Page 7 of Cueball & Double-Z (Alpha’s Rejects #5)

I sat on top of the picnic bench under the pavilion and watched Zilch skate with that other young man—the little thief.

I hadn’t caught his name. Zilch, though doubtful that was his real name, had been so excited that I could speak to him.

The way his face lit up and those huge blue eyes grew wide.

I knew people like him struggled to communicate with others.

Despite learning to sign years ago in my previous life—both ASL and S.E.E.

—I’d kept up with it because the shelter would periodically have people who were Deaf, hard of hearing, or mute.

It allowed me to communicate with them, if they even knew how to sign.

They didn’t always. Some could read lips.

Zilch and the thief were pretty good at skating, doing tricks, flipping their bodies in the air, spinning, and landing smoothly.

It was more than I could do. I just liked to float around on the board, never making an effort to do more than that.

I didn’t care enough to. I also felt too old and big to learn skating tricks.

Maybe if I’d been younger, but my past life had been busy with school and learning a new career.

Aiden, who sat next to me, didn’t skate at all.

Our friend and former roommate, Stone, had been the skater, and he was as good at it as those two young men.

Stone was the reason why Aiden and I even bothered to go to the skate parks, or why I picked up a board for myself.

But I understood the lure. I found it relaxing to glide over the smooth concrete surface; the wheels made a low humming, white noise. It was comforting, like my knitting.

The thief in the distance smiled at Zilch when he did a complicated twist. It completely lit up his face, making him appear less angry and hard.

I continued to watch him interact with the blond one with care and affection, all signs that he was a good person underneath all that bravado.

What were the odds of running into the thief here, of all places, and then stumbling on his friend, or whoever Zilch was to him?

Brothers, it appeared, though they looked nothing alike.

Half-brothers? Stepbrothers? Possibly the latter.

It seemed coincidental and intriguing, crashing into both of them, yet in different ways.

I rarely ignored coincidences like that.

I may have been a man of science, but I’d seen enough in my life to believe that sometimes there were forces beyond our reasoning and control.

Science had only tapped into a fraction of what was truly out there.

Maybe some things were beyond human comprehension.

Aiden smoked and scrolled through his phone with rings on every tattooed finger as Ajax was off skating.

He only smoked when Ajax, who had quit, wasn’t around.

I also showed the same courtesy. Aiden’s straight black hair fell into his face as he went through his social media, a place I avoided at all costs.

Social media was a cesspool of misinformation and disinformation. I wanted no part of it.

I spent most of my free time around Aiden and Ajax, mostly to keep an eye on Ajax, who’d suffered from bipolar disorder.

No one knew until a year and a half ago, when he was hit with a bout of destructive mania and then crashed into depression with suicidal ideations a few days later.

That day had been triggering as fuck for me.

It had been the first time my well-hidden cracks appeared in front of my friends.

It hadn’t been intentional, but I was sure they noticed.

It took me days and days to seal them back up, with a lot of exercise, knitting, and meditation.

I’d come to respect Aiden, who’d grown a lot since then.

He took amazing care of Ajax during his fall, but I still didn’t trust him to pick up on all the cues should Ajax crash again.

Blaze wasn’t stupid, but he wasn’t the most observant, either.

Ajax was under the care of a cognitive therapist and on medication, but even then, it wasn’t perfect.

He would need lifelong monitoring. So far, he’d been doing okay. Good, even.

If anyone needed therapy, it was Aiden. He’d been kicked out and abandoned by his mother.

Before that, his stepfather had groomed him from a young age, having sex with him and gaslighting him into believing only he could give Aiden the attention and discipline he desperately craved.

Then it turned out his mother wasn’t his mother at all.

His father had cheated on her with another woman, who’d died in childbirth, and he brought Aiden home with him, only to abandon him, too.

Yeah, Aiden was a fucking mess, needing dominating sex to feel fulfilled.

But Ajax gave him the attention he needed, so he refused to get help.

Maybe one day. Regardless, he seemed happy.

“I’m bored,” Aiden drawled.

“Maybe it’s time you learned to skate.”

