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To my surprise, as I step inside, I find Carter sitting with none other than my little brother, Brax. They’re laughing together and talking. My presence doesn’t even get their attention until I shut the door louder than necessary. That causes both of them to look in my direction.
“I take it that didn’t go well?” Carter asks.
I huff. “That’s one way to put it.”
“Was she at least hot? Please tell me she was hot,” Brax begs. “I’ve got a doctor fantasy I’ve been looking to fulfill.”
Carter lightly smacks him on the back of the head. Brax whines as he rubs it but doesn’t dare to fight back. Carter has known Brax since he was a toddler. He has just as much of a right to knock some sense into him as I do.
I walk around the couch and plop down with as little grace as possible. “She was, but she likes pussy just as much as you do.”
My brother’s eyes widen. “A lesbian? Do you think she’d be interested in a threesome? I mean, I could knock two things off my fuck-it list in one go!”
“You know, something tells me even if she was, it wouldn’t be with some pre-pubescent, seventeen-year-old boy with a “fuck-it list,” Brax,” Carter snaps back.
Brax jumps up from the couch. “Pre-pubescent, my ass.” Reaching into his pants, he literally rips out more pubes than I ever needed to know he has and throws them at Carter. “Suck my dick, Trayland.”
I can’t help but laugh as Carter scrambles off the other side of the couch to escape the gross onslaught of Brax’s pubic hair. Honestly, I’m not even sure how he managed to pull them out without flinching.
“What the hell are you even doing here, dude?” I ask him.
He looks over at me and shrugs. “It’s a Friday night. I want to go to a college party.”
“Absolutely not.”
“What?”
I shake my head. “No way in hell am I bringing you to a party. You’re seventeen.”
Brax snorts like I just said the world’s stupidest joke. “Like you didn’t throw a million parties when you were seventeen. Don’t be such a damn hypocrite.”
He has a point. In high school, I was constantly throwing parties. Being as our parents were rarely ever home, too busy traveling the world to be raising their kids, our place made the perfect party house. And if I wasn’t throwing one, I was going to one. But that’s not why I don’t want him to come.
It’s bad enough that I constantly have Carter watching me like a hawk. I really don’t need Brax doing it, too. Rinaldo will be at the party tonight, and I have to be able to sneak away for a second to refill.
“I don’t give a fuck what I used to do,” I growl. “You won’t be going to any parties at NHU. Not if I have anything to say about it.”
Brax takes out his phone and groans as he types. “Damn. I thought with Paige back in town you’d be in a better mood.”
The sheer mention of her name has my entire body tensing. “She’s what?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Carter motioning for Brax to shut the fuck up, but he doesn’t.
“Her cousin is in my biology class, and she said Paige is living back with her parents,” he says, as if it’s not throwing yet another stick of dynamite into my mess of a life. “I thought you knew.”
My upper lip curls in disgust. Paige McAllister is the last person I expected to come back to North Haven after just a year of university, and the last person I want anywhere near me. If she knows what’s good for her, she’ll stay far as fuck away from me.
I lean my head back against the couch and try to remember how to stay calm. “I’ll make you a deal, Brax. You can come tonight, but you have to promise never to mention that bitch’s name to me ever again.”
Have you ever been doing something, but it's as if you're not actually there? It's like the whole world is moving around you, and you're moving too, but your mind is somewhere else. That's how I feel as I walk through campus with Charlotte. I can hear her talking, but nothing that comes out of her mouth is actually registering. Instead, I'm too focused on my lunch with Carter.
It went well, I guess. The restaurant was nice, and a part of me was really glad to see him again. However, that doesn't mean my stomach didn't churn at having to talk about Jace. He's a topic that I've done my best to avoid for the better part of two years—since I came to terms with the harsh reality that I'll never mean as much to him as he did to me.
Carter wouldn't say exactly what's wrong with Jace. Apparently, it's not his business to tell, and I can respect the way he refuses to betray his best friend's trust. But I can tell by the look in his eyes when he talks about him that there is something seriously wrong. Carter is genuinely scared, and that alone is worrisome to me. Though I still don't know what I can do about it.
Jace and I haven't talked in over a year and a half. Granted, it's entirely my fault. I am the one who cut him out, but I had to. His claws were in too deep. At the time, it was the best decision for me. Now, however, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely rethinking that.
It's not that I'm not worried about him, especially with the way Carter was talking. I'd be stupid not to be. After all, we were friends for almost a decade before we went our separate ways. But that doesn't make knowing I might have to talk to him any easier.
