Chapter 17

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I rolled over and rubbed my eyes with a groan. My head hurt like crazy and I felt incredibly sick. I opened my eyes blinking a few times as they were hit by harsh morning sunlight. The sun never shone this way through my window in the morning. Where am I? I glanced next to me and stared at the sleeping man.

Oh, yeah...

I'm a hypocrite. I got mad at him and did exactly what he did. Oh well. I guess neither of us could keep it up, the one-partner faithful thing...

I got out of bed slowly and looked at the clock on his wall, it took a few seconds of staring before I was focused enough to read it. Somehow, I had not even overslept. I had two hours before I needed to be at school. Yes, I was an idiot. Drinking on a school night. Should have broken up with Ben today because it's Friday. I decided a shower wouldn't bother this guy and stumbled into his bathroom groaning as my head spun. I showered quickly before I rinsed my mouth with water and I walked back into his room with his towel around my waist.

"You can borrow a shirt if you want. And pants. You have school, right?" He mumbled making me realise he had woken up, but was still in bed.

"Who are you?" I asked narrowing my eyes. Shit, I should have asked last night. I was a stupid drunk, wasn't I? Damn it. He sat up.

"I'll tell you later when you give my clothes back." He winked at me. I stared at him and he rolled his eyes. "Brian. But seriously, we'll talk later, we can have lunch when you leave school."

Brian? The last time I knew a Brian I was in 6th grade and he looked nothing like the brown-haired, brown-eyed man in the bed across the room.

"Whatever." I turned to his closet.

I changed quickly and brushed my hair out of my face before I put on a pair of his sunglasses. He would get them back later anyway, I wasn't stealing. I grabbed my car keys and my phone.

"Thanks by the way. Last night was great." He said.

"Wish I could say the same." I replied as I walked out of his room. I heard him laugh. I couldn't remember much of what we did, or what I did last night after... Ben.

"The café near your school, at three." He called after me.

He lived on the ground floor of an apartment building, I was happy I didn't have to take the stairs right now, I probably would have tripped and rolled all the way down or something.

I turned on my phone happy to have the sunglasses as I made my way towards my car but stopped as my eyes fell on the screen and I saw a bunch of calls from Ben and Alex, even Sergio and one from Stan. Shit. I just left without thinking about him. Is he okay? Did Ben even let him into the house?

After climbing into my car I dialled his number. It rang a few times before it died and I tried again, the same thing. I stared out into the parking lot debating on whether to head home to check on Stan or go to school and hope he was there.

I sighed as I turned on my car deciding to go to school, if Stan wasn't there, I would find him later. I drove to school and pulled the sunglasses off so I could look at my face. I didn't look too out of it. If they didn't make much noise I should be able to make it through the day. What was I talking about? This was a high school.

After getting some coffee, I headed to class and spent the day trying to hide how sick I felt until the last bell rang and I was beyond relieved. I had not seen Stanley today but I had not had his class today either.

I made my way outside of school when my final class ended and tried to call Stan again, he still didn't pick up. Was he even okay? I should have went back to the house before I came to school, I'm an idiot.

When I reached my car, I climbed in and grit my teeth deciding to go to the house. Ben should be at work right now, hopefully I can just find Stan and talk to him before I leave.

I stopped in the driveway sighing in relief as I noticed Ben's car was nowhere in sight. It could be in the garage, but why would it? He had work basically every day, if he didn't I would already know about it. I walked into the house and cursed immediately when I saw that the TV was on. Stanley never watched TV because he was always in his room avoiding us.

Deciding I was going to ignore Ben, I walked to our room not glancing into any other room to find out where he was, luckily he wasn't in the bedroom. I changed into a jean and t-shirt before I grabbed a bag and began packing whatever I liked wearing most, I would fetch everything else later.

"Jordan?" I didn't reply to Ben as he walked into our room. "What are you –? Please don't –"

"If you touch me, I will fight you." I stated coldly as I kept up what I had been doing before he walked in.

"Babe, I'm sorry, I never meant to hurt you. I swear. Please don't leave." I didn't reply as I got lost somewhere in packing and my anger and hurt towards him. "Fine, fine. You – you stay. I'll leave."

I gave a chuckle of disbelief as I turned to face him, "So you can drag Stan around with you as you try to find somewhere to live? Where are you gonna go? Sergio and Alex? There's nothing stopping you. Not that there was anything before." I said.

He stared at me and I had to turn away from him to avoid the desperation and distress in his eyes, I zipped the bag up and grabbed it before I attempted to walk out but he blocked the door. He opened his mouth but I spoke.

"If you want me to listen to you or try to understand you, I'll do it when I feel like it. Until then, don't call me, don't follow me, don't talk to me or I'll never speak to you again." I said. His eyes, unchanging from the state they had been in since he walked in, stared back into mine for a few seconds before he sighed as he looked down and stepped aside. "Thanks." I muttered.

