“Oh,” Rian said, blinking. “That’s...well, I suppose that’s not too terrible.”
“...maybe not for you,” Chris muttered. “I just... I just wanted to be...”
“Normal,” Damon finished softly. “You wanted to go to a normal high school and be a normal boy with normal friends. Not this secret hideaway where everyone caters to every tiny thing you want, and tries to keep your entire existence a secret from the world.”
Chris struggled out a weak, troubled smile. “Yeah. Something like that. I don’t hate it here. And my friends here are really cool. I mean...it’s not so bad I wanna leave, it’s just not my favorite place. But...well...what’s that old song? Can’t always get what you want?”
“Forgot the other half, though.” Rian watched Chris, the little subtle cues of body language that gave away just how upset he was—something that ran deep, something behind whatever he wasn’t telling them. “But if you try sometimes...you might just get what you need. So what is it you need? Can’t hurt to tell us. Try it out.”
Chris screwed his face up. “I mean... I don’t really need anything?”
“Those bruises say otherwise,” Damon interjected. “If you’re not going to fill us in, we might have to get the police involved.”
For the second time, Chris rasped out a garbled “What?” and this time nearly dropped the orange juice bottle, fumbling with the bottle with one hand and the cap on the other, juice splashing out over his fingers before he managed to scramble enough to thunk the bottle solidly down and sling the cap onto it haphazardly while still holding his IV-pinned arm stiffly straight. Clutching at the bottle with wet fingers, he stared at them with a look of such horrified betrayal Rian felt as if he’d kicked a puppy. “You can’t do that; it’s not fair! I didn’t do anything wrong, and I didn’t break any laws!”
The entire room fell silent, even Nurse Hadley’s movements beyond the curtains stopping.
Rian and Damon simply watched Chris—and Rian could see the moment Chris realized he’d slipped. Because Rian knew without even asking that Damon had meant calling the police to investigate whoever was hurting Chris...
...but Chris had assumed he’d meant calling the police to punish Chris for whatever he might be involved in.
That...was a little too telling.
And suddenly that feeling of worry inside Rian expanded from a tiny little frustrated knot into a massive, heavy, deeply tangled thing that felt like it weighed as much as Rian himself, and more.
This could be worse than they’d thought.
A lot worse.
Chris lowered his eyes sharply, biting his lip as he carefully screwed the cap back on the orange juice bottle, then picked up a folded white paper napkin and started wiping at his fingers.
“I don’t want to talk anymore,” he mumbled. “I’m really tired, and I just want to eat and go back to sleep.”
Damon started to open his mouth—but Rian reached across the bed to touch his wrist, shaking his head and mouthing No.
Let it be.
Damon stiffened, then sighed, nodded, and withdrew, standing with his jeans rasping against the sheets as he slid off the bed. “Okay, Chris. We’ll let you rest. But what do you want us to tell your parents, if they call back?”
Chris shrugged listlessly. “They won’t,” was all he said.
Rian hated how certain he sounded.
But Rian held his tongue, and he and Damon filed from the room. Nurse Hadley caught Rian’s eye, and gave up any pretense of “organizing” shelves to follow them; the last Rian saw of Chris was Chris forlornly shredding the edge of his napkin, before Hadley closed the door behind them as they congregated out in the hall.
“Fuck,” Damon said immediately.
“That about covers it,” Rian said, and slumped against the wall. “This is worse than we thought. What if he’s involved in something illegal?”
“That’s what I was thinking.” Grim, scowling, Damon rubbed at his chin. “Something illegal. Someone who’s bad for him. Someone he’s more afraid of than anything else that could be threatening him.”
“I don’t really think Omen’s a haven for gang activity,” Rian said. “Or even thugs, despite the reasons this school exists. But could he be involved in drugs? Something more serious than marijuana?”
“Nothing came up on the urine test in his pre-season physical when school started,” Nurse Hadley said. “And I’ve done another one since he was admitted. Now, granted, our facilities aren’t that sophisticated, but on a basic screening he came up clean. He’s also not exhibiting signs of withdrawal from anything addictive. He’s worn down, yes, but the markers just don’t match.”
Rian sighed heavily; God, how did this just keep getting worse? “So we’re back to square one. No idea where the bruises came from, or why he seems so...so...defeated.”
“Nothing,” Damon grunted. “But he sure as hell seemed eager to get the fuck out of here.”
“Do you think he’d try to escape?” Rian asked.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Nurse Hadley said. “Wouldn’t be the first kid to try a prison break. But Nurse Flanaghan’s on night duty, and he’s yet to let anyone pull a Shawshank on him. Chris will be under supervision morning, noon, and night. You don’t need to worry about that.”
“No,” Rian said, and closed his eyes, rubbing at his temples. “Just about everything else.”
And about what to do.
Before things went too far, and they might not have a chance to help Chris until it was too late.
* * *
Damon didn’t know why he’d invited Rian back to his apartment.
It had just seemed like the natural thing to do, when Nurse Hadley had shooed them off so they’d stop hovering around her infirmary—especially when no doubt Chris could tell they were still outside, overhear the murmur of their voices and see their silhouettes through the frosted glass inset, and if Damon knew anything he knew that in the mind of a teenage boy, that would be all it took to build Chris up into a panic imagining what they must be saying, what they must be plotting, what the hell they were going to do to him.
And that’d just make him lock down even more.
Not that they were doing a great fucking job at getting him to open up in the first place.
But he didn’t have a single goddamned thing to say to Rian about it that they hadn’t already said in front of Nurse Hadley, and for fuck’s sake Damon already had too many tangled feelings where Rian was concerned to throw close proximity into the mix again when his fucking dick was still sore from how tight Rian was inside; from how hard that slim, needy body had clenched down on him with every thrust.