Just One of the Guys
Thirty Six

Corbin

It's early afternoon, and I'm being discharged from the hospital. My head still hurts but it's getting better, I have a splint on my wrist-again, and bandages around my chest and ribs.

Knox, Colt, and Gentry are all here waiting to take me back to campus, but Gentry is the only one in the room with me at the moment. I didn't want the others in here since the hospital staff keeps referring to me as a girl, and none of the other guys know about that little bit of information.

"All right Corbin, you're all set to go. Here are your discharge papers," the discharge nurse says, handing me a stack of stapled papers. "The doctor wrote you a prescription for 800mg Ibuprofen. It should help with both pain and any swelling that likely will happen during the healing process. You can ice your ribs and wrist, which will help keep the inflammation down as well. Try not to take any baths until your wrist and ribs have fully healed, so you don't risk re-injuring them by trying to get out of the bathtub. Any questions?" she asks, smiling as she looks from me to Gentry and back again. With a quick nod when neither I nor Gentry says anything, she continues, "Well, all right. If there's nothing else, you are free to go."

She opens the door to the room, and steps back as Gentry starts to wheel me through it. "You take care!" she says, in lieu of goodbye.

"Thank you," I tell her as Gentry continues forward, pushing me down a hallway and into the waiting room, making me feel foolish that I have to sit in this stupid wheelchair.

When we enter the waiting room, I find that not only are Knox and Colt waiting for my release, so are all of the rest of the guys.

"You need a wheelchair?" Knox says, his eyes narrowing in anger. "I'm going to kill that fucker!"

"Knox, no, I'm fine. They wouldn't let me walk. Said it's protocol," I say, trying to calm his ruffled feathers.

Standing up to prove my point, I look at my friends and tears begin to pool in my eyes at their show of support. "I can't believe you all came," I mutter, glancing around the room at the faces of the group of guys. "You guys didn't all have to come."

"Of course, we're all here yer family, Corbs," Wesley says, speaking for everyone as he gives me a hug.

Looking out at the room full of guys, making eye contact with each one to show my gratitude towards them, every one of them is nodding in agreement with Wesley. I glance at Gentry, on the verge of tears.

"Come on, let's get you back to campus," he says, and then with his hand on my back, he leads me out the exit and towards his Jeep.

I carefully climb in and watch through the windshield as he speaks with Colt, Knox, and a couple of the other guys. They do that weird clap, handshake thing, and then break up: Gentry heading to the drivers' side of the Jeep, Colt, and Knox heading towards Knox's truck. The other guys were all climbing into other vehicles that I recognized from the school parking lot.

"They're all going to hate me!" I cry as soon as Gentry sits down in the drivers' seat, unable to hold it in any longer. "Averi, look at me, okay?" he orders.

I look up at him through my tears, his face blurry. "They are not going to hate you. They all love you. Today should have shown you how much we all care." Afterward, gripping hold of my knee, and moving it back and forth, he holds my stare, wanting me to see the conviction in his words as he says them. "It *will* be okay."

"No, it won't, Gentry...they love Corbin. They don't even know Averi," I say, sniffling as I wipe the tears from my cheeks.

"Are you not one and the same?" he asks, glancing over at me as he puts the Jeep in reverse. "Because as far as I'm concerned, you are both the same person who cares if one supposedly has a dick, and the other doesn't? You're not betraying anyone because you want to. You're in this situation because you have to be. If any of them can't understand that, then they aren't the people I thought they were."

Placing his right hand back on my thigh just above my knee after shifting the Jeep into drive, he gives a reassuring squeeze and then pats my thigh. "It will be okay. When or if you decide to tell them, I will be right there with you," he states. "You're too good to me, Gentry," I tell him, the waterworks starting up again.

"You would do the same for me," he says, glancing from the road to me, and back, an easy smile on his face.

*He's right, I would*, I think. *I would do anything for any one of them.*

"Oh, before I forget, here's your cell. I turned it off to try to save the battery," he says, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out my phone.

Powering it up, a couple of texts from Knox pop up.

