Carolina Wren

Chapter 28

Wren's POV

It wasn't lost on me that I had come dangerously close to two of my teachers finding out about Keegan. The thought made my skin itch. Part of me wanted to tell them, especially Dr. Green, so I wouldn't have to lie anymore. So I wouldn't have to ask the boys to keep lying to them, by omission or otherwise. With them, it's not even about my fear of people making rude assumptions-- it's a primal fear of losing everything I've been fighting for.

They're closer than any adult in a position to do anything about it has ever been to knowing what my home life is like. If they put two and two together and got abuse, they'd be more likely to call it in if they knew there were kids who couldn't even run away involved. I was going to have to tell them eventually, it wasn't fair to the guys to keep putting them in the middle, but I needed to be able to control it. Wait until things calmed down enough that they didn't jump straight to calling CPS.

All I have to do is keep up some resemblance of normalcy with the guys. If I convinced them that everything was fine and dandy in the Nelson household, they'd probably play an important role in convincing Dr. Green and Mr. Blackbourne of the same thing.

The final bell rang just as I walked out of the gym locker rooms. Gabe was leaning against the wall opposite the door waiting for me, looking both impatient and excited. He immediately pushed off of the wall and took my backpack from me, not even giving me a chance to frown before he was saying, "Come on, Blue. We're wasting fucking sunlight!"

Arguing seemed futile and we did need to reach Dylan's school as soon as possible. I've convinced myself that if I pretend that I'm allowing him to be in charge of this shindig, it'll go more smoothly. "Are you the only one walking with me?" Gabe had insisted on walking home with me, something about getting our walking club going, but I wasn't sure if Nathan and Silas were joining us or riding home with Kota.

"Silas is driving him and Nate. They'll park down at Nate's house and meet us when we get close."

"I didn't realize Silas had a car," I admit as we step outside into the South Carolina sun. "He had to borrow North's to go pick up Dylan last week, so I assumed that he didn't have one of his own."

Sourness briefly flitted across Gabe's face, his jaw tightening before he relaxed again. "He normally parks over by the field house. It was at North and Luke's place Friday, waiting for North to get home and fix it."

My eyebrows lifted with surprise. "Oh. Wow. I didn't realize North was good with cars. I used to help my dad work on his." Grief and longing crashed into me like a wave against a cliff. I didn't talk about my dad much, but I allowed myself this moment of openness. "It was a real piece of shit, worse than Kota's, so we were out there a lot. I kinda miss it."

I miss him.

Gabe scowled. "Don't tell North that, he'll start taking apart everyone's fucking cars just so he'll have an excuse to ask you to come help him or some shit."

"How many cars do you guys have?"

"Between the nine of us? I think eight, depending on how things are going in the Taylor's yard. Mr. B has one, Victor has one, Silas has one, Kota has one. Doc has one that he barely uses, drives North insane. North has a fucking collection. There's his jeep and the suburban, plus whatever he's flipping at the time. There's normally three or four waiting around to be sold or used for... other stuff."

They're horrible spies. That was about as obvious as Silas prancing through the cafeteria in nothing but a pink tutu. He basically just told me that they use them for Academy assignments, but I ignore how weird he's being about it. "If North has cars sitting around, why doesn't he let you, Luke, or Nathan drive them?"