay, though.
Lane
Don’t you fucking dare, Sutter. We’ve got this. Mama West is doing well.
Me
Charles isn’t.
Lane
Everyone has a bad day now and then. He’s fine.
Now I’m the one up, thinking about everything. I lie naked on my couch, turning the problem over in my head. Am I the right person to make choices for a fifteen-year-old boy and his brother anyway? Fuck, my head hurts. I pull out my phone to mindlessly scroll, but even that’s infiltrated by images and headlines about me and Casey. Sutterchuck fans want us to elope in Vegas so bad. Some of them think we already have. Others are sure we’d never set foot near each other—let alone each other’s dicks—and think the whole thing’s a PR stunt.
That sends me down a rabbit hole.
There’s a loud banging on the door. Loud enough, it could result in the likes of Alderchuck rising from his dead sleep.
Who the fuck is here so late? Huh, or I guess early. It’s approaching six am. Whoever it is has the patience of a toddler, turning the knob, jiggling it.
“Open up, Sutter!”
Fuck. Lane. He’s getting his fob privileges revoked for this. “Hang the fuck on.”
With practiced motions, I turn and click, releasing the many locks on my door. I grab his collar and yank him inside. Lane might not be a small guy, but I’m bigger and stronger. I’m a trained athlete, he vapes too much. I throw him into my apartment, easily.
“What the fuck, man?” I say.
“I came to stop you from doing something stupid.” He looks me up and down then raises a cocky Lane brow. “Or maybe you’re in the middle of it?”
Alderchuck chooses that moment to stumble from the bedroom, stretching, yawning. Naked.
“Wow, you didn’t tell me he looked like that under all the sweatpants,” Lane says.
He might be one of my oldest and best friends, but that won’t save him the beating he’s gonna get for looking at my Alderchuck.
“Go put some fucking clothes on,” I snap at Casey, even though my anger’s for Lane.