**Knox: Can we talk later? One of my friends got hurt really badly tonight and he's in the hospital, but I would like to talk if we can.**

**Knox: I could really use a friend right now.**

**Knox: I'm in a dark place, babe, and I'm afraid I'm going to hurt someone if I don't settle down. I know that things are screwed up right now, but I could really use some of your light to try to push back the darkness that's settling in.** **Knox: I just...I need you, Averi.**

**Knox: Please.**

**Knox: Can you come to the Endover hospital?**

My emotions are too raw to respond to him right now. I'm afraid if I do, I'll break and tell him everything. Gentry knowing is a big enough risk-I can't afford anyone else knowing.

"I don't know what to do about Knox..." I mutter, over the low sound of the radio.

"What do you mean?" he asks, reaching out and turning the radio off.

"I mean, I can't tell him I'm Averi, but I hate lying to him. I'm trying to put some distance between us for his safety, but also for mine. But it's so damn hard, and I hate that it's hurting him. I don't want to hurt him." "You're hurting too."

*He's right, I am... so damn much.*

"I know..." I murmur, picking at a stray string on my borrowed shirt that Knox thought to bring me when he ran home to shower after visiting me earlier. It's the little things like that which make me wonder if maybe I shouldn't be pushing him away.

"You will work it out. Keep your distance until you know for sure what you want."

As his words quiet in the air, Gentry glances from the road towards me, and then back at the road again. "Neither of you need to hurt any more than what you already are. Block his texts if you have to until you figure it out. Or better yet, give

me your phone, I'll block him and then delete his number, and when you figure out what direction you want to go, you can ask me for his number again, or don't," he says with a shrug while holding out his hand for me to give him my phone. "I'm not giving you my phone to mess with while you're driving. I don't have any desire to be back in the hospital anytime soon, if I can help it," I reprimand.

"Fair enough," Gentry chuckles, putting both hands back on the steering wheel and turning his full attention back to the road.

When we get back to campus, Gentry helps me to my apartment and then settles me in my bed. Although I was out during most of my hospital stay, I'm completely exhausted.

"Text if you need anything, okay? I mean it, anything!" he says, handing me my phone back after doing as he'd said by blocking Knox's number and deleting his contact information from my phone.

"Thank you, Gentry. I don't know what I would do without you," I inform him, my voice emotional.

As Gentry walks to the door to leave, my eyes get heavy, and unable to keep them open, I give up the fight, letting them close.

I didn't remember hearing the door close, but when I awake several hours later in agonizing pain from my ribs, my room is dark.

I squint, trying to see through the dark until my eyes adjust as I try to remember where my pain pills are at.

Something moves in the corner of the room; I don't see it so much as I hear it.

*Oh shit! I can't even defend myself right now.*

*It's that guy, he's come to finish what he started*.

A figure rises from where it was in the corner and starts coming towards me and I cry out, "Don't hurt me!" as I throw my one free hand up over my head to try to protect myself.

"Hey, it's just me. It's Knox. You're okay. No one is going to hurt you."

His words take a moment to register that the figure in my apartment is only Knox.

"Knox?" I ask, uncurling as pain lances through my ribs. "Ah, shit!"

"Talk to me. What do you need?" Knox asks, sounding like he's the one in pain.

"Pain pills... I don't know what Gentry did with them."

I try to breathe through the agonizing pain, the feeling of someone or something squeezing the ever-loving hell out of my ribs.

"Dammit, it hurts!" I gasp out.

"Here they are, here," Knox says, handing me one of them along with a cool bottle of water.

I take the pill, choking it down with the help of the water.

*Freaking A! I hope it kicks in quickly*.

"What are you doing here?" I ask as I set the bottle on my nightstand.

His weight shifts on my bed as he falls back, laying sideways across my bed.

"I didn't want you to be alone," he murmurs, barely loud enough for me to hear.

After several minutes of silence outside of our breathing, I speak up. "Thank you."

"It's nothing," he says, afterward changing his position, and coming up to lie down beside me. "Sleep, you need rest to heal."

He doesn't have to tell me twice. With the comfort of having him so close to me, I quickly fall back to sleep.

The sun's rays begin to peak through the blinds in my apartment, waking me. I try to shift, needing to readjust, but shit, it hurts. Someone's arm is wrapped around me, my back pulled against their chest, an obvious boner poking against my

ass.

