“You don’t run. You hear me?” His face was serious, words serious. “If you feel like you’re in trouble, you don’t go AWOL.”
His throat moved after he said that, and I realized something.
He thought I’d run.
They all thought I’d run. Even my friends.
Their reactions to my arrival definitely said that.
They believed I’d dropped that video, then gone off the grid like Thatcher said. My mouth parted. “I’m so sorry, Dad.”
“Don’t apologize to me.” He took me by the back of the head, guiding me alongside him. I stood shoulder to shoulder with my father, but even with my size, he was bigger than me. “Your mother is worried sick.”
Mom.
She was in the living room, Bow, Thatcher’s sister, right next to her. She sat smooshed between her and Brielle, Wolf’s mom. Wolf looked a lot like his mom besides her lack of curly hair. Hers was nearly raven black it was so umber-toned, a single gray streak on the side of it like Rogue from my old comic books. Honestly, outside of that, no one would have guessed his mom was over a decade older than Wolf’s dad. The woman appeared to be in her early forties like my mother.
“December.” Brielle rubbed my mom’s back, and Mom’s head popped up. I didn’t know what to expect about her reaction. I mean, my dad looked about a half a second away from blowing a gasket, his reaction fear-based. My mom typically wore her emotion in a different way, but anger never had been it.
But that’s what I got today.
A clear anger laced her features as she got up, and when she raised her hands and left the room, I flinched.
Fuck.
I started to go after her, but Dad pulled me back.
He directed a finger toward the couch. “You sit and don’t move,” he said before leaving the room, and I did exactly that.
My friends joined me.
They crowded around on the other couches, Brielle making space for Wolf. She actually made him sit next to her, me on her other side. “What were you boys thinking with that video?” she asked, exchanging a glance between her son and the rest of the room. She landed on me. “And your mother was worried sick about you. We all were. How could you do that to us? Your parents?”
Only one person could intimidate me nearly as much as my father, and that was Brielle Mallick. She didn’t put up with any shit, and my god dad Ramses was definitely the one Wolf went to whenever he wanted something. Brielle didn’t play the fuck around.
But she loved just as hard, loved me. She brought her arm around me, really my second mom. All my buddies’ mothers had a place in my life, but with Wolf’s parents, it was different. It was like another layer, and considering Ramses was my mom’s best friend, that made sense. Ramses and Brielle were just closer, always checking in with me and making sure things were okay.
Out of all my friends, Wolf and I did spend the most time together. A lot of that had to do with our ages, yeah, but something about us had just always been in sync.
My buddy stared at me now, long and hard. He also rocked back and forth, his hands rubbing like his insides were spinning. He looked like he wanted to talk.
I wanted to talk too.
I needed to, but now especially wasn’t the time.
“Where were you?” Bow asked me from my other side. She hugged her arms. “We were all so worried.”
I was too, and had they all known where I’d been, they would be as well.
I obviously couldn’t say anything now with Brielle here, and I watched my mother return to the room. She was under my father’s arm.
But that didn’t mean he was the one to speak.
“Where were you today, Dorian?” she asked, her chin up. “The boys said you were going to our family cabin, and though your car was there, you weren’t. We know because we checked, and your phone was shut off, so we couldn’t even track that.”
My parents had access to my whereabouts through my phone, my friends too.
The police must have shut it off.