Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101796 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101796 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
He’s too surprised to stop me from slipping past him. Somehow, I manage to walk a straight line even though my entire body is shaking. What is wrong with me? Have I really lost it? Why not stick my hand in a tank full of piranhas while I’m at it?
As I walk out of the cafeteria on shaking legs, I can’t decide whether I’ve helped myself by standing up to him… or made things so much worse.
NINETEEN
Carter
Kellan jerks his chin at me when he answers my knock at his front door. “Hey.” Coming from him, that’s a mouthful. His broad frame almost fills the doorway, but I hear laughter coming from behind him.
“Hey.” Holding up the six-pack of beer I brought along with me, I crane my neck to look over his shoulder. I’m not the first one here—there’s a handful of people hanging out, spread out around his living room. Somebody thought it would be fun to turn on porn, and I hear guys giving play-by-play and predicting what will happen next while the girls groan and gag.
He steps aside to let me in, now letting me see pizza boxes stacked on the coffee table. This is what I need right now. An excuse to kick back, something simple like pizza and beer. Nothing I have to put any effort into when I’m feeling on edge, like a tiny push would make me lose my grip.
All because of her. She’s not even worth it. Not even the kind of person worth going out of my way for or being nice to. So why is she still sitting in the front of my mind hours after she smarted off at me in the cafeteria?
Fuck it, I should not be thinking about this now. I’m supposed to be here to get her off my mind. That’s the whole point. Forgetting my pain-in-the-ass stepsister for a little while, bullshitting with people who actually deserve my time.
“There he is.” Briggs spots me and waves me over. “I’m glad you decided to show. Tucker is out with Maya, and the last time I saw Preston and Easton, they were trying to convince Hunter McCall to let them do an Eiffel Tower with her. Like it’s their biggest dream or something.”
“It probably is,” I decide with a laugh, cracking open a can of beer and gulping it like it’s the first thing I’ve had to drink in forever. It goes down cold and smooth, but it doesn’t do much to cool the resentment burning in my chest. Like a hot coal got lodged under my ribs. It’s burning me up inside, making it impossible to think about anything but how much I want to make her regret thinking she can stand up to me.
“So what’s up with you lately?”
So much for forgetting my problems for a little while. The beer tastes sour now, and something tells me I’m not going to enjoy this night the way I thought I would. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t give me that shit.” He hits me with the sort of look only an old friend can wear. “I know you too well. You’re walking around like somebody took a shit in your shoes—not just once, but all the time.”
“You found me out.” Leaning back in my armchair, I offer him a shrug. “Somebody has been breaking into the house and shitting in my shoes every day.”
He smirks, but there’s nothing humorous in his hard gaze. “Seriously. This can’t all be about your dad getting married, right?”
I love how he gets to decide what is and isn’t worth me caring about. My hand tightens around the can—I have to loosen my grip when the aluminum starts to crumple. “Everything’s fine. I really don’t want to talk about it tonight. I was kind of hoping to get away from it.”
“So things are bad?” His brows draw together, and I kind of hate him for looking worried.
“It’s not like that. I just… wanted to clear my head.”
“Okay. If you say so.”
Fuck, there is nothing more annoying than somebody who says that. I can only bite my tongue, because otherwise, I might say something that would lead to a fight I don’t want to have. Only because I don’t have the mental energy for it. Briggs is one of my best friends and has been for years. I won’t let Elliana fuck that up.
A bunch of high-pitched giggling catches my attention, and I turn my head in time to see Tiana stroll in from the backyard with her girls. “Oh, fuck,” I mutter, rolling my eyes at Briggs. “You could pay her to take a hint, and she still wouldn’t.”
“I think she gets off on it,” he mutters darkly. Tiana made Wren’s life hell for a while. It’s like her vocation or something. “Some people would rather get a root canal with no novocaine than show up someplace where half the people there have told them to go fuck off at least once. She wants everybody to know she doesn’t care, which means she does care, of course.”