The woodsy scent tells me that it's Knox that's snuggled up to me.

"Don't get up, baby," Knox mumbles, tightening his hold on me, and holy hell, it hurts.

"Ouch, shit! Knox!" I cry.

He shoots up out of the bed, looking around the room, trying to get his bearings, no doubt.

"Corbin?" he asks, his voice still groggy from sleep.

"You caught my ribs," I say, wincing and rubbing the ache, looking for my pills.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry."

He reaches over, picking them up from off the ground. "I think I was dreaming. I didn't realize it was you and not her."

He hands me a little white pill, then leans over me to grab the bottle of water from my nightstand, handing it to me too.

His face is filled with so much concern, it makes me want to cry.

"Are you okay?" he asks.

Swallowing the pill, I take a few extra gulps of water to make sure I've got it washed down before lowering the water bottle and replacing the cap. I look at him and wonder, not for the first, second, or even the third time, if I should just tell him the truth, but something always holds me back. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you like that. It hurt. It was a knee-jerk reaction to yell," I tell him as I lie back down, turning over so that I'm facing him.

It seems so natural, us laying here like this in my bed: him looking down at me, me looking up at him, both comfortable and content in each other's presence-but those comfortable and content feelings break when he quickly averts his eyes away from mine.

I lie there, staring off into space, so much regret washing through me at how big of a mess I've managed to make of this entire situation. But at the same time, I also don't regret it because over the last few months-when I've not been all up in my head, being all wishy washy-the time that I've spent with Knox and gotten to know *him*, the *real* him, it's been amazing. He's allowed me to forget, even if temporarily the threat that looms over me like a predator stalking their prey, just lying in wait, biding their time and waiting for the perfect time to strike. At some point, I fall back asleep and when I wake back up, Knox is gone, but there is a plate of food, a fresh bottle of water, and a note waiting on my nightstand along with my bottle of pain medication.

*Corbin,*

*Try to get some rest today. I've brought you something to eat. I'll come by and check on you later. I have a mandatory team meeting that Coach called. If you need anything, I'm just a call away.*

*Take care,*

*Knox*

I end up devouring the food that Knox left for me, as well read some more of *Harry*, but I end up falling asleep again.

The sound of a door clicking shut wakes me and I mumble, "What?" still half-asleep.

"Shh...go back to sleep. I just wanted to check on you." Knox whispers, laying down next to me again just like he did last night.

"Thank you," I murmur as sleep calls me back to its sweet land of dreams where I can be myself and still manage to get the guy. In my dreams, I'm able to go home and see my mom, my siblings, and my friends-and the threat, it's been eliminated.

"What time is it?" I ask as my stomach wakes me up, grumbling with hunger.

"It's late afternoon, about four," Knox mutters, still sounding half asleep as he gently wraps his arm around me, trying to get comfortable.

He's not looking at me, instead, his eyes are still closed. After a few moments, his breathing evens out. He must really be tired, but he's been basically staying with me at all times. Or, at least any time that he's not in class or practice, he's here with me.

After so long of not having intimate contact with him, stair at him, the desire to kiss him, to feel his soft lips against mine too much to bear. Without thinking, I lift my hand to the back of his head, threading my fingers through his silky, dark stand, and pull him towards me until my lips are pressed against his. He stiffens, and with regret filling me at my blatant stupidity, I close my eyes, bracing myself for the rejection and disgust that I'm sure will be staring back at me when I open them.

But, much to my surprise, Knox doesn't pull away. No, instead, he moves his lips against mine, his tongue peeking out to graze my bottom. Gasping at the unexpected action, he takes the advantage and deepens the kiss. We quickly get lost in one another, the kiss turning heated.

Knox lifts up, his body hovering over mine as we attack each other's mouths, his hardened shaft presses against me right where I want him-need him, and drags a moan of pleasure out of my throat.

Suddenly, he jumps away from me, backing up toward my door, a look of utter revulsion staring back at me when I look at him. The look that I'd thought I'd been prepared for, but I hadn't been, not in the least. Because as soon as he reaches the door and finds the door handle, he quickly rushes out, a sob escaping me as the door shuts behind him.

"Shit!" I cry, realizing, as far as he knows, he was just kissing *Corbin*.