Page 11 of Alphas Like Us

In less than two minutes, I’m done with both, and I start suturing the deep cut. I break the quiet first. “When was your last tetanusshot?”

“I was eight.” Too longago.

I look up. “You sure?” I really don’t want to open his medical records, and I need him to besure.

“Prettypositive.”

I trust him enough. “I’ll give you a tetanus shot before I leave.” I pierce his skin with the needle and weave thestitch.

Maximoff clears a ball in his throat. After I finish the sutures, I redress the wound with clean gauze and bandage. He slides forward on thechair.

“I can do that,” he says and reaches for thegauze.

I put a hand to his chest, my gloves new. “Justrelax.”

He lets out a short laugh. “Right.” He cracks a crick in his neck and stares faraway again.Where’d you go,Moffy?

I watch him for a second, then wrap the bandage. “No swimming until the stitches areout—”

“What?” His voice spikes, eyes snapped towardsme.

That woke him up. “You can’t swim in a chlorine pool with this kind ofcut.”

Maximoff breathes out a weighted breath, and he keeps shaking his head. His eyes strangely carry a mountain of emotion and then no emotion at all. Like he’s fighting to show me something and then nothing. “I’m on the Harvard swimteam.”

I expect him to sayI need to swim, but he stopsthere.

He opens his mouth, then shuts it,conflicted.

I raise my brows. “Sad?” Iask.

“No.” He shakes his head repeatedly. “You know…” He licks his lips. “Last night, one of my new teammates shoved me in a pile of trash. There was metal and…”He was cut.He looks away, then his tough eyes meet mine head-on. “They don’t want mehere.”

“Do you want to be here?” Iask.

He doesn’t answer. His face isblank.

I crave to hold his gaze longer, but I force myself to look down. And I tape his bandage. “You should’ve gone to Yale. Everything is better there: the people, the dorms, thealumni.”

He feigns confusion. “Really? I heard they churn out white-haired know-it-alls with pretentious lineages and assholetendencies.”

“Asshole tendencies,” I repeat with a laugh. “I think you mean heroictendencies.”

“I tell you I got pushed into fucking metal, and you take that moment to tell me Yale is better thanHarvard.”

Yeah, I’m an asshole. My smile stretches as I stand up, snapping off my gloves. “It’s stillaccurate.”

His gaze lingers on me for a long beat. “Maybe,” Maximoffadmits.

It’s hard not to stare athim.

I clean up, and I don’t let him help, even when he asks. He’s still a littleweak.

“Why are you here anyway?” he asks after I give him a tetanus shot in the deltoid. “I know your father is with my Uncle Ryke, but I thought Trip would be here instead.” I’m known to tag along to calls, not pick them up on my own like I’m in-line to be a conciergedoctor.

I pack up the suture kit, and I toss him a bandage for the small spot of blood. He’s been dying to do something himself, and he can at least stick a Band-Aid on his shoulder. “My uncle is with my father,” I tell him. “They needed extra hands. This is a one-timething.”

Maximoff thinkshard.