He's a Jealous Wolf (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Seventeen

She shook her head slightly. "I don't know, he went outside somewhere."

"Why don't you hang in here for a little bit, okay?" She nodded nervously. He caught the drift that she was pretty worried about her friend, or boyfriend, whatever they were. "He will be fine, I'm sure."

She nodded again.

He left her sitting on the bed, and headed down stairs. He went out the back, and looked over the back yard, which was quite bare except for some hedges around the edges and a couple of trees down towards the fence line.

As he peered towards the trees he noticed a shoulder sticking out from behind one of the tree's, like someone was sitting on the ground, leaning against the tall trunk of the tree.

"Hey, can I join you?" Carter called out when he was a few steps away from the tree.

"Yeah," came a soft reply from behind the thick trunk.

Carter walked up to him, and slid down the tree so that he was sitting next to Jayden. The boy looked like he had been crying, his eyes were red and puffy.

"What's going on?" Carter asked softly, hoping that Jayden would open up to him.

"Nothing," Jayden replied, with a sniffle.

"I promise that anything you say with stay between us, okay?" he told Jayden, who nodded hesitantly.  "You can trust me."

Jayden brought his gaze down to his hands as he intertwined them with each other and fidgeted with his fingers. "My mom just called, and she said that Alex is going to live with his father in Italy."

"Oh," Carter knew about this, it hadn't even crossed his mind that Alex hadn't told his family yet when he had told Carter the other night at their dinner. "Alex told me about that, and he said it was just going to be for a few months."

Jayden shook his head. "Mom said he was going to move there, like permanently."

"Oh."

"I don't want him to go. It feels like I have already lost him, but what if he never comes back? What if he likes it better over there with his Dad and never comes home?" 

Carter sighed, what could he say to a kid who thought that he was losing his brother? If Lara hopped on a plane, unsure of when she would return, Carter would have been heartbroken. The thought of losing his sister was much more than he could ever handle, and that was exactly what Jayden was fearing he would have to go through.

Carter stayed silent, hoping that just knowing that he was there for him would help Jayden in the slightest. After a few minutes, Jayden turned his wide, innocent eyes to Carter. "What's going on with Alex? Why is he acting like this?"

Carter felt a surge of anger rise up in his chest at Alex. Alex had not only abandoned him, but now he was abandoning his family. His mother who had stood by him, and taken care of him, the same mother who had accepted his sexuality with open arms and used to invite Carter to family dinners. His little brother, the brother he taught to play soccer, and used to help with his homework, the brother that looked up at Alex like his own personal hero. Carter felt like he owed it to Alex's mother and Jayden to figure out what was going on with Alex, and do whatever he could to stop this downward spiral that the boy seemed to be going down.

"I don't know Jayden, but I am sure as hell going to find out."

By the doubtful look on Jayden's face, he didn't seem to believe him. "How? He doesn't talk to anyone."

Carter thought of asking Alex directly, but he had already tried that and he could imagine how it would go if he asked again. Alex wouldn't tell him, Carter would get upset, and they would both go their separate ways, gaining no more information than they had started with. Asking Jake would be no help, Jake was a giant douche bag, and he was usually so high off his ass that if Carter asked a serious question, the boy would probably give him some nonsense answer that had no relevance to the question. He could call up Alex's father, but he had never met the man, and he doubted that he cared enough about his son to notice what was going on in his life, even if he was staying at the same house.  

Carter suddenly got an idea, it hit him in the face like a truck, and he cursed himself for not thinking of it earlier. That first day, when Archer and Cole had arrived at the school, Alex had already seemed to not like them, Alex had hated them even, Alex had tried to stop Carter from even being friends with him. That must have meant that Alex knew them, or knew something about them before they had even come to the school. Archer and Cole were from Italy. Something happened with Alex in Italy. It could be nothing, it could be a bunch of coincidences, but what if it wasn't? What if they were all connected?

"I think I know a way."

Archer. They were meeting up for dinner in a matter of hours, and that's when he could find out for sure what was going on. Maybe Archer would have nothing to say, or just maybe, he could be the key to what was going on with Alex.

"You do?"

"Yeah, I do." Carter nodded. "Why don't you just leave your brother to me, and go hang out with Lara? She was pretty worried about you."

Jayden nodded before lowering his eyes and speaking shyly. "Thanks for talking with me, It's good to know that I still have you, even if you and Alex aren't together."

"Hey," Carter got Jayden's attention, and waited for him to bring his gaze up, "you will always have me, don't ever doubt that."

Jayden smiled, and walked off towards the house, leaving Carter sitting alone against the tree.

How are they connected? What does Archer know? He thought to himself.