Rivals 🌈 ✔

51 - Satisfaction

Raine stared at the blinking cursor of the chat conversation with Juice. He had no idea what to send. He wanted to stop by, but something kept him from sending the text. The guilt still refused to leave his mind; the thought that he wasn't good enough for Juice and that he didn't deserve his attention and time. No matter how often Juice tried to change his mind, it never helped for long. He had hurt him so much, he simply couldn't forget.

A harsh voice dragged him out of his thoughts. "We gotta talk."

Raine looked up. Esai had returned from the conversation with his father. Had it been about him? There was a dark look in his friend's eyes and his jaw tensed as he saw Raine's phone screen. 

"You two still have contact?"

The contempt in his voice hurt. Was a little bit of understanding really too much to ask? Or was it his own fault? He never told Esai how much he regretted his drunken action. One or two times he had tried to share his feelings, but Esai always started to talk about other things, making him miss Juice even more. He had even toyed with the idea to go back to Santo Padre. At least Angel would be there, with whom he could talk about things like this, and the others weren't looking down on him. Whether he'd fucked things up with Juice or not, in the eyes of his brothers he had still bedded the enemy. Nevertheless, he had stayed. Running away from his mistakes felt weak. He deserved their spiteful stares — albeit for different reasons than they believed. 

"Since a few days," Raine answered. "Sammy and Skye set us up." He straightened his shoulders. "But it's not the same anymore."

"You finally see him for the weak-minded idiot he is?"

The muscles in his neck and arms tightened. Fiercely, he looked up. "I loved him, Esai, and I broke him. You don't sweep something like that under the rug."

"Oh come on, it was one slip-up. Happens to the best of us."

The ease with which Esai talked about cheating, made him feel sick. But how could he expect Esai to understand? His sexual encounters had always been brief and meaningless; he'd never been in a serious relationship. He didn't know how it felt to have such a deep connection with someone.

Esai sighed and sat down next to him, his back against the wall. "I just talked to my dad. It appears that you haven't cheated at all."

Raine raised his eyebrows. "What?"

"As it seems, you were drugged. Someone dumped you in your bed and some naked bitch laid down next to you."

It felt like his whole body became numb, his phone slipped between his fingers and fell on the ground. "W-what?"

"Yeah, it's fucking sick. My dad just told me. It was my prospect — and now that old shit acts like it was my responsibility. Apparently, the girl felt guilty and brought it up with my dad."

"Phantom drugged me and staged this?" Raine asked in disbelief. "Why the hell would he do that?"

"I dunno. Some people simply hate faggots. Maybe he thought to impress the club. Or maybe he's a fag too and wants to know if your boy toy is really that good of a ride."

In a flash, Raine thought back to the moment Phantom had dropped Juice off at his home, the night after they'd tracked down his father.

Who would have thought, one of my brothers who gave you a ride voluntarily. Or did you have to pay him?"

"He wanted me to pay in kind," Juice chuckled.

The comment had called up an annoying feeling.