“It’s not like I try to make people hate me.” He shrugged.
“Nobody hates you, Xan.” God. He was seven. It was too young to harbor such negativity but here we were.
“Well, they don’t like me. Harry Jones and his friends all say I’m weird.”
“You are not weird.” A sense of protectiveness flooded me, and I wanted nothing more than to call Jase and Asher and ride down to Rixon and hunt down Harry Jones and teach the little punk a lesson or two.
“It’s okay, Cam. I know I’m not like most other kids.”
Fuck.
His words were so innocent, but there was so much conviction behind them that he might as well have punched his little fist into my chest and ripped out my heart.
“You’ve gotta tell me how I can fix this, Xander.”
He looked at me with big, sad eyes and said, “When are you coming home?”
“As soon as senior year is done, I’ll be back. It’s not long really, not when you take out the holidays and spring break.”
“And then I can come stay with you and Hailee?”
Jesus. This was really happening. My kid brother was choosing me over our parents.
“You can come and stay, yeah. Hailee told me the two of you talked about it?”
“She didn’t really give me an answer.”
“You’ll always be welcome to stay over, Xan, you know that. But Mom and Dad would be really upset if you didn’t want to live with them anymore.”
“But I want to live with you.” He twisted his hands in his lap.
I wanted to ask him why, to make him tell me why he felt this way, but I knew he didn’t have the answers. If he did, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now.
“Xan, look at me.” I slid my fingers under his chin and tilted his face to mine. “Do you have any idea how much we all love you?” His lip quivered. “Mom and Dad would do anything to make you happy, but you need to talk to them, buddy. They can’t help if they don’t know what’s wrong.”
Silent tears began rolling down his cheeks and he wrapped his arms around me, burying his face into my chest. “I don’t want anyone to leave me, not again,” he murmured against my sweater.
“Seven months, Xan,” I said, rubbing his back. “Seven months and I’ll be home.” But as I said the words, I already knew I’d be looking at my schedule to see where I could make more trips back to Rixon. I couldn’t ignore this, not anymore. Something was going on with Xander, something huge, and he needed me.
“Hey, you don’t call, you never write,” Asher chuckled. “I’m beginning to think you don’t love me anymore.”
“I texted you just the other day.”
“Text smext. I need to hear your voice.”
“I’m hanging up—”
“Relax, I’m just busting your balls. What’s up?”
“I need to cancel guys weekend.”
“What?” he gasped. “No way!”
We’d arranged a weekend away since we all had the same bye week. It never happened, so we’d planned on making the most of it.
“I’m going home, I need to—”
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