Chapter 1

I shake the sleeping boy. He whines and swats at me. “Sleepy…,” he mutters. I roll my eyes and go into the kitchen to grab a bottle of ice water. I walk back to his bed and press the bottle to his forehead. He squeaks and sits up. He glares at me. He turns to look at the clock and then turns back to me.

“It’s 7 o’clock!” he shrieks. “It’s a Saturday, during winter break, and you woke me up at 7 in the morning?!” I grin.

“If you don’t want to see Lex, you can go back to bed,” I purr. The boy blinks at me, confused. Then his confused expression clears.

“Oh right!” he yelps. He jumps out of bed and I laugh at him. I get ready and wait for him. “Come on! Come on, Lucius!” he squeals, running past me. I smile at his excitement.

“Coming!”

I’m Lucius. A freshman in college. That’s Ryan, my roommate and best friend. He’s a freshman too. Alexei is Ryan’s older brother and my best friend after Ryan, and he’s a year out of college. The three of us have known each other since my sophomore year of high school. Alexei’s taking a gap year, and is really busy doing a lot of internships and hands-on stuff before going to medical school. We don’t get to see him often, but Alexei came to visit us for the holidays.

We pull up to the little bakery Alexei told us to meet him at. Ryan drives. Alexei is standing outside. His breath billows into the air like smoke. Ryan squeaks the moment he spots Alexei, and he starts fidgeting. Once he parks the car, he runs and jumps into Alexei’s arms. Alexei laughs. His laugh is clear and carefree. Happy.

I get out and hug Alexei, albeit less… enthusiastically. Ryan has already glued himself to Alexei’s side. We go in to get food. I get a red velvet cupcake, while Ryan gets a chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing. Alexei gets a vanilla cupcake.

Alexei interrogates Ryan on how he’s been. When Ryan complains, he just says that Ryan’s his favorite little brother. Ryan points out that he’s his only little brother, and Alexei just grins. I smile while watching them. They’re extremely close, and why wouldn’t they be?

I tune out of their conversation. I scrape the icing off the cupcake, and carefully cut the cupcake into slices. Half. Quarters. Eighths. I move the pieces around my plate absentmindedly. Ryan stops speaking, and I turn towards him. He’s looking at me with worry in his eyes. Alexei looks at me for a moment before reaching for Ryan.

Ryan squeaks. Alexei is tickling him. Rya squirms and squeals at him to stop. I smile. Alexei laughs, and Ryan stares at me pleadingly. I smile and shrug. Ryan gives me a hurt look. I just smile. I giggle at his expression. I stand up and tug on Alexei’s sleeve. He turns to face me, and I smile at him wickedly.

I start tickling him. He yelps. I, thankfully, am wearing a thick coat, so he can’t tickle me. He laughs and laughs and laughs until he can’t breathe. I free him and sit down again. Ryan is laughing. He’s struggling to breathe because he’s laughing so hard. Some other people are shooting us funny looks, but who cares?

This is a perfect moment.

But it’s still only a moment. 

* * * * * * *

I’m staring out my window. There are two boys running in the snow. They’re bundled up, and have backpacks stuffed with who knows what. The smaller boy looks to be my age, maybe younger. The larger one is probably in college. They’re both bruised, the older one more so. From what I can see, they look alike. Probably siblings. They’re panting as they stop. The older boy leans over and speaks to the younger. The younger smiles. His eyes are red. There are tear tracks on his face, but the smile lights up his face. He stares at the older boy with adoration and trust in his eyes.

I watch sadly. There was once a time when I stared at someone with that expression. There was once a time when someone stared at me like that.

The older boy looks around fearfully. The younger’s face is frightened but trusting. The younger looks around, and he meets my eyes for a moment. He tilts his head in innocent confusion. The older boy looks at him and takes his hand. He pulls the younger along with him into the shadows.

“My parents were abusive. My mother did most of it, but when my father joined in… we knew it would be bad. Lexi kept telling me, ‘Wait just a few years until I can get you out. Just wait. I’ll get us out of here.’ He got to college, but he needed to be financially stable to get me out and support me. We barely got out.

“He never came home, except on holidays to take me out. But that day, he came and he wanted to see our parents. He didn’t need to say a word. My parents knew what he wanted, and they weren’t going to give it to him. Their solution was to try and beat the idea out of us. Lexi tried to protect me the best he could. He filed for legal custody of me the next day. Of course he got custody of us, and what became of our parents I don’t know, nor do I care to know.

“I owe him my life.”