I was just about to answer when there was knocking at the door again.
“Have you got any beer? Sam won’t have coffee unless it’s Irish, or he wants a Long Island Iced Tea. I figured beer was the better option.”
Pecking me on the nose, Jackson tapped me on the butt. “Let’s go and put Ryan out of his misery and get Sam tanked.”
Following behind him out of the door, I smiled brightly at my dad, who was standing watching us wide-eyed.
“We’re only twenty, Jackson.”
Shooting me a wink over his shoulder and shaking Ryan’s hand, he chuckled, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way. I think my family left some the last time they were here.”
Rolling his eyes at me, my dad hooked his arm around my back and helped me down the hallway as if I was a complete invalid and every step would kill me.
“Like we didn’t get MC Hammered when we were in college, too.” Then he muttered, “Although, I’m relieved social media wasn’t a thing back then. At least we don’t have to worry about people posting photos of the dumb shit we did.”
We were just clearing the hallway when he said it, and any response I had for him was drowned out by Sam shouting, “Forget the tea and give me the alcohol. Mixing them up just dilutes the strength, and trust me, I need the strength right now.”
We faintly heard Jackson respond to him but couldn’t make out the words. “Yeah, don’t drink on antibiotics, son. I don’t clean up puke unless it comes from my baby.”
Squeezing me carefully, Dad leaned in and kissed me on the top of the head. “We’ve missed you, sweetheart. Home isn’t the same without you.”
I’d kill to move back home and be closer to them again, but I didn’t trust the bullies from my first college not to do something to me or them.
When I’d first disappeared, they’d sent letters and shit to my dads' house and had prank called them almost twenty-four hours a day. I couldn’t bring that back into their lives, it was too much.
And it would also mean leaving Jackson behind, and even though we were new, I didn’t want to do that.
Sometimes what we wanted wasn’t possible, but we had to look to the future and hope that one day it would be. I was hopeful for sure, I just didn’t know where our courses and lives were going to take us.
Three days later…
Jackson had been managing to do his schoolwork online like me for the last three days, but he had to take regular naps because he still felt like shit and had a fever.
Having Dad here with his medical knowledge—even though his expertise wasn’t viruses and bugs—helped, and he and Jackson had the beginnings of a good bromance going on.
Ryan was quieter and tended to listen and give his opinion when it was required. He was also more sympathetic and better at looking after you when you were ill.
Sam had a medical and methodical brain. He looked at stuff in terms of percentages and statistics, but also in sequences that made more sense.
Together, they were perfection, and Jackson had realized that quickly.
After we’d finished eating, with poor Jackson having to stick to soup because his throat was too sore, he’d gone back to bed after declaring during the middle of a small argument between my dads, “You guys are the shit!”
They might have known each other before, but I had to figure it was a whole new way of getting to know someone with the development between Jackson and me.
I knew that my dads were hyper-aware of everything Jackson did, how we acted around each other, small things he did for me, and things I did for him… But they always walked away with a small smile on their faces.
“I can hear you thinking,” Jackson said as I lay in the dark, staring up at the ceiling.
He’d finally managed to drop the whole Event Horizon issue, so we were back to sleeping with the light off.
“Can you hear what I’m thinking?”
Rolling onto his side to face me, he tugged on my waist to get me to do the same. I could sleep on my back now, but it wasn’t as comfortable as being on my side, so my leg and arm appreciated this position change.
“What’s going on up here?” he tapped me on my forehead.
“Not much, to be honest. I was thinking about how my dads watch us, and then I thought about turning onto my side, but I was too lazy to do it until you made me.”
I felt his body moving when he laughed, but I was distracted by his hand skimming up my side, under t-shirt of his that I’d stolen earlier with it until it was resting on my ribs.