A Wall Between

Chapter 40

Through the weeks that followed, the upcoming trip was never far from Sasha's mind. He made sure to get a haircut not too long before they would go and he had carefully planned everything he would pack.

Sasha could tell that Cooper was thinking about it too. He didn't talk about it too much, but sometimes he'd just give voice to something that was clearly the tail end of a thought out of nowhere. They'd be talking about something else, or just doing something in silence, and suddenly he'd say something about one of his brothers or bring up a story from his childhood. After what had happened with Cooper's parents last time, Sasha suspected Cooper was a little nervous about the whole thing.

He wouldn't ever be alone with them this time, though. Not only would his brothers be there to look out for him, but he'd have Ellie and Abra and Sasha as well. His parents could still be hurtful towards him, and that was bad, but they couldn't do anything like what happened last time.

Abra spent the week before they left checking in with their more vulnerable customers and making sure they were stocked up on any meals they would need, and then on Friday morning they packed themselves and their bags into the car. They planned to return on Sunday evening.

Sasha was a bit excited, but mostly he was nervous. He'd never really gone out and done anything like this before, and anything he could think of that was remotely close hadn't been his choice and hadn't been fun. He was an adult now, though, and adults did things like go to weddings with their partners.

Abra drove and Ellie sat with him in the front with Cooper and Sasha in the back. Cooper showed Sasha videos on his phone, but he was in a particularly frenetic mood and he never quite seemed satisfied with whatever he picked for them to watch.

Sasha gave Cooper's hair soothing pets, but there wasn't much he could do for him when he was like this. That was okay. Sometimes you had your own struggles and nobody else could really fix them, and that was just a part of life.

They stopped at a park for a break and Ellie sent Cooper out to run a lap of it and then Abra handed out chocolate brownies he'd packed for the ride. After they'd eaten, they got back in the car and continued their journey.

They weren't heading straight to Logan's house. It was their job to pick up Mason from the airport, so they headed there first.

"That's him!" Cooper said as they pulled into the pickup area at the airport, pointing to a young man with messy light brown hair who was engrossed in his phone. They pulled up next to him, but he didn't look up until Cooper was already out of the car.

Sasha got out as well and lingered near the side of the car as Cooper pulled his brother into a hug. Mason had a stockier, less athletic build than Cooper did.

"And this must be the boy!" Mason said, turning his attention to Sasha.

"The boyfriend," Cooper said as Sasha nodded.

"Dating someone of the same sex as you really is a winning move," Mason commented. "Accidental pregnancies are just not a concern for you. That's huge. I looked up the failure rates of birth control the other day and it made me want to get a vasectomy on the spot, and I'm not even having sex."

"That's why we double up on our birth control methods," Ellie said as she loaded Mason's suitcase into the back of the car. "I don't need a baby right now."

Mason grinned. "You should ask Logan and Bianca what they do, and then don't do that, because whoopsie-daisy."

"Sometimes these things just happen, no matter how good your precautions are," Abra said.