I walked by him but stopped as I walked into the hall just as Stan did. He seemed to have come from outside and was holding his bag. So he had been at school? I smiled but it fell when I noticed he was staring at the bag in my hand.

He looked back at me before he walked into his room.

"Stan," I called but he shut the door.

I walked into his room and put my nag down. I couldn't think of what to say to him...

"You're leaving him?" He mumbled.

"Not you." I said.

He gave a snort. "Why not? I'm not your son. Don't let me burden you."

"You're not a burden." I said.

"Without him all I'll be to you is a nuisance, even with him. You don't have to feel bad, you're not my father, I'm nothing to you and I expect nothing from you." He looked at me and gave a quick smile before it dropped and he was serious again, "Don't worry. I don't need you, or him... or her. I'm perfectly fine on my own." He said.

I walked up to him and sat beside him on his bed, he was laying down and had discarded his school bag to the desk chair when he had walked in. His blue eyes had yet to move from me. They really looked just like Ben's and I could tell that he was scared. I could have guessed even if his eyes were closed anyway.

"I honestly don't care if you are," I said. "You never should have come here if you didn't want to be stuck with me, but you are, so deal with it." He raised his brows confused and I chuckled, "I'm not your father, of course I don't have to do anything. I want to, Stan. I want to stay with you. I can't take you with me right now, I have to find an apartment or something. You can visit me when I do, or just stay with me and visit Ben when... I don't know." We chuckled before his laughter died. I smiled as I reached out and ruffled his hair, he pushed my hand away looking annoyed and I grinned, "Please stay here, I'll call you later and I better see you at school on Monday." I said.

He didn't reply and just looked down.

"I'll see you later." I leaned forward quickly and felt him tense as I gave him a quick hug, I knew he was going to deny it if I asked him or looked like I was going to hug him.

I left and sat in my car. It was fifteen minutes past three. Did I really have to meet him? Well, he did borrow me his clothes and I wanted to know where he knew me from, because I was certain we had never met before.

I drove to the café. He wasn't hard to spot as the place wasn't very crowded as I walked in and he was wearing a neon green cap. Who wears that at his age...?

I walked up to him and sat down.

"I ordered coffee, you want anything?"

"No." I put his clothing that I had folded onto the table ear him. "How do you know me?" I asked.

"You're so to the point. Does Ben like that about you? My type is more subtle..." He drifted.

"Good, cause I'm not getting into anything with you. If you're not going to get to the point, I'll be leaving. Thanks for last night." I began to move out of my seat.

"Jesus, would you calm down? Fine, to the point, Ben. That's how I know you."

"Ben?" I asked surprised.

"Yeah. See, I need a favour." I snorted and smiled in disbelief as I looked out of the window into the parking lot, "Ben and I aren't on... good terms... We've really never been, my boss hates him as well. I need him to... move some things for me, he refuses." I frowned at him impatient and annoyed, whatever they wanted from Ben had nothing to do with me now. "I need you to... convince him to work with us."

"No." I replied.

"I could ask someone more willing to help us, someone who seems to have the same amount of hate as we do, if not more."

"Great."

"Do you really want to put Stanley in that position?" I looked at him and he smirked. "Good, you're listening."

I watched him smile at the waitress as she brought his coffee and he asked me again if I wanted something, I denied

again and she left.

"Get on with it." I said seriously.

"I know Stanley can't convince him to do shit, but you can. If you just agree, we'll stay away from the kid."

"So last night..."

"Oh, that was just luck. I was hoping to have this conversation with you, but who am I to deny someone as good looking as you when you're literally throwing yourself at me?" He chuckled, "If you're up for it, I'll be happy to go at it again." He winked.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked clenching my fist beneath the table.

Ben's fault. He just couldn't stop with his stupid shit, I knew something like this would happen. I knew someone would get hurt, someone always gets hurt. This just had to happen right after Stan moved in. I loved and hated Ben so much at the same time, he made the hate part incredibly easy.

"Persuade him. Should be easy after that fight you had, you could make him do anything." He said.

"You really have no life..." I mumbled. "You just want to ship something?" I asked.

"Of course not. We want to ruin him, but we can start off with shipping. You can get him to sign the company off to us, can't you? If not, you'll just have to figure it out. Think of it as your revenge as well." He smiled as he lifted his coffee.

I stared at him blankly. I didn't care about revenge on Ben, I didn't want to hurt him. I wouldn't want to no matter what he did, but I didn't have a choice right now. He would understand, Stan couldn't be dragged into this; he already had enough to deal with.

"I'll see what I can do." I said getting up.

"Be quick about it, we don't have all year." He replied.

I grit my teeth as I walked out.

*