AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She was hanging out a lot with the jocks. From what I was hearing in a lot of places and in lots of different positions.
I sometimes wondered if she had slept with Lucas already. She always followed him around. I had a mental list of names of the girls he fucked as far as I knew from numerous stories I had heard over the last couple of years, but Amy’s name was never mentioned. It was only a matter of time, considering they would be the perfect couple.
“Yeah, don’t do this to the poor girls,” I produced a fake laugh. “She will crush their souls.”
Hannah read me like a book. She sat on the bed and took my hand in hers.
“I know in a way it sucks that Dylan’s here. Bringing all the memories back,” she paused. “But on the other hand, you have to admit. He apologized. He’s acting nice so far. He ignores Lucas and the twins, so he’s not trying to cause problems. And…He. Is. Hot.”, Hannah looked at me with caution, then she continued. “Too bad I don’t date guys in high school anymore.” I knew what was coming next before she said it. “But even if I was… he looks at you like he wants you to be his next meal.”
I rolled my eyes at her sexual innuendo. She always tried to fix me up with someone. And yet everyone I went out with lost interest before we even went on a second date, which was pretty embarrassing and didn’t actually help me get more dates.
“Let’s go back to the part about you not dating guys in high school,” I tried to change the subject. Hannah stood up and went to her jewelry box that was almost exclusively filled with my pieces. She started looking for something to wear with the hot pink short dress she chose for the party. We looked so different. I sometimes wanted to wear a dress. But I was always wearing jeans. Ripped jeans, daisy dukes. Whatever. Sylvia hated jeans, but she considered ripped ones a personal insult. She was a model before she married dad and she still dressed like she was going to a fashion show in five minutes.
“You should stop,” I continued. “You know I say it because I love you. My brotherwilleat you for his next meal if presented with the possibility, and not in a pleasurable way.”
Hannah had a crush on my brother since we were twelve. At least at the beginning I thought of it as a crush. Six years later it was more of an obsession. Unhealthy, risky, and dangerous obsession.
“I love my brother, but he is a dog,” I added, and I meant it. He was the definition of a playboy. Unreliable, unpredictable, and also reckless. He wasn’t a dating material at all. He would break her heart into million pieces and then joyfully scatter them around the world, so that she would never be able to puzzle it back together.
“Clem, I know your brother has a dark side. But I think I see in him something you will never be able to because you’re his sister,” Hannah explained calmly.
“And what is that?” I asked with more disbelief than I intended to show.
“His soul. It’s a broken one, yes, but still.”
I sat silently for a couple of seconds. I didn’t want to pressure her and make her feel bad. After all my brother was thousands of miles away, and he came here so rarely, it would be a miracle if they saw each other more than once a year after graduation. And it wasn’t like she was just sitting around, waiting for him to show up. She dated other guys. She would fall in love eventually.
“Can we go back to you fucking Dylan already?” she cut my thoughts. “’Cause we really have to go,” Hannah asked with a smile. “I can’t believe you’re not sensing the sex vibes he’s sending you”.
“Oh, I am, believe me. I just don’t trust him. Yet.”
He was acting way too charming way too soon. There had to be something not quite right.
“You don’t trust anyone, Clem,” Hannah frowned. “That’s your problem. You just assume everyone’s all bad, and that’s it.”
I shook my head and smiled.
“Not true. I trust you”.
“Anyone else?” Hannah asked with a pitiful look on her face.
I swallowed hard. We both knew the answer to that. She took my face in her palms.
“You should stop with the destructive behavior. Stop the lying. Stop with all the secrets. You should call your father, tell him what’s going on with Sylvia, and let him deal with it. And then… you should do something good for you. You should do Dylan. I’m not saying you should marry the guy. Just have some fun. He’s new. He’s hot. He’s into you. It’s perfect! That’s if you bring yourself to stop hating your parents and mentally separate from them,” Hannah tried to convince me.
“You should stop watching those self-help videos,” I murmured, purposefully not engaging in discussing any of the problems she had listed, especially the lying parts, since she was one of the people I was currently lying to.
“Just think about it, Clem. Now get the fuck up. You have to drive me to that stupid party”.
???
Few hours later my walls vibrated with the voice of Lil Wayne, bouncing off them. I was sketching. I tried reading, but I couldn’t concentrate with the freaking noise that came from the Cole’s house. Or at least I was convincing myself it was the noise and not the irrational anger that coursed through my body.
I was irritated, anxious, and had the urge to do something nasty to someone. Well, not someone. Lucas Cole would be my first target.
I even knew what to do to him. Yesterday, while I was running from my car to my front door, Elizabeth Cole showed up out of nowhere. It was almost like she was hiding behind a tree or something. She asked me to call her if her son’s birthday party got out of hand. It was so bizarre. Her asking me to do that, giving the fact we hadn’t really spoken for about the same amount of time I hadn’t spoken to her son. We were occasionally waving at each other. She tried to start a conversation with me every now and again, but I cut her off pretty fast.
I dismissed her request with a raised eyebrow and a snort. She pretended she didn’t understand my reaction and smiled at me like I was an angel.
