AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’m about to quip with an awesome comeback when Blaise says, “Alex, don’t start.”
I peer to my other side and find him standing near a doorway, close enough that I can see his eyes are bloodshot, either because he’s stoned or he slept as crappy as I did—my bet is the latter.
Bloodshot eyes aside, he looks as pretty as he always does—which is stupidly pretty—dressed in black jeans, a matching T-shirt, clunky boots, and his blond hair is hanging in his eyes.
“Hey,” he says with a tense smile. When his gaze sweeps across my face, the smile goespoof.
“What? Did I sprout, like, a horn from my head or something?” I reach for my face.
He snatches hold of my hand. “Don’t touch your left cheek.”
I wiggle my hand from his, eliciting a frown from him. He shouldn’t take it personally. I’m just not the kind of girl who likes guys holding her hand, even if it’s only to keep me from touching my face.
“Why can’t I touch my face?” I ask in confusion.
“Shit, that looks painful,” Rhyland moves up beside me, gawking at my cheek.
I instinctively reach for the face again, but quickly stop myself. “It actually doesn’t hurt that bad.” I glance between the two of them, noting their skepticism. “Why? How bad does it look?”
“Um… Not that bad.” Blaise smiles stiffly.
“Yeah…” Rhyland stuffs his hands into his pockets and rocks back onto his heels, his brows rising toward his hairline.
What a bunch of liars.
“Stop sugarcoating shit and just tell me the truth, dudes.”
When they both shift uncomfortably, Alex gladly chimes in.
“You look like your ass got kicked.” He reclines against the wall, that smirk more evident than ever.
“Alex,” Blaise warns.
Alex shrugs. “What? She wanted to know the truth.”
Blaise’s eyes narrow, his lips parting, more than likely about to give Alex a big old lecture.
Even though Alex annoys the crap out of me, the last thing I want is to cause friction between them after they let me crash at their place.
“Blaise, it’s fine,” I intervene. “I did ask, so…” I shrug then sigh. “Where’s the bathroom again? I need to go check out the damage.”
Blaise points to a doorway just down the hall. “It’s in there.” His frown deepens as his eyes stray to my cheek again. “We should’ve put some ice on it last night. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it.”
“It’s cool.” I start to move around him. “It’s not your job to take care of me.” It’s no ones except my own. Has been that way since the day my mom died.
The brothers grow quiet as I walk away and slip into the bathroom. The instant the door shuts, they start whispering about something. My guess is it’s about me, but they’re talking too quietly to know for sure.
Blowing out an exhausted exhale, I cross the bathroom and stand in front of the sink where a mirror is hanging on the patched-up beige wall. Then I instantly cringe.
My long, wavy brown hair is a ratted mess, my eyes are bloodshot and puffy, and my cheek is splattered with the nastiest looking bluish-purple bruise. There’s also a smaller one just along my hairline.
“Man, Alex nailed it when he said I looked like I got my ass kicked,” I mutter as I lean over the sink to get a better look. “I don’t even think makeup will cover this up.”
Not that I’d know how to cover it up with makeup. I’ve never been much of a makeup girl. That has always been more of Payton’s thing.
My chest tightens at the thought of my sister. I need to find out exactly where they are and if they’re okay.
After splashing some cold water on my face, I hurry back to the bedroom to grab my phone off the nightstand so I can send my sisters a text, even though they haven’t responded to the ten messages I sent last night. I’m guessing their phones were confiscated as a safety measure to keep my dad from trying to get ahold of them. Still, I’m going to try messaging them anyway. What I’m really hoping is that the group home they’re in is in the same school district as me. That way I’ll be able to see them today.
