Then a kid might’ve gotten shot.

Gavin bolted up, staggered into the bathroom, and threw up. Now he was the one shaking and sweating, and also—oh, goodie—in full flashback mode, when he felt CJ drop heavily to his knees beside him and pull him in close.

Gavin didn’t even have the strength to fight him.

“You would’ve done the same thing,” CJ said quietly. “The bullet went right through me. I’m going to be fine.” He ran a hand down Gavin’s back. “Tell me what this is really about.”

Gavin dropped his head to CJ’s good shoulder and squeezed his eyes shut. “Did I ever tell you why me and my sisters got sent home to Wildstone?”

CJ shifted so they were both leaning back against the wall, their legs out in front of them, their arms holding each other upright. “You know you haven’t,” he said quietly. “You’ve always said you don’t really remember, that you were too young.”

Back in the old days, Gavin had suffered horrible flashbacks. As his best friend, CJ had seen what Gavin was going through, but hadn’t understood why. He’d tried to get Gavin to open up, but he simply couldn’t. His grandma hadn’t believed in therapy, but when she’d passed, Piper had made him go.

It’d helped. A lot. But by that time, he’d already detonated his and CJ’s relationship.

And here they were, all these years later, and he still hated to talk about it. “You know my parents were killed overseas.”

CJ’s arms tightened around him. “Yes. And you and your siblings came here to Wildstone.”

Missing a lot of details, but that had allowed Gavin not to talk about what had preceded his parents’ deaths. “We lived in a village. The yard wasn’t fenced, it was basically just a clearing. Our boundaries were determined by the jungle. We weren’t allowed past the foliage. But, shit, you know I was an asshole.”

“Still are,” CJ said mildly, making Gavin laugh a little, which he supposed was what CJ had been going for.

“My best friend, Arik, and I didn’t like being confined,” he said. “So we made a plan. Or rather, I made the plan, knowing Arik would do whatever I wanted. We were going to wait until dark and sneak into the jungle and see what the big deal was.” He closed his eyes. “We ran into rebel forces. They shot at us for fun.” He realized he wasn’t breathing, so he sucked in some air. “Arik got hit.” His voice caught. “He died and it was my fault.”

CJ was quiet for a moment. Just sat there and slowly rubbed the tension from the back of Gavin’s neck before finally speaking. “So today played right into your demons.”