Deserted - Auctioned

“Sure,” Darius replied. “Just show me your driver’s license first.”

Jayden balked. “I don’t have one!”

Gray chuckled and took a sip of his soda. He’d been tempted to get a margarita but had a feeling it would loosen him up a bit too much. Once Jayden was asleep later, he could indulge in a rum and Coke. Darius had picked some up the other day when he’d bought beer. There were two small bottles of rum and vodka in his duffel bag.

“Jonas let me try once,” Jayden revealed.

“That’s what brothers do,” Darius answered with a wry smirk. “Wanna hear a funny story?”

Jayden nodded quickly.

Gray grabbed another taco and gave Darius his full attention.

“So I’ve told you I have two baby sisters and three brothers,” Darius said.

“Yeah, cuz one died in a war.” Jayden stuck a chip into his mouth.

“Right, but Jake was still alive back then.” Darius nodded. “Jake, Ryan, Ethan, and me—we’re a lot older than Lias. When he turned nine, most of us were over twenty. So, we kinda considered ourselves smarter too. I mean, he was a kid. We were adults. But for his birthday, he tricked all of us. The grown-ups had wine and beer with dinner, and then there was whiskey and other things after we’d had cake. And I remember I’d been helping my mother in the kitchen—I was on my way back to the living room—and Lias came up to me and stared at the glass in my hand. He asked if he could try it, and I thought, fuck it, I knew he wasn’t gonna like it. So, I let him try Pop’s whiskey.”

“Did he like it?” Jayden wondered.

Darius chuckled and shook his head. “No, he almost threw up on the carpet. But that didn’t stop him from getting each of his brothers alone at some point during the party. He asked all of us if he could try.”

“Oh God,” Gray muttered, wincing. He could guess where this was going, and it was difficult not to laugh.

“By the time Ma told him it was time to get ready for bed,” Darius went on, “Lias was drunk off his ass. He couldn’t stand up straight, and he was slurring. He couldn’t speak.”

Jayden squeaked and palmed his face, peeking between his fingers.

Darius smiled and shook his head. “Our parents were pissed—with us, not Lias—and we had to stay up all night and help Lias when he got sick.”

“He had too much,” Jayden said with a nod of understanding. “Mom threw up and got angry when she drank too much.”

The food Gray had been chewing slid down his throat like a chunk of lead.

Darius didn’t miss a beat, though. “That makes sense. Did that happen a lot before she died?”

“Yeah.” Jayden’s excitement had taken a hike, but he didn’t seem bothered. “I don’t know if she’s dead. She’s just gone.” He shrugged. “Jonas didn’t say much to me about it. I was little.”

“But you remember your dad,” Darius stated.

Gray eyed him, confused. What was he doing? They knew virtually nothing about Jonas and Jayden’s background, so why Darius was throwing out assumptions made no sense.

“I never met him, I think.” Jayden scratched his shoulder and then reached for his soda. “Mom didn’t like him. She called him bad names. And she fought lots with Jonas and her boyfriend.”

“Fighting isn’t fun to see,” Darius agreed. “My mother and father fight sometimes too.”

Jayden nodded. “And they slam doors and leave also?”

Gray took an unsteady breath, hating the shit Jayden had suffered through, and glanced hesitantly at Darius.

Something softened in Darius’s eyes. “No. And that’s kind of what I wanted to point out, kiddo. Everyone fights. My parents fight when Pop forgets something that Ma told him to pick up at the store. They fight when she moves things in the garage and Pop can’t find his tools anymore.” He paused. “But they always make up afterward. They forget shit and accidentally make each other angry—or they disagree on something and fight about it.” He jerked his chin at Gray. “We’re the same, Gray and me. We fight—as you’ve seen. But we don’t fight because we’re mean or we want to piss each other off. We just have disagreements, and they can get heated sometimes.”

Gray didn’t know what fucked with his head more, that Darius was comparing them to his married parents, that he was so good with kids to have managed to broach this topic without upsetting Jayden, or…that Darius’s agenda had been twofold. At the very least. Because explaining to Jayden that it was okay for people to fight hadn’t been his only mission. He’d wanted information too, and he’d gotten it.

Naturally, that made Gray wistful and yearn and all that pathetic shit. He couldn’t merely admire Darius’s tactic and be done with it.

“Darius and I will probably fight more, Jayden.” Gray gave Jayden’s neck a gentle squeeze. “You know we recently went through some rough times, and we’re still healing. But we will try not to expose you to it too much. Just know, when you hear us argue, it doesn’t mean anyone is leaving or that we don’t like each other.” He realized what he said as the words left his mouth. He—and Darius—had a responsibility. Gray couldn’t let his emotions control him any longer. Not to the extent that he took off in the middle of the night or made any other reckless call based on how he felt right in that second. “And I promise, whenever you feel unsure—if you overhear us fighting—you can jump in and ask if everything is okay. You’re never a bother, you’re never in the way, and until you trust us fully, it’s never a bad time to ask anything. Okay?”