He scoffed as he continued to scroll through his phone. “Fuck no. That’s Ajax’s thing. Making a fool of myself by falling on my ass has no appeal whatsoever.”

I said nothing, lighting up another smoke. There was never any point in arguing with Aiden. Once he made up his mind, there was no changing it. Everything had to be on his terms, which made sense from the perspective that his life had been out of control, so he found his control where he could.

When we saw Ajax headed our way, Aiden and I quickly put out our cigarettes.

He pointed at Aiden, who stood and held out his arms for a hug. “I’m not kissing you, smoke breath,” Ajax said affectionately.

His hair was as floppy as Aiden’s was, but his brown hair wasn’t nearly as dark. Ajax also stood almost as tall as me, and while he had broad shoulders, he wasn’t nearly as stocky .

Ajax dropped his board and looked over Aiden’s shoulder, beaming at the group of people headed our way in the distance. His family and the reason he’d quit smoking.

The Rejects.

Alpha’s Rejects.

Kingston, also known as Alpha, owned a bar and hired the men and one woman to give them a family, a home, and jobs when they had no one else.

By extension, they’d become my family, too, though I still considered myself the outsider.

They welcomed me, but I preferred to be the one looking in, keeping everyone I came across at arm’s length.

Being on the inside, people would see more than I wanted them to.

It was one of the reasons I liked Aiden and Stone so much.

They never pestered me about my life and past.

Despite keeping my distance, I had the utmost respect for Alpha and his efforts.

Shortly after Ajax recovered from his depressive episode, Alpha was in a tragic car accident.

A drunk driver hit him, and he spun out of control.

When his car came to rest, he was hit again.

He’d lost his leg and nearly died in the process.

It was only recently that he’d received his prosthetic and was learning to skate again.

It was also the reason Ajax and the rest of the Rejects quit smoking.

It was in solidarity with Alpha, who had to quit as part of his recovery.

It reflected what a true family they really were, whether they were blood-related or not.

Family was about being there for you, thick or thin. Loving you unconditionally.

My family intruded into my thoughts, but I shoved them right back out. I hadn’t been rejected by my family. I’d rejected them, though they’d done nothing wrong. My life was more stable and calm when I was alone, albeit lonely.

When the Rejects reached us, I stood and shook Alpha’s hand. “It’s good to see you, man,” I said. “How’s that new leg?”

He smiled, his blue eyes twinkling, so I knew he was feeling pretty good. He’d struggled for a long time—mentally, emotionally, and physically—but he finally came to terms with his new life. “Good. Weird, but good. Skating is still taking some work, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.”

Alpha used to keep his blond hair longer in the front, but since his accident, he’d kept it short, nearly buzzed .

His fiancé, Harley, also shook my hand. He was an incredibly kind and empathetic man who took care of Alpha during his amputation and never left his side, even after dating for only a few months.

He kept his dark brown waves to his shoulders and sported a short beard.

Harley was also the father of an older teen, who wasn’t there.

Stone walked up to me, standing nearly as tall. To my surprise, he pulled me into a hug. He’d been dating Stix for two years now. Stix had been our neighbor and worked at the bar with him. Stone had really softened since those days, especially after group therapy. He never used to be affectionate.

“Haven’t seen you in a while,” he said when he let me go.

I shoved my hands into my pockets and shrugged. “I’ve been keeping myself busy.”

He scrutinized me with his intense hazel eyes. It was nice to see his hair growing out. He’d kept it short because of the extensive abuse by his parents. It seemed like such a small thing, but it showed his mental growth and health. “You’ve been keeping away, is what you’ve been doing.”

It was true. I only came out to hang around everyone these days when the loneliness was too much, unless it was to check on Ajax.

Besides, everyone had someone in their lives now.

Stone had Stix. Aiden had Ajax. Alpha had Harley.

Pippin and Nacho were originally foster brothers and were together.

Even the younger twins, Blondie and Jazz, had someone.

Blondie was dating Storm, Aiden’s old high school friend, and Jazz had a girlfriend who was more introverted and stayed inside to read most of the time.

I was the only single one out of the group.