Loving the Fighter

115

Carter's POV

I really don't see why Jax pretends to not like Patrick. He wasn't a bad person by any means, but he does have a tendency to very annoying.

He was currently sitting on Ryder's bed, watching some old movie, singing along to every word as if he had seen the movie over a hundred times. It was amusing I watch him at first due to the childish look he had but now I was ready to kill him just to make him stop singing.

"Hey Patrick," I say at least halfway into the movie. I had tried to be nice but I was too tired at this point. "If you don't stop singing I am going to shove your head in the toilet."

He frowned but stopped as soon as he acknowledges my words.

"It's almost alarming how similar yet different you and Jax are," he says, his frown still present but not nearly as prominent.

I only hum as I go back to watching the movie, my eyes struggling to stay open.

"Why don't you take a nap? I'll wake you up for lunch. It will only be for a few hours," Patrick said but I'm already shaking my head. "Why not?"

"I don't want to freak out."

"I thought Andrew put you on medicine for that," he said gently, almost as if he were trying not sound insulting.

"He did, but they won't work," my eyes began to close and this time I don't fight to keep them open. A few minutes of my eyes being shut wouldn't hurt.

"How do you know if you don't test it?"

"Jax has been on these before. They never work after a beating."

Patrick's silence was enough for me to understand that he wasn't happy with my answer.

"How's Jax holding up?"

"He's pouting." Patrick gives a small chuckle at that.

"That doesn't seem like a very Jax thing to do," he comments. I can tell without even having to look at him that he is smiling.

I don't give a response to him this time.

I was still balancing on the edge of sleep as the movie played on until I wasn't entirely sure that I was awake at all.

Liam's POV

Class was insanely boring without Jax or Carter. At least if one of them were here I could be teasing Jax or whispering to Carter. Anything was better than sitting here alone.

I was lucky though. Next period was lunch and unlike last time, I wasn't going to let anything keep us from eating with Carter.

We were lucky Jax didn't immediately assume the worst when we were forced to bail on him. I doubt we would be that lucky with Carter. Carter liked to pretend that he had everything under control and that nothing bothered him but if you were really paying attention to him, you could see through that act quickly.

It made since though. He says he's been with Jax almost his entire life and he's protected Jax from all of the childhood abuse and probably the majority of the newer trauma as well. We think Jax is fucked up and apparently he took less than half of all of it.

I could only imagine how bad it must be for Carter.

I force myself to stop thinking about it as the bell rings, letting us leave the dreadfulness that was this class.

I met with Callum and Ryder in the lunchroom only a few minutes later. I had offered to carry Carter's trey but Callum insisted that he could do it, which mad me want to punch him in the nose.

Regardless, the three of us marched to our cabin without a problem.

I open the cabin door expecting to see a tired looking Carter and an overly excited Patrick but I pretty much saw the exact opposite.

I could tell Jax had fronted while they slept, hopefully that meant he was feeling a bit better. Patrick only sat on Ryder's bed quietly as he played on his phone. Some movie I didn't even know we had was playing on the TV.

"We brought you something too," Ryder said to him once Patrick realized we were here.

"We figured we'd make up for you bringing us breakfast," Callum joked as he put down both of the trey's in his hands before waltzing over to Jax with a smile on his face.

"How long has he been asleep?" I ask even though I really just wanted to tell Callum to not wake Jax up his normal way.

"Maybe a half an hour. Carter seemed pretty tired though. I wouldn't be surprised if he went back to sleep as soon as you left."

Callum only hums as he leans over Jax's body, his feet still planted on the floor. Patrick looked back at the TV that was only playing credits at this point while Callum worked his lips up and down Jax's neck.

Jax groaned but I'm not sure if it was out of pleasure or annoyance.

"We have lunch," Callum whispered after Jax had peaked an eye open.

"I don't want it," Jax grumbled out as he rolled onto his side away from Callum.

"Well that sucks for you then," Callum said with a small scowl as he pulled Jax up into a sitting position. "If you don't want to eat then switch out with Carter but one of you is about to eat this considering you didn't eat breakfast."

Jax's frowned deepened at that but he took the trey off the dresser anyway, making Callum smile as he sat down on my side of the bed. Ryder and I sat on the foot of the beds while Patrick stayed on Ryder's.

"How was class," Jax mumbled out, he looked like he was about to fall asleep sitting up at this point. It made me feel bad about having to wake him up.

"Boring," I state as I shot him a smile. "I really missed having you in there. It was so boring in there without me being able to tease you the whole time."

This was one of those rare times where Jax didn't try to hide his blush and it honestly made him look adorable, especially with his grumpy face.

Jax pushed his trey away only a few minutes later. He had only eaten about half of it but I don't think any of us were willing to say anything about it. He tended to get irrational when he was tired; no need to start an unnecessary fight over something like this. Plus most of it had to do with the fact that he was too tried to eat. Jax was never a good eater when he was tired. We would just have to try a bit harder at dinner.

Soon enough the rest of us had finished our lunch as well. The second we placed our treys in the floor; Jax motioned us closer to him.

Callum went to spoon Jax like always while he held onto Ryder like a teddy bear. I was stuck in the very uncomfortably position that was straddling Jax's hip but I didn't really care at that point. I was just happy to see that Jax was fronting again.

"Hey Jax," I whispered up at him. His eyes peaked down at me tiredly before smiling a bit. "I really like you." His smile widens.

"I really like you too."

Last updated May 29, 2021