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Dylan
I lock eyes on Aro, willing her not to say it.
“You’re half an hour late,” she tells me.
Yeah, duh.
I cross the parking lot, speed-walking up to her as she waits near one of our school’s rear entrances. The lights from the football stadium brighten the night sky off to my right, and an announcer’s voice booms so loudly I can’t make out what he’s saying. But the crowd cheers anyway. I swipe my hand under my chin, wiping off the mud, and tuck my keys in the pocket of my filthy motorcycle jacket.
My cousin’s girlfriend lowers her voice as I approach the door. “Your dad thinks I went to get you,” she says.
I pull out a metal nail file, Aro moving to the side as I grab the door handle and start working the lock. I need to clean up before my parents come out of the stadium. I have a change of clothes in my gym locker. If my dad sees the dirt all over me…
I glance at her. “You didn’t tell him where I was, did you?”
She hoods her brown eyes and locks her jaw, and I realize I’ve insulted her. She wouldn’t rat me out. It’s code.
“Good.” I nod and continue working. “Just don’t sayanythingif he asks.”
“He’s going to know,” she fires back. “If I don’t respond, it’s because I don’t want to lie, and he knows that.”
I jiggle the nail file and then twist. “Well, youcanlie...”
It’s always an option, of course. He can’t ground her.
I guess he can try to force my uncle Jax—his brother—to ground her, since she and her two siblings live with him and his wife next door to us. But Jax won’t do that. Aro stopped being a child long before she should have, and Jax understands that better than most.
I grip the tool, twisting and jiggling some more, but then I feel the heat of her stare.
I look over, meeting very different eyes this time. Darker.
I shake my head, completely fed up with myself. She loves her life here. My dad is her boss. She lives in his brother’s house. She dates my cousin, Hawke. She goes to school with me. Her brother and sister are thriving in our community...
I’m asking her to disrespect all of that.
“That wasn’t okay.” I pause. “I’m sorry.”
Her left eyebrow arches, and she holds out for a moment more before finally giving in. “It’s fine.” She sighs. “Last year I was kicking your ass. This year, I’m the only one you tell all of your secrets.”
Kicking my ass…what?
She smiles smugly. “You’re so lucky to have me, aren’t you?”
I am. I adore her.
But she didnot kick my ass…
I jam and jiggle the tool in my hand, trying to muscle it.
If we hadn’t been pulled off each other during that fight…
The thin edge of the nail file cuts into my hand as I try to pry the lock.
Nearly all of my cousins are guys. I know how to wrestle, thank you.
But then…the file snaps in two, half of it still lodged in the lock.
I dart my eyes over to Aro, a groan expelling from my lungs as my shoulders slump.
