I bolted from the car the moment Dad got it parked, speed walking toward the hospital entrance. My skin buzzed with the anticipation of seeing Emmett. Kissing Emmett. Visiting hours started thirty minutes ago, but Dad refused to speed up to get there any faster. He reminded me about yesterday's events. "You've already been in one accident this week. Let's not make it two."

My leg bounced the entire drive over. I tapped my fingernails on the door until Dad commanded me to stop.

I couldn't recall ever being this excited about something. When I tried to take a deep breath, it caused pain, and I groaned with the effort. I pressed a hand to the edge of my bruises, pausing until the pain subsided.

"Would you slow down?" Dad called out in the distance. "You're going to hurt yourself."

"I'm fine." I waved off his concern and started walking again.

A tall, well-built Black guy walked through the doors, heading in my direction, head down, the brim of a baseball cap covering his face. He had his hands stuffed into the pockets of a letterman jacket in my school's colors—scarlet and black. I was more concerned with the jacket than I was the wearer, wondering why anyone would wear that on a hot day. It was still early, yet the temperature was at a boiling point, making me break into a sweat just from my short jog from the car.

I felt an ache in my chest—not from my wounds—when the jacket's owner lifted his head to reveal his face.

"Duke?"

What was he doing here? Did he get hurt, too? I wondered what kind of scar he'd be showing off at the next group excursion.

Duke glanced up. His jaw muscles tightened as a deep frown pulled down the corners of his mouth. "You're the one he's fucking, aren't you?"

That's when it hit me. Duke came to see Emmett. They were a thing. I totally forgot about that in the bliss of finally being with Emmett.

I raised my hands defensively. "I'm sorry, dude. I didn't mean for this to happen. I just fell in love with him."

Duke didn't seem to like that. He closed the gap between us in a blur, reminding me why he was such a great quarterback. He was six-foot-three and the fastest guy on the football team. His teammates called him The Flash.

Duke seized my shirt in his fists and slammed my back against a pillar.

I howled as the impact sent ripples of pain through my torso. My stomach turned from the intensity of it. If Duke wasn't careful, he would get a face full of puke.

But Duke didn't stop at shoving. He threw a punch to my stomach, doubling the pain and nausea. Thank God I hadn't eaten yet or I would've tossed it onto his shoes.

"Hey!" Dad screamed. He sounded winded. He must've started running when Duke grabbed me. "Get away from him."

When Duke released his hold on my shirt, I doubled over, hugging my abdomen. The only thing keeping me upright was the column behind me.

I heard the scuff of tennis shoes on pavement as Duke ran away.

Tiny dots of wetness discolored the pavement at my feet. I thought it had started raining until I realized I was crying from the pain.

Dad wrapped his arms around me and helped me over to a nearby bench. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, though I didn't think I was. My ragged breathing made it even worse. "Oh, fuck!"

Realizing what I just said, my eyes jumped to my dad. "Sorry."

"Say whatever you need to, kid." He smoothed his hand over my hair. "What was that all about? Wasn't that Duke?"

"It was."

"Why would your friend attack you?"

"He's mad because I'm dating Emmett now."

"He did this because you're gay?" Dad snarled. He'd never sounded more angry about anything in all the time I had known him. Not even when I accidentally hit a baseball through the front window of my mom's car. Or that time he caught Jackson and me sneaking beer into the house. He almost put a padlock on the exterior door to my room for that one. But Mom put a stop to that. She was obsessed with fire safety and couldn't abide having me potentially locked inside a deadly firetrap.

"No," I said. "He did this because of Emmett. Because he's sort of seeing Emmett, I guess."

"You're dating a boy who already has a boyfriend?" His disappointment was evident even before the dreaded, "Clayton!"

Now he was throwing Claytons around, too. I rolled my eyes at the name drop.

I stared at a tree so I didn't have to look at his face and see how letdown he surely was by me. He said, "I can't believe you would do that. And to one of your friends, no less."

I twiddled my thumbs in my lap, picking at my nails. "I got swept up in the moment. I wasn't thinking about Duke. And they're not even really together. They're just fu... um, friends with benefits." Surely, Emmett would have told me by now if it was more than that.

Dad shook his head. "Does Duke know that?" He pointed in the direction Duke ran off. "He seemed more than a little pissed off."

I leaned back and stared up at the sky, still clutching my abdomen. "I don't care what he knows. He's a fucking asshole with anger management issues."

I breathed in slow, steady gusts, trying to move as little as possible.

"Now that one was uncalled for," Dad said.

I looked at my dad, with his furrowed brow and hard set mouth, and apologized. "Anyway, isn't it Emmett's responsibility to deal with his boyfriend drama?"

Dad made a disapproving humming sound in the back of his throat. "It's one thing if you didn't know about them. But if you knew about it and you did it anyway, then you're just as responsible as Emmett."

"Can you cut me some slack, please? I'm new to this whole gay thing."

Dad grimaced and raised a brow. "This isn't a 'gay thing,' Clay. And you know it. It's a decent-human-being thing."

"Can you please not make me feel like a bad person?" I was almost begging. "I don't want to feel guilty about loving Emmett. I've already felt terrible enough about it for months. I just want to be happy."

"You don't have to feel guilty about loving Emmett, son. There's nothing wrong with it." Dad laid a hand on my shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. "But you need to make sure you're loving him the right way. If this were a girl and one of your friends was... benefitting with her, I can't imagine you'd ever pursue a relationship."

"If Emmett was a girl, I probably wouldn't be interested in 'benefiting' with him, anyway," I said, putting the word in air quotes.

"Fine. Take yourself out of it. What if it was Jackson doing this to Duke, or to Brandon? How would you feel about the situation?"

I let out a frustrated cry. "Why do you have to make sense all the time?"

Dad hooked an arm around me and pulled me closer. "That's what dads do."

"Clay?"

I turned at the sound of my name. Emmett stood there with his mother. Joy overrode my pain, bringing a smile to my face. Until I tried to get up and the pain slapped me back down and called me a little bitch. I exhaled sharply, grabbing my side.

Emmett rushed over and knelt down in front of me. He took hold of my free hand. "Are you okay, babe?"

"Your boyfriend punched him in the gut," Dad said, sounding none too pleased. I didn't like the way he was looking at Emmett with disdain, like this was his fault. I would've said something if my mouth could form actual words, instead of anguished moans.

"My—" Emmett shook his head as realization dawned on him. He put his cast hand under my chin and lifted it so I would look into his eyes. "I told him I can't see him anymore. He was mad at me, and he took it out on you."

"I think he was a little miffed with me too," I said. "He knows about us."

"You told him?" Emmett sounded shocked.

"He guessed. And I kinda confirmed it when I said I fell in love with you."

"I'm so sorry, Clay. I never should've started up with him again. I was thinking of you the whole time. I wanted you so bad. And that was the closest I thought I'd get to having you."

My cheeks grew hot. I didn't want my dad to hear that.

Dad must have had the same idea, because he stood up. "I'm going to give you two a minute." He walked over to Mrs. Noble, hovering in the distance, and struck up a conversation.

Emmett took up residence in Dad's vacated seat. "I'm also sorry that I cost you a friend."

"It's not all your fault, Emmett. I knew you were with him. But I didn't care. I wanted you, too."

"Well, I'm yours now. And nobody else's."

I hugged Emmett, pressing my lips to Emmett's neck. "And I'm yours."