Poor kid.

I did some quick mental math on what the best course of action was. I didn’t want him to get on the road again if he was still freaked out. “I’m only like ten minutes out of town, why don’t you call Yin and tell him I’ll pick him up. You can walk over to my place. We’ll order some Thai food and watch a movie. Is that okay or do you need to be home for anything?”

“No, I can tell my uncle I’m sleeping at a friend’s house.” He didn’t sound like he was thrilled about that conversation. But he seemed to be happy with the dinner and movie at my place idea, so I went with it.

“Thanks, Patrice. I am so embarrassed to call you like this, but I didn’t want to bother Nesto and Jude on Nesto’s night off. They had plans to go to that new place on Seneca Lake and I know they would’ve cancelled if I told them what happened. They’ve already done too much for me.”

I shook my head as though he could see me still struggling to keep the sharp anger that was bubbling up from coming through in my voice. “I’m glad you called. I’ll see you soon.”

As I powered up the SUV again and got on the road to go pick up Yin, I tried hard to calm myself. I didn’t need to put my own shit on Ari, but someone was going to have to put the sheriff’s department on blast about this nonsense. Because the longer this went on unchecked... It was only a matter of time before a tragedy happened.

Of course my mind went straight to Easton, and his job in particular. When we’d talked about it before, we’d both tiptoed around the topic and eventually fully dropped it when it was obvious it would ruin our conversation. I compromised because I wanted to spend time with him. Because I let my own wants become more important than my values. I knew this was all bigger than the both of us, but unlike Easton, for me it wasn’t about a cause or a job. This was about my community, my purpose. I could not get involved with someone who would muddy the waters of what was important to me.

I needed to focus on my work, on my activism. Easton was not the person for me. There were things I needed to do that would get too messy if I pursued a relationship with him.

So what if I wanted Easton. So what if he made me feel good. I was still me and he was still him. Our worlds were still at odds, and that was not something I could ignore, no matter how much I wanted to.