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“He looked pretty beat up, but no one knows who he fought with.”
Ethan pulled his arm away from me as he closed his eyes and swallowed half of the drink. “Where’s Edie?” He refilled his cup. “Or Jo? Or Lena?”
“Edie is in the sitting room.” I narrowed his eyes. “Why?”
He rolled his eyes. “This is a party.”
“Yeah.”
“Go fuckin’ party!” He snapped and stormed out of the kitchen to find the girls.
Prick.
“Just because you did something you’re not proud of doesn’t mean you can take it out on me.” I muttered under my breath and made my way back outside in time to do some shots with my friend Jake.
I’m not sure what time I crawled inside the house to crash, but my phone ringing made my head pound harder when it woke me up.
“’lo.”
“Charles Henry.” My mom’s icy voice filled my ear.
“What?” I scrubbed my free hand over my face.
“Get. Your. Ass. Home. Now.”
The call ended, and I rolled over, falling off the bench I crashed out on. Groaning, I picked myself up and went to find my keys in the kitchen. Gene suggested stashing them in the dishwasher since no one would think to look there.
When I opened the door, the bowl filled with keys sat undisturbed on the bottom rack. I took it out, dumped the contents onto the island, found my keys, and left.
My head throbbed so hard I was sure my eyes were going to pop out of my head and my sunglasses weren’t doing enough to help block the bright sun.
Pulling into my driveway, I saw Victoria’s parents’ car parked beside my dad’s car and nausea rolled through me.
I parked my car and stumbled out and into the house. The air felt thick as I made my way to the kitchen where my parents sat with the Bryant’s and Victoria.
Ignoring them for a moment, I went to the cabinet where we kept the ibuprofen, took out two and opened the fridge for a bottle of water.
“Hm.” Mr. Bryant crossed his arms over his chest. “Seems he takes after his father.”
Looking around the table, Victoria’s family sat along one side with her in the middle. My mother sat at the head of the table and my dad had an open seat next to him.
“Mel.” Antonia leaned around Victoria. “You know the kids had the end of school party.”
“Henry.” My mom glared at me. “Take a seat.”
I slid into the empty seat beside my dad and waited to hear the reason they were here, ready to defend the break-up from last night.
Mom cleared her throat. “We have an issue that needs to be addressed.”
“Why? Because I broke up with her?”
My mom reached out and pulled my sunglasses off. “You did what?”
“We broke up last night.” I shrugged.
Victoria sniffled. “See, Daddy.”
“Breaking up is not an option.” Mr. Bryant sat forward. “The only acceptable course of action is marriage.”
