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My blood froze. Pike and I had promised to keep it a secret, to not tell anyone about what had happened between us. We’d known that Morgan would be upset, for one thing, and we weren’t even sure what we were, or how we were going to move forward, for another. We’d agreed to talk more about it after Christmas but… that had never happened, obviously. Two months of radio silence and I was pretty sure Pike had forgotten about me.
How could Morgan have possibly found out except through Pike? Had Pike broken his promise? If Pike didn’t want to be around me, if he considered me a mistake, fine, whatever, I’d find a way to get over it. But breaking his word and telling Morgan? That—that hurt.
But if he had told Morgan, how, and when? I was burning with curiosity.
“I can’t believe you would throw yourself at my best friend like that!” Morgan went on, and I—I saw red.
Morgan and I both had tempers. I’d be the first to admit that. He was also protective of me and I usually appreciated that. There were a lot of asshole men in our town. But I was not going to have him talk about me like that.
“What do you mean?” I snapped. “You don’t get to talk about me like that, how dare you!”
“You threw yourself like some shameless hussy at my best friend. My best friend! And he went along with it.” I had never seen Morgan this furious before. “You both crossed a line.”
“I’m eighteen years old,” I said, making my voice as cold and authoritative as I could. “I’m an adult. And it’s only four years, you stuck-up overbearing jackass.”
“You’ve never even gone on a date!”
“Would you be this angry if it was someone else? Don’t think I don’t know about all the times you’ve hooked up with someone. It’s okay for you to do it because you’re a guy but not me because I’m a girl?”
“You’re my little sister. He should’ve known better. And so should you.”
“Just because he’s your best friend doesn’t mean that I don’t get to have a relationship with him too if I want one,” I pointed out. Damn, I was glad Dad wasn’t home from work yet and Mom was apparently out with, I didn’t know, errands or something. There was no way Morgan or I could keep our voices down right now.
“You both screwed up,” Morgan snapped. “I’m done with you both. You’re going to stay far away from Pike in the future, you hear me?”
“Not like I’ve got much of a choice, seeing as he fled without telling anyone what he was up to. Except you, apparently.” I folded my arms. “I’m not doing anything you tell me to, Morgan. You don’t own me, you’re not the boss of me, and I can make my own decisions. It’s my life, my choices. It’s really none of your fucking business.”
Morgan shoved that envelope he’d been toying with into his pocket. “You’re lucky I’m not going to tell Mom and Dad.”
“What, that their fully adult daughter did something sexual with another consenting adult?” I snapped. “Or that a person under twenty-one went to a kegger like literally every other high school student in this town? Yeah, they’re gonna be real pissed, I’m sure. Super shocked. They’ll definitely ground me.”
Morgan looked like a vein might actually burst out of his neck or forehead. He was red as a beet. I glared him down, refusing to back away on this. Pike might’ve skipped town without a word and he might’ve sold me out, but it didn’t change the fact that this wasn’t my brother’s business. He didn’t get a right to be so controlling like this.
Did he have a right to be upset? Sure. Of course. Finding out your sibling and your best friend had done something so intimate without telling you about it would hurt. But he couldn’t control my actions and he was being a dick about it, so y’know what? I didn’t care all that fucking much about his feelings anymore.
“I’ll be keeping an eye on you,” he warned.
“Not your fucking job,” I spat. “So did Pike mention why he fucking split? Or did the conversation end pretty quickly after you undoubtedly reamed his ass for getting with me?”
Morgan just glared at me and then walked away, heading upstairs to his room. He was getting his degree in mechanical engineering so he spent his days at the college but he still stayed here, even if he was only home for dinner most nights.
I flipped him off behind his back. I didn’t care if our parents thought we were weird—I could tell that something had broken between us. Things were no longer the same. This was an issue in which we were both hurt, and had completely different point of view on it, and I didn’t see either of us budging on it.
