Dance With Me (Rich Kids, Book One)

Twenty-three: "You're Amazing"

Randy

"Haha, you suck at this," Thomas insulted, throwing his hand in the air. "It isn't even hard."

"Do you know how dirty that sounded?" I asked in reply.

"What?"

"Never mind. Anyway, fine, you won. I'm just not good at Super Smash Bros and you are. Big deal. Can we play something else now?"

"Ooooo, someone's salty about losing."

"I'm not, you're literally just better. Do you want to play something else or simply stop hanging out?"

"Stop hanging out." I scoffed as he turned off the Xbox. Then, my phone started ringing.

"Hold on, it's from Li. I gotta take this," I told my brother, picking up my phone. "Hey, what's up?"

"Knox is here. He was crying earlier and now he's passed out on my bed. He mentioned something about his dad and the hospital. Everything fine there?" Li inquired. "I want to be sure he's okay."

"Oh. Um, I actually don't know. I didn't see him leave with his family. His dad's a jackass, though. His mom is a little better, but his dad is a total jerk. I know a lot more about the family than most."

"Anything to be concerned about?"

"Well...maybe. I would tell you but I'm not certain he wants that info out."

"Alright. Can you talk to him tomorrow? I don't wanna say anything. It's starting to become a regular occurrence for him to sleep here, and I don't think that's good," Li responded, a sigh sounding through the phone. "I want him to be okay. I'm worried."

"I know. He's fine, or at least he likely is. I think he's a little...confused."

"Uhhhh, okay. Elaborate on that. Ignore the fact I sound like a true crime podcast host."

"Well, imagine you really don't like your father, and he gets put into a hospital and is seriously injured because he got into a car crash while he was drunk. Now imagine that the crash happened only a few days after you got outed by your parents. To add onto this, your parents are homophobic but are trying to hide it because you're taking over the company and you're important to their social status. Perhaps your father got drunk because he was mad his only son is gay, made a stupid decision and drove, and now he's stuck in a hospital bed for God know's how long.

"You feel guilty because you know you could've been the cause, but you really hate your dad. You're wondering if you should be sad about this, and you're not feeling too much sympathy. You're just barely staying afloat for the sake of your sister, who is very shaken up and needs a supportive figure. Obviously your parents aren't being overly encouraging, and you're the only one who can be there for her. You know that with the crash your father's health is going to be affected long-term, and you'll need to start your responsibilities earlier than you'd expected. You hate the idea of working at the company, but it's being forced onto you. All because of your parents. Does that make more sense why he's confused?" I asked. Thomas furrowed his eyebrows.

"So, you think he feels guilty about not feeling guilty?" Li questioned.

"Yeah. But that's just me, so it may not be accurate."

"It's definitely a possibility. K, I'll talk to you tomorrow, I need to let Dev and my parents know that Knox is here. Bye babe."

"Babe?" I repeated, a large smile growing on my face. I saw Thomas roll his eyes to the side of me.

"You okay with that one?"

I let out a dramatically long breath. "I suppose I can manage."

"Mhm. Now hang up."