AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He doesn’t want to tell me… that’s why he’s fucking around and taking his time fiddling with the radio. He’s screwed up or… I have no idea, but there’s something.
I wish he’d go ahead and spit it out. My patience is worn thin, my anger sparks over my skin and makes my muscles tight. I pull out my packet and shake it. The way I’m going through cigarettes… I haven’t been this bad in a long time. I stick the tailor-made to my lip and light it up.
“Can you not do that in Emmy?” Rebel snaps.
I inhale. Exhale. Tap the end of the cigarette into the glass I never actually put down. Better than outside the car. One spark can be such a problem. “Can you just get to the point?”
“I’d rather not be driving when you try to kill me,” he mutters.
“So you did fuck up then?” I rest my head on the top of the seat. Close my eyes. Does it matter? Doesn’t change anything. Ivy still lied to me.
Riot laughs in the backseat. He’s stoned. God knows what he’s found funny. Something falls to the floor. “Shit.”
“What was that?” Rebel asks.
“Just my lighter.” Riot pats around the floor until he finds it. Picks it up. There’s the rustle of paper. “Bro, you have unopened mail down here. Did you know that?”
“Huh? What?” Rebel glances over his shoulder. “Where’d that come from?”
“Under the seat.” Light flares from Riot’s phone. “It’s just got ‘Maddox’ on it.”
“Probably shouldn’t open it. Might be anthrax,” I say.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Anthrax?” Rebel pulls into a lot. “Don’t open it.”
“Too late,” Riot announces.
“What’s in it?” I guess I’m interested too. Even though I’m pissed at my twin and he seems intent on not answering my questions. But hey, it could be anthrax and that’s the kind of distraction I could use.
“Pubes,” Riot quips before laughing like he’s the funniest guy on the planet. Also, it wouldn’t be the first time some obsessed fan sent us that sