I hadn’t planned on it. I meant what I’d said before, I needed to take things slow with Mouse. He had to earn my trust back and despite how I felt in my heart, I was going to let him work for it.
“You know what?” I halted my steps as my brain replayed Ky’s words. I turned back to face them and they both wore matching expressions that said they were waiting for what I had to say. “You’re completely right.”
“What?” Ky asked sounding really confused. “I am? I mean, yeah, of course I am.”
I smiled as a soft chuckle from Chris filtered into my ears. He shook his head at my brother like he was calling him an idiot or something in his head.
“I’m not going to go rushing to him,” I said with my spine stick straight. “Let him sit there. He has plenty of people around that can help clean him up if he needs it. But, no, I will not go rushing off to him.”
My smile grew even if I hated the words as they came out of my mouth. I was standing tall. I wasn’t going to be a doormat. I had meant the words I’d said to Mouse, he had to earn back my trust and that kind of thing took time. Besides, what would it say if I just went running to him after I’d laid out all of my demands?
That said, I still felt a little sick that he was hurting. I cringed thinking just how bad his face might have been.
Then the anger towards my brother came rushing back in.
Men.
I mentally rolled my eyes as I thought the word.
Sometimes they were so bad at handling things.
“It’s okay if you do, Ingram,” Chris said and I blinked myself back to the moment. “It’s okay if you go to him now. You shouldn’t feel bad about it.”
“I get that,” I said my head bobbing up and down a little. “This has to be the way. I need it to be this way.”
“We support you, always, Ingram.”
“Thank you,” I said and sent them a sweet smile. I knew Chris was saying so much more in that statement and I loved him for it. “I’m going to bed now. Goodnight.”
They said it back and I was off to get more comfortable.
But as I tossed and turned in my bed, I couldn’t shake the thoughts of Mouse. I wanted to know that he was okay even if I was trying to be strong.
Finally, after debating on it for a long time, I decided that sending him a text message wouldn’t be so bad. After all, friends checked on each other when things like this happened, right? I imagined so. If Laurel or Cami had a bad day and I knew about it, I made sure to reach out to them to make sure they were okay.
Hi. It’s Ingram. I hope your face isn’t too bad.
It took me a good five minutes to type out something that I thought sounded okay. Even as I hit send, I shook my head at my words. I wanted to keep it simple and a little uplifting or funny at the same time. I wanted to make him smile. Then again, knowing his face was probably swollen and bruised, maybe smiling wasn’t the best thing.
His response came instantly.
I’m good. I have a bag of peas on my cheek and it’s kinda making me hungry.
A loud, short laugh slipped out of my throat. My hand flew up to try to cover my mouth like there was someone around to see me. Which caused me to giggle a little.
I’m sure you guys have tons of leftovers from the party.
There was way too much food there in my opinion. And sure, those men could put away some food but it seemed like there was way more than enough to keep everyone satisfied.
As I thought about it, my stomach grumbled. I didn’t have a chance to eat anything there and I was kind of regretting it now.
You’re probably right. I just don’t want to get up right now. I wish I’d eaten before… well, everything went down.
I was just thinking the same thing. I didn’t grab anything while I was there. It all looked so good. Maybe we shouldn’t talk about food right now.
I giggled again. It felt a little strange but I had a feeling it had to do with the way Mouse made me feel inside.
That’s probably a good idea. I’m sorry about tonight.
