The Path To You

8. Put yourself first

I had never been more determined in my life. I had spent the past week trying to put a plan together. The planning hadn't gone great but I knew where I needed to start. I couldn't help Connor all on my own.

So I called in reinforcements.

"Hey," Dom popped his head into my room. "I hope you don't mind I brought Callum with me."

The ginger stuck his head in the doorway right behind Dom with a sheepish grin.

"Hi." He waved.

"Yeah that's fine." I ushered them both in.

"You said it was an emergency?" Dom questioned.

"Yeah it's about Connor-,"

"Oh what did he do now? Is this about my Black Sabbath shirt? I will kill him if he ruined that, it's my only one." Dom started ranting.

"Babe, I have your Black Sabbath shirt." Callum rested a hand on Dom's arm calming him down.

"He didn't steal anything from you, that I know of." I really couldn't be sure of that because Connor was a huge kleptomaniac. "It's about his drinking, I want to do something to help him."

"Like an intervention?!" Dom's face lit up. "We have a lot of work to do if we are going to do that. We'll need to talk to Jake because he's got that stupid planner that he never deviates from. So we can't spring it on him. Adam's already done interventions on Jake before, they weren't very good but experience is experience."

"Dominic let Jetson speak." Callum smiled at his boyfriend.

"Right, what was your plan?" Dom turned back to me waiting to hear what I had to say.

"An intervention sounds good but I was also trying to think of how to reduce the alcohol you have in the house. That's why I wanted to talk to you."

It was a house of college guys, I knew asking them to turn it into a dry house was a big ask but I needed to figure out a way to get alcohol away from Connor.

"I can talk to the guys and tell them that any alcohol they have has to be out of common spaces. And we'll have to get Adam to agree to not throw big parties at the house." Dom spoke.

"I can tell Adam he can throw parties at my apartment if he wants to." Callum offered.

"Are you sure?" His boyfriend asked.

"Yeah I'll just make him clean it up the next day."

"Perfect. Why don't you talk to Adam and I'll talk with Nico and then once we got everything in order we'll have Jake set up a time to talk to Connor." Dom turned to me.

I just nodded. I was a little nervous to talk to Adam. Out of all of the Kingsley roommates Adam was the one I talked to the least. Most of that had to do with the very rocky friendship between him and Connor.

Dom and Callum stayed over and we hung out for a few hours before they had to leave. It was nice hanging out with the couple even if I was a massive third wheel. I was starting to get used to it though. With Monroe and Becca as my roommates and Evan and Jake practically attached at the hip, I was surrounded by couples.

I waited until after dinner to hop in my car and go over to the Kingsley football house. Dom had told me Adam would be there and I was just hoping luck would be on my side and Connor would not be.

When I showed up at the house the door was unlocked but no one was around. I figured I would at least check if Adam was up in his room.

I made my way up the stairs and then knocked softly on his door.

"What?" Adam swung the door open and definitely didn't look that happy to see me.

"Can we talk?" I asked him.

"Make it fast." Adam left the door open for me and walked back into his room.

"I was talking with Dom and we both think that we need to do something about Connor. Dom was looking to put together an intervention and we both think-,"

"An intervention?" Adam cut me off.

I just nodded not feeling very good about where this conversation was going. My hope for Adams help was dwindling fast.

"I'll pass." He just shook his head turning his back to me.

I felt a spike of anger at him. Connor was supposed to be his friend and he didn't even care to help him even the slightest.

"What's your problem? I'm just trying to help Connor and I thought as his friend you'd want to help." I snapped at the blond.

"I have no interest in wasting my time on some useless intervention so you can go now."

I felt all the anger in me blow over. All of the anger I had towards Connor and the situation exploded and it directed its way right to Adam.

"You supposed to care about him, you're supposed to be his friend and yet you've done nothing as he wastes away. He could have died and you are just standing there like it's nothing. I'm not asking for much, all I need is one afternoon of your time." I broke.

Adam turned to look at me, his face filled with fury.

"You've known him what, a few months? I've known him for years, I've been there every time he's drank himself into the ground. I was there doing his assignments for class, dragging him to practices so he wouldn't lose his scholarship. I've been there every time he's promised to get clean only for it to be a lie. Connor is an addict and it took a long time for me to realize that he'll destroy everyone in his way just to get his fix. It's not that I don't care, it's that I know nothing I do will change him. He's not going to get clean unless he wants to so all this effort you're putting in is for nothing."

Through the anger in Adams eyes I could see the hurt. I hadn't known everything that he'd done for Connor over the years. I felt dumb for just assuming that he never cared. He'd tried once to help Connor and it obviously didn't work.

"You can't just give up on him." I said.

"Sometimes you got to know when to put yourself first. He will take and take until you have nothing left, don't let him bleed you dry." He told me and I understood.

I wasn't going to give up in my efforts to help Connor but I did vow to myself that if this didn't work that I'd step back. I wouldn't let myself neglect my own needs if Connor wasn't ready to get the help he needed.