More Than Just Roommates (Book 1)

42. Family Frustrations

~ Jackson

"Fuck!"

The shout came from inside the room, followed by a loud groan, before I had even opened the door. It sounded like Leo, but definitely not like his sex screams. I rushed to unlock the door, worried that something had happened.

As soon as I was inside, I saw Leo sitting on the couch, his head in his hands. He didn't seem like he was injured, which was a good thing. But what was going on in that head of his?

"Hey, babe. You alright?"

He looked up at me and smiled. "I'm amazing. How was class?"

Leo stood up and walked over to me. I knew he wasn't telling me something. I gave a him a kiss. "Boring. But are you sure you're alright? I heard you shout rather loudly before I came in here, and considering you're alone and not having sex in here, something's up."

He shook his head. "I'm fine, baby. Don't worry about it." I saw his eyes dart to the right as he said that; Leo's tell whenever he's lying.

He went for another kiss, but I stopped him. "I can tell that there's something bothering you. Please tell me."

Leo sighed, just as the door opened behind me. I turned to see Josh walking in.

"What's going on, guys?" Josh asked, closing the door. "Everything okay?"

"Everything's great," Leo said at the same time I said, "Something's bothering Leo."

Josh sighed and shook his head. "I love you both, and I don't want anything to upset you." He looked up at Leo. "Is what bothering you now the same thing that's been bothering you all break?"

I looked at Josh. "You know?"

He shook his head. "He would never tell me, but I know there's a reason he was always over my house."

"I'm right here, you know."

"So tell us what's wrong," I said, placing my hands on his waist.

"Please, Leo?" Josh asked, coming up behind me and leaning on my shoulder. "We're just worried about you."

Leo let out a long sigh and looked over to the right. "I'm just stressed, that's all."

"About?" I prompted.

He looked me in the eyes. "Sometimes I hate how stubborn you two are."

"Only because we love you." I leaned up to give him another quick kiss. "Please tell us, Lee."

Leo backed away from us and started walking towards the couch, but instead of sitting down, he began pacing in front of it. "It's my parents. Okay? I can't stand them anymore."

"Why? What happened?" Josh asked before I could.

"You know how I told you guys about why my cousin's family disappeared?"

I nodded. His dad hadn't noticed Leo's baby cousin - Alicia? Something like that, I was bad with names - and accidentally hit her with his car.

"Apparently my dad did kill Ashley that day." Ashley, right. That was her name. "They told me she wasn't dead, but they had tried to go to her funeral. How could they lie to me like that? They didn't even tell me that when I asked them. Freddy told me."

Josh rushed over to him. "Is that why you were always at my house?"

Leo nodded slowly. "Being with you helped me to forget."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Kyle chose that moment to walk through the door. He saw us all standing around the room and looked at each of us, confused. "What's going on in here?"

"I hate my parents."

"Woah. Where'd that come from, babe?"

I placed a hand on Kyle's shoulder. "The whole thing with his cousin, and how they lied to him big time."

"They told me Ashley wasn't dead. Freddy told me she was and that my parents were very much aware of that fact."

"Sorry, Leo. Freddy never told me much about that. I only know that she had died just before the Milford's moved to my town."

Leo's head shot up. "Did you say Milford? That's not their last name."

~ Kyle

I stared at Leo in shock. How did he not know he's own cousin's last name?

"I've always known him as a Milford," I said.

Leo was shaking his head. "No. They're the Milton's. You must have gotten it wrong."

"You know what? I'm going to call Freddy." I pulled out my phone and dialed his number.

"Hey, Jackson," Josh said, crossing the room to him and grabbing hold of his hand. "Let's go for a walk while they figured this out. I need to ask you something anyway."

I didn't have a chance to tell them that they didn't need to leave when Freddy picked up. I put him on speaker just as the two of them left the room.

"Sup, Kyle?"

"Hey, Freddy. Leo and I have a question."

"I'm not going to solve your relationship problems, dude."

"This has nothing to do with our relationship," Leo said, walking over to me.

"I don't want to know about your sex life either."

"Freddy," I said, before Leo could say anything. "We have a question for you, about you."

"What's your last name?"

I heard Freddy laugh. "Took you guys long enough to figure it out. But don't worry, you're both right."

Leo and I looked at each other. How could we both be right? He only had one last name, right?

"My parents changed our name from Milton to Milford after Ashley. Right before we moved."

"So that's why I couldn't ever find you on Facebook." Leo laughed. "God, you guys really were trying to run from us, weren't you?"

"Hey, I never blamed your dad for that, man. That was all my parents doing. I'm kinda glad they're gone now. They dictated way too much of my life for way too long."

Freddy's parents had died last year when their house burned down. He had just moved out of their house when it happened, so thankfully he wasn't there too. But it was still awful, nonetheless.

"I gotta go, dudes. My boss will flip shit if he catches me on the phone right now." Without waiting for us to reply, Freddy hung up.

I just looked at Leo and we both burst out laughing. Once we stopped, I put my head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around my back.

"Glad we got that settled," he said.

"Are you okay, though? This whole thing with hating your parents, I get it, Leo. I do." I lifted my head so that I was looking at his face.

"I just don't know what else they've lied to me about. And it's so frustrating that they're trying to act like they didn't, like their lies didn't effect my life this drastically. My baby cousin died six years ago and I only just found out."

I nodded, not exactly sure what to say to that. Thankfully, I was saved from that when the door banged open. We looked to see both of our boyfriends standing there.

"While we were out," Josh started. "Jackson and I decided that we are going to take you two out on a date."