Jaden (Jaded #3)(12)

He stood and Corrigan said quietly from beside us, “Yeah. My ribs still ache at times, and my shoulder blade feels weird, too.”

“All the time?”

“Nah. It comes and goes.” His voice sounded a little clearer. “It’ll get better. I don’t know why it still hurts. The doctors said I’m healed.”

Bryce tightened his hold on me, securing me even closer against him. “Do you know where we’re going?”

Corrigan laughed softly. “No clue. This place is huge. I don’t remember how to get back to her room or even ours.”

“Our rooms are right next to hers.” But Bryce paused, standing still. “Maybe we should just sleep in the theater?”

“And if she snuggles up to one of us?”

“Then she snuggles up to one of us. It’s whoever she needs.” Bryce’s tone dipped down. “What’s your problem? I thought we agreed on that.”

“I know. I just,” Corrigan hesitated, “she’s going to pick you. I can see it. She loves you so much she’s scared of it.”

“You don’t know that.” Bryce stiffened underneath me. “Trust me, you don’t know that. She might like to get f*cked by me, but she goes to you for the emotional stuff. You don’t think that kills me?”

“Bryce,” Corrigan started, wariness in his tone.

“Stop, Corrigan. She loves both of us. You might only see how she feels about me, but I see how she feels about you. Whoever she chooses is the one she can’t be without, but she loves both of us.”

The heaviness from sleep was fading. The more they talked, the more awake I became, but I didn’t want to wake up. I just wanted to sleep, to remain where I felt sheltered. Safe.

“Knowing Sheldon, she’ll toss a f*cking coin.”

Bryce laughed. “That would suck, but yeah, I could see that.”

“Denton called me earlier. I hope she doesn’t pick him because she can’t pick between us.”

A low groan came from his chest, right where my head was resting. “He called me too, and f*ck that, but I could see her doing that.” He paused and murmured, “I hope not.” He said that so quietly, with so much emotion, that it jolted me wide-awake. I knew without a doubt I would be haunted by his tone of voice just now.

“Hey.” Bryce shifted and looked down at me. “You awake?”

I didn’t open my eyes, but grumbled, “Your lack of faith in me is pissing me off.”

Corrigan laughed from the side. “Yeah, well, we didn’t want you think you could just use us to help you fall asleep every night.”

I squirmed in Bryce’s arm, getting more comfortable. My eyes were still closed. “Fuck that. Isn’t that why you two are here? To help me sleep?” I grinned, teasing them, but I didn’t want to look. I still didn’t want to deal with the truth of what they were talking about.

“Ha-ha, Sheldon.”

Bryce asked, “Where do you want to sleep?”

“In my bed.” And with that said, I knew I’d have to open my eyes. After directing them to my room, I sent both of them away. No matter what was said, I knew it wasn’t fair to use one for comfort and not the other. They were right. I did need to choose, but f*ck, at the same time, I couldn’t.

Both Bryce and Corrigan frowned at me from the hallway. I stood in my bedroom. The door was open between us, but we were all in a standoff. I lifted an eyebrow. “What?” My hand gripped the door, but I wasn’t sure if it was to shut it or to hold me up.

“You’re sure about this?”

I nodded. “You both are right. It feels weird to sleep with both of you, and I shouldn’t lean on one and not the other. It’s not right so I’m going to be sleeping alone from now on.” I had been since Grace’s murder, but knowing they were so close and saying those words aloud solidified it for me. I would’ve been tempted to crawl into one of their beds. It wasn’t right. I needed them right now, but I needed to think about them, too.

I tried to smirk at them, but it failed. “I’ll see you both in the morning then.” That was meant as a joke, but there was nothing teasing about the statement or about how I said it. A knot was in my stomach, and as I stared back at them, it tightened. “Okay. Well. Goodnight.”

They both continued to frown at me.

Feeling just all sorts of weirdness about this situation, I didn’t know what else to do so I did the logical next thing.

I shut the door in their faces. Then I crawled into bed and didn’t sleep for the rest of the night.

CHAPTER FIVE

I was tired the next day. I was tired the day after and the day after that. In fact, I was tired the entire week and the week after that, too. The thing that pissed me off was that I was the only one. I swear. Bryce and Corrigan seemed to have renewed their friendship. They were all about the hugging, laughing, slugging each other’s shoulders, and they even started to have their own inside jokes.

Gag me.

Their cheerful attitudes wore off on Neil and Beth. My dad always adored Bryce so he seemed in heaven having him here. I could tell he got over whatever issue he had before allowing my friends to the house, and Beth, I didn’t think she could prance any more around the house before it turned into a skip. She was giddy with Corrigan. It took me another week before I finally got it.