“I think asking to go to your room so you can pull out glass might have raised some questions from everyone. Don’t you think?”

“Okay, but you could have just snuck in here,” I point out.

“Everybody was already up. Besides I thought I could patch myself up for once.” He grins. I don’t return it. “Once the adrenaline left, I knew that I needed your help, but it was too late to ask.”

“When did you calm down?” I ask quietly, too afraid if I speak too loudly he’ll stop talking.

“When I opened your fridge.”

“How—”

“I saw you only had one more yogurt and I pictured your face watching me eat the last one. So I grabbed it and waited for you to come down the stairs.” He winks at me. “Ow!”

“Whoops.” I repeat him from this morning when he took the first bite of my last yogurt.

“I’m in pain here.”

“So was my stomach all morning,” I complain, but pluck the last piece of glass more gently.

“You’ll forgive me soon enough,” Jax says with a laugh then winces immediately.

There isn’t anything to forgive, but I’m not gonna tell him that. Grabbing my phone, I look at the time. Connor will be here any second and I told my brother that I was jumping into the shower. I know I’m being paranoid, but I can’t help it. Logan finding out that Jax stays the night is the least helpful thing that can happen. He won’t be pleased.

Feeling me tense behind him, Jax turns around. “What’s wrong?”

“I need to take a shower,” I say.

“And?”

I ignore him and inspect the cuts in his back. Luckily none of them need stitches. I hate when Jax makes me stitch him up. I shudder, remembering the first time two years ago. We had to be as sterile as possible so he didn’t get an infection. When Jax passed out from the pain, I snuck into his house and stole supplies from Wyatt’s medical bag. I was so nervous that I kept shaking so it took longer and hurt worse. Now I think I’m almost as good as the doctors and that’s pretty good in my opinion since I’m only fifteen.

After re-cleaning the wounds on his back and applying antibiotic ointment, I put one small Band-Aid on the only cut that needs it. They’re not as bad as I first imagined when I saw the tiny shards of glass sticking out of his back. I can’t help but tremble thinking about Jax going through the motions of high school with pieces of glass in his back. This kid is something else.

“I don’t know,” I finally say.

Always able to read my mind, Jax turns around and hugs me.

“I’m okay,” he says into my hair. “It’s just a few scratches.”

“I hate him!”

“I know.”

I hate that Jax can forgive his father. He should despise him for everything that Wyatt puts him through. This is why Jax is better than anyone I know, he isn’t capable of hating anyone. I, on the other hand, hate Wyatt Chandler with a burning passion. If he was on fire, I would roast a marshmallow on the flames coming off his body.

“Hurry up with the shower so we can get to bed,” Jax says as he releases me.

I take the quickest shower known to man and that’s saying something since I’m a swimmer. Speed racer status, I jump into my pjs and run a comb through my tangled hair. Once I’m decent, I return to my room to see Jax sitting on my bed doing his homework. Following his lead, I grab the one page of geometry I have left. I finished most of it before practice.

“I had more!” I say when I see him eyeing my homework.

“Before or after practice?”

Sometime he knows me too well. It should be annoying, but it’s not. “Before.” I’m about to say something more, but my stomach growls loudly, making both of us laugh.

“Go down and eat.” Jax holds my homework hostage. “This will be here when you get back.”

“Fine.”

I race down the stairs. The front door opens at the same time that I reach the last step.

“Come on in,” I say jokingly to Connor.

“Ah . . . Ah . . . Ah,” Connor wiggles a finger in front of my face. “Be nice or I won’t share any of my pizza and I even got your favorite.”

“Have I told you how much I love you lately?” I steal the small box of pizza that I know is mine and lead him to our massive kitchen.

“She’s gonna be trouble when she’s older,” Connor informs Logan.

“Don’t remind me,” Logan says as he pulls down three glasses.

“Three? Aren’t you missing a glass?” Connor says, making my heart beat rapidly. He can’t possibly know that Jax is here.

“Hads is at her friends for the night.” Logan pours soda in all three glasses.

Opening the fridge, I ignore the rest of their conversation as I stare at the yogurt filling the middle shelf. It’s practically overflowing with Greek yogurt.

“Did Mom go shopping?” I ask even though I know she didn’t.

“I don’t think so, why?”

“Just wondering,” I say with a smile as I snag a Powerade and close the fridge.

Connor takes their box of pizza and follows Logan to the living room. I wait a few seconds until I hear the T.V. before I open the fridge again and steal two yogurts and a bottle of water. After loading the yogurts, spoon, water, and Powerade in a bag, I grab a Cliffbar out of the pantry. I don’t know when’s the last time Jax ate, but I’m betting he’s starving like usual.

My steps are slow as I balance everything while climbing the stairs. Jax locks my door and accepts the orange soda from my hands. He takes a sip before setting it on the nightstand. I spread all the food on the floor, sit down and wait for Jax to join me. Once he’s settled, I reach into the bag and hand him a Powerade and grab a slice of pizza for me. Jax helps himself to pizza with a smile on his face.

“Thanks,” I say, pointing my pizza at the yogurt on the floor.

Lightly bumping his shoulder with mine he asks, “Am I forgiven?”

I nod and lean against him while I finish eating. After three slices, I yawn loudly, exhausted, ready for bed. I wasn’t kidding when I told Logan my coach worked us hard today. I shove the homework that I will have to rush to finish tomorrow into my backpack before crawling into bed.

Jax throws all the trash into a pile next to my door and then comes back over to my bed. I scoot over and raise the blanket for him. Without waiting, Jax lays next to me and touches his lips softly against mine. I smile as his fingers find mine. I fall asleep listening to him breathing while he clasps my hand.

“He blames me.” Jax says, pulling me out of the past. “So he took it out on me whenever he could.”

“What?” I ask calmly. Jax isn’t making sense.

“My mom. She left him and he never got over that. I think he blames me. That’s why I always tried to be the perfect kid. That’s why I was able to skip a grade when I was younger. I pushed myself to be the best. I thought if I was good enough, she would come home and we would be this happy family again.

“I never gave up hope that she would come home. I just needed to be better. And whenever I made him mad at me, I thought he was punishing me to teach me a lesson. If I learned my lessons and I wasn’t bad anymore, she would come home.” He snuggles closer to me and breathes me in. “She never came home. She didn’t want us, didn’t want me.”

I feel Jax’s pain as if it’s my own. I can’t even imagine being a child and thinking that. He was so young when his mom left. I don’t need to ask if the beatings started when she left. Everything in me screams “yes.” I see Jax as a bruised child and I have the sudden urge to vomit. I swallow it down and take deep calming breaths. I will stay strong. Jax doesn’t need to be taking care of me.