CUBBY LOVE - MANxMAN

Chapitre Vingt

COOPER

Shit, I really should’ve not turned my phone into silent mode.

I was the last one to arrive by the waiting area designated specifically for the patient’s family members. Katie was the one who noticed me first, ran up towards me and she hugged my legs before I could even walk over halfway to both my stepmom and my stepbrother.

“About fucking time.”

“Wyatt Dean Willis, I did not just hear that!”

Annie snapped next to him once I made myself present, carrying my miserable looking sister in one arm. The five-year-old lost her usual demeanor and put on this sobbing face and hiccoughing non-stop while clutching her favorite stuffed toy in the form of a green, chubby and docile alligator she named as Mr. Twiddles.  

There was someone else waiting with them. Instead of my own best friend, a very fine-looking black teenager stood close to Wyatt’s seat with one hand hanging onto my stepbrother’s shoulder, giving him the non-verbal support like a true boyfriend.

“Katie-bee, please don’t cry.”

I tried my best to make her feel better but nothing seemed to be working. She had stopped sobbing but the hiccough aftermath were making her looked much more miserable along with her puffy red eyes. She was giving me the silent treatment too.

“Coop, we tried calling you like a billion times this morning. Care to tell us where you were?”

I didn’t really take my time to come up with a legit enough reason for my absence last night. I mentioned to her that I was hanging out with Shawn at his place and I was positive that my alibi had been screwed over. They must have tried calling my albino buddy too but where is he now?

I could also detect the disappointment and the sadness morphed together in her motherly tone while Wyatt was caressing her hands in his. I couldn’t really blame her for being a bit frustrated in me. Hell I would do the same if I were in her shoes.

“I… I was at a friend’s house.”

I passed Katie over to sit on Annie’s lap so that the sweet girl could be hugged and coaxed to feeling less down by her caring and wonderful mother. I really hope that Annie would’ve done a much better job in that department.

Wyatt’s shoulders tensed and squared even under his boyfriend’s comforting touch, his back leaning further on the seat and his eyes darkened with rage, thrown right at me.

“Is that the best you can come up with? Did he fuck you or did you fuck him?”

“What the hell is wrong with you, Wyatt? Watch your godforsaken mouth please! I did not raise you to be so flipping rude!”

Annie snapped once again, her voice almost broke from the clear indication that she has been crying so hard for the past few hours while she cupped both of Katie’s ears with her hands. Her eyes were puffier and redder as compared to Katie’s eventhough they both wore the same troubled look.

I couldn’t really give two shits about the insinuations that he carried through his poisonous choice of words. Annie might not even think it thoroughly but since he had brought Tyson here then she didn’t seem too fazed with it.

“Tell that to the fatass douchebag standing over there. I’m done.”

He crossed his arms with a loud huff and turned his enraged gaze away from me like I was the most soreful sight ever to behold. The boyfriend – I think his name is Lewis, if I’m not mistaken – knelt down next to him and took Wyatt’s hands to kiss them softly but then quickly casted a sympathetic glance towards me.