Alphas Like Us (Like Us 3)

Winona munches on a handful of crackers.

I give her a look.

“I’m a nervous eater,” she mumbles, crumbs everywhere. “And you’re not going to like what we have to tell you.”

Ben merges onto the highway. “It’s your brother.”

Xander.

“What?” Charlie and I say in unison. My face contorts in confusion, and my pulse thumps in my ears.

“I did something,” Ben mutters, guilt in his voice. My muscles bind. He’s the kind of person who’d blame himself for accidentally stepping on an anthill. So it’s hard to gauge the seriousness.

Ben flicks his blinker but struggles to switch lanes and concentrate on this conversation.

I look out the rear windshield. “You can go, Ben.”

He tentatively scoots the car to the left lane and then accelerates to about seventy-five, the traffic sparse at midnight. His finger keeps tapping the wheel.

“I don’t understand,” I say to Ben. “I know you and my brother had a falling out, but I thought you still liked him.”

“Something’s changed,” Ben replies. “But it’s my fault. It’s really all my fault.” I don’t know what to take from that.

Suddenly, Farrow drops his arm from me to press his earpiece, trying to listen. The rain slams down, and I check over my shoulder. A few incoming cars surround us when they have the whole highway.

Farrow almost rolls his eyes before swiveling the knob on his radio.

I whisper, “What’s happening?”

“Three SUVs,” he whispers back, Winona between us who can probably hear. “Akara is yelling at Quinn to relax. He’s getting amped.”

Winona shakes cracker crumbs into her palm. “I still like Xander.”

Alright… “Someone explain this, please,” I say.

Ben takes a tight breath. “You all remember how I used to bring Xander to the school’s hockey games, sometimes soccer?”

That seems like forever ago. Ben Cobalt is a social butterfly the exact opposite of my brother, but they somehow got along. To be in Xander’s life, you have to wedge yourself in there, and Ben always snuck in.

Up until about a year ago.

Their “falling out” happened.

“You said you two grew apart,” I remember. It made sense. They were getting older, but Ben was one of the only people who could get Xander out of the house. And my brother has been more recluse since he lost Ben as a friend, but I never thought Ben actually disliked Xander. They just don’t talk that much anymore.

“That’s not really why,” Ben says. “I mean, we did grow apart, but…” He tries to increase his windshield wiper speed. “I stopped bringing Xander to school events after something happened.”

Something happened.

And my brother didn’t tell me. And I wasn’t there for him. Guilt tries to roil inside me, because if he was hurt or in some kind of worse pain…

Charlie hooks his sunglasses on his shirt. “That’s not vague at all.”

Ben side-eyes him before switching lanes to bypass an SUV. “Sorry I’m not using excessive adjectives and nouns to your liking.” He looks back at Farrow through the rearview mirror. “If you don’t know by now, Charlie thinks I’m dangerously naïve to the point of stupidity, and he wastes no opportunity to remind me.”

Farrow pops another bubble in his mouth. “Cobalts are something else.”

Ben glances quickly at Charlie. “Now that’s vague.”

Charlie pulls at his hair. “I wouldn’t expect anything more from someone who believes Maximoff is boyfriend material.”

Ouch.

Gotta give it to Charlie, he knows my insecurities.

“Jealous that he’s in a relationship?” Farrow asks easily while lifting his boot to the seat and balancing his arm on his knee. His confidence is radiating.

Charlie glares back at Farrow with a look that says you’re wrong.

Farrow combats him with a harder stare that says I’m right.

I wish Janie were here to help us stay on track. “What happened?” I ask Ben and Winona. “Did Xander get hurt?”

“Not exactly,” Winona says, brushing crumbs off her lap.

“I was friends with these guys at school,” Ben clarifies as he accelerates.

“Ben is friends with everyone,” Winona rephrases.

“Yeah, but when I brought Xander along, I always introduced him to these people that I thought he’d like…Is that a pap?”

“On your right,” Farrow confirms as three SUVs line up to obstruct Ben from taking an exit.

“Speed up,” I suggest. Since that’s the only way he can pass the cars and get off the highway.

Ben scoots forward, his visibility terrible as rain pelts the windshield. “It’s basically hailing. I can’t speed up.”

“It’s not hailing,” Farrow says matter-of-factly. “You’re fine. Stay in this lane until you feel comfortable.”

Farrow backseat driving is infuriatingly sexy.

Anyway, we have no destination, but my phone keeps vibrating in my pocket. Uncle Ryke and Aunt Daisy, Winona’s parents, are concerned since she’s past her curfew. When it hits 1:00 a.m., I expect the same onslaught of messages from Uncle Connor and Aunt Rose about Ben.

Once Ben leans back slightly, less edged, I ask, “So Xander met some guys through you at these soccer and hockey games?”

“Yeah,” Ben nods. “And I thought it’d be good for him. I didn’t think…I mean, I couldn’t have known…”

Winona drops her head, upset.

Ben scratches at his hair. “People at school knew that Xander is on antidepressants—rumors about that are all over the internet.”

I tense.

“Why is security’s car changing lanes?” Ben asks, almost panicked.

“Security is playing defense with the other vehicles,” Farrow explains. “SFO is stopping some cars from reaching yours. Don’t worry about them. Oscar is a good driver.”

“Okay…” Ben adjusts his grip on the wheel. “At the games, students asked Xander if they could have some pills, and Xander actually started giving them his meds—and I should’ve looked out for your brother, Moffy. It’s my fault.” Ben talks fast, the words rushing out of him all of a sudden. “He’s susceptible to peer pressure, and he didn’t ask for money or anything in return. He just wanted to be liked by these dudes.”

My heart is in my throat. He was only fourteen. “That’s why you had a falling out?” I realize.

“Yeah.” Ben flicks his blinker but decides not to switch lanes. He tries to ease back. “I figured if I stopped inviting Xander out with me, he couldn’t give anyone his pills. Since he’s homeschooled, it made it easier…” He wafts his Save the Planet shirt from his chest. “After a while, we stopped talking, and he just…”

Retreated.

My brother retreated and barely leaves the house.

I rub my jaw, my muscles searing. “Who knows about the pills?” I ask and eye Farrow who touches his earpiece. He checks over his shoulder, on the lookout for paparazzi traffic that steadily amasses.

Ben lowers the volume of his stereo as Charlie turns the radio on. “Some kids at school, me, Xander, and Nona know,” Ben says. “And now you three.”

Winona twists her otter pendant necklace. “Moffy,” she says to me. “We thought he stopped.”

My stomach caves.

“A kid in the neighborhood started texting me about it,” Ben finishes. “This morning.” He extends his arm backwards to pass me his phone, and the one gesture causes Charlie to stare out the window. He must feel like Ben just chose me over him.

My ribs shrink my lungs.

I could hand the phone back to Charlie, but with my little brother at the centerfold of this, I have an aching need to be in control.

So I do the shitty thing and keep the phone. I already know Ben’s passcode: the date his pet bird Pip-Squeak died. And then I open the most recent message from the neighborhood kid—

Farrow drops his foot to the floor. His nonchalance suddenly depletes.

When that happens, I feel like someone needs to hoist the Bat Signal in the air and call for the Avengers to Assemble.

“Farrow?” I whisper, catching his gaze. I lean back while Winona bends towards the middle console to speak to Ben in Spanish.

Farrow leans back with me, and he whispers, “Eight more cars, four are SUVs, and they most likely have cameras. Oscar can’t block them all. Ben’s about to get bombarded unless he can speed up and make an exit.”

I move into damage control mode. I pull Winona back so she’s not bent forward. “Buckle, Nona.”

“I already am.”

But it’s too loosened, and I don’t need to ask. Farrow already pulls the strap to her belt, tightening her in.

I snap my belt off and slide to the seat’s edge. Just so I can speak more directly to Ben. Farrow is glaring at me for unbuckling, but I’ll be quick.

“Go faster,” I tell Ben.

His eyes flit to me. “Did you read the text?”

“Not yet. Accelerate, Ben. You can pass the Kia on your right.”

Ben presses the gas, but lets off as rain slams harder. “I can’t, Moffy.”

Charlie rubs the fog off his window. “You should pull over. I’ll drive.”

I can’t even offer since I still don’t have my license back. Not that they’d feel that safe since I have a speeding problem, but I’ve never wrecked.

“Pull over where?” Ben shifts forward, his chest rising and falling quickly.

“The emergency lane,” Charlie says.

“I can’t see it.”

“Maximoff,” Farrow says through clenched teeth. Winona fists my shirt to pull me back. I end up sliding backwards on my own, and I pull my seatbelt across my chest and snap in.