AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I was scaring myself because in that moment I did almost hit him. I had my fist raised, ready and willing to destroy anything that was coming between myself and that girl right now. The girl I’d pushed away. The girl I made think I wanted nothing to do with.
That I didn’t love.
I didn’t love her. I couldn’t, and I ended up throwing myself off my brother.
“Ares. What’s going on? Ares?”
I tried to walk away, but Bru got my arm. He flung me around, and I had my fist raised again. It’d been instinctually, but I lowered it when his eyes flashed.
The way he looked at me…
A deep, unsettled expression fell across my brother’s face, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with my raised fist. He hadn’t looked at my fist at all, his focus more so on me. He had a concern etched across his face I didn’t like, and my heart stopped when he glanced back. He gazed into an empty room, but I heard that shower now. The door was in the same place Sloane had escaped into to get away from me in her own room.
The muted pitter-patter of running water hit the hallway, but unlike before, I wasn’t running to get to her. I was stuck, nailed to the fucking floorboards because my brother’s attention returned to me.
And his look didn’t sit well.
His eyes had twitched wide, his head shaking.
“Ares,” he said again, less panicked and something else. He stepped forward. “Ares, did something happen?”
Did something happen…
“Between you and…” He didn’t finish, staring back into that room once more, and the longer he did, my stomach twisted up. Like someone had socked me in the fucking gut with a baseball bat, then left me there, weak.
Broken.
I did feel weak in that moment, and my swallow was hard when the kid closed more space.
“You’re acting jealous,” he concluded, my gut clenching more, my chest. He pointed back toward the room. “Why are you acting jealous?”
Why am I acting jealous…
His head cocked. “Like it bothers you that Fawn’s in my shower right now.”
I noticed he said his this time. Not theirs.
My heartbeat thrashed, but my choice of words had to be careful here. Dorian had already had his suspicions about Red and me.
I think my silence made things worse in the end, and the kid’s confusion only twisted into more concern. His breathing had stopped. Like he wasn’t breathing, anticipating.
“Ares?” he repeated, but his continued proximity halted. Another made an appearance, and I couldn’t be happier to see one of my best friends.
“Everything okay?” Dorian asked, bag-free. It was weird to see everyone in not just hoodies and sweatshirts. The guy was in jeans and a T-shirt like Bru. Dorian cuffed his arms. “What’s going on? Everything good?”
No. Not by a long shot, but I wasn’t getting into that shit. “We’re good. Just talking.”
Right away, the kid’s attention zoomed to me, but I wasn’t making eye contact.
I couldn’t risk it.
I prayed on everything I had that he’d let what he had been trying to get at go. At least, at the present.
Please.
I dared to look at him again, and his eyes narrowed.
“Just talking,” he said, playing along, but I knew it was just because Dorian was there. The difference between Bru and the other guys was he didn’t call shit out. He didn’t put people on the spot and never would.
