fair/unfair

16.

tw: minor drug use, child abuse mention

        Waking up the next morning to go to Foxcreek was particularly nerve-wracking. Not just because Reid was going to the Road Hole today — with Mal ... alone — but also because the plan that Grace, Jax, and Blake had come up with was crazy as hell, and naturally it all fell on Reid.

       Why was it, he thought begrudgingly, as he and his brother made way for the police cruiser, that I'm always the one doing all of the heavy lifting?

       Then again, it made sense that Reid was the one who had to do this. Apparently, Jax had heard from Reese who had heard from some girl named Jessica who, according to Grace, has always had a crush on Mason and coincidentally was the blue-haired girl he was making out with at the party, had managed to get Mason drunk enough to reveal that he'd learned from Karen that the Foxes were coming back to Virginia for a fourth of July party.

       Get any of that? Neither did Reid.

        "The point is," Blake had interrupted Jax, "I heard your pack was looking for some fireworks of the illegal variety. So I asked 'em what they were planning on doing with them. Nothing but a little harmless scare tactics, of course, but I offered a better alternative."

        Reid just blinked at him and cast his friends an incredulous look.

        They'd grinned back.

         "All you gotta do, sport," Blake said, leaning forward and pointing a finger at Reid, "is get yourself an invite."

       Which, of course, was going to be way harder than his friends and a random goddamn twenty-three year old were selling it. Not only did he need the Foxes — or at least one Fox — to trust him enough to extend the invitation to him as well, he was going to have to do it soon. July was in less than a month.

        He figured maybe he could get Bobbie to trust him in time. He was resigned to Ramona hating his guts for life — which, fucking good, feelings were mutual — and Nick just didn't care enough to even bother to try getting close to him.

       Mal? Reid didn't know where he stood with him. Every encounter was a fucking mystery. Except today. Today he was supposed to get answers. Hopefully.

       The ride to Foxcreek was long and overbearingly quiet. Jay was still seeing his probation officer, so Reid had nothing to fucking say to him. He spent the entire car ride staring out the window and as soon as his brother pulled to a stop in the front parking lot of the boarding school, Reid got out before Jay could say anything.

      Elena put him to work in the common room, and he was a bit surprised to walk in and see all of the Foxes in there for the first time since ... shit, since Ramona got him drunk.

       The dogmeat in question was sitting at one of the tables, fingers flying across her phone's keyboard. Bobbie was sitting in front of her, clicking through some kind of Word document on her laptop, Nick was sprawled out on a beanbag chair, clearly bored, and Mal was—

       "Where's Mal?" Reid asked, setting the cleaning bucket down and tossing his wash rag with it. He didn't actually have any plans to clean today.

       "Mom," Nick said, and it was all he had to say to explain. "Why, pray tell? If you wanna choke someone again, I'd be willing to fulfill that dirty kink of yours, dog. Wanting to die? In this economy? It's more likely than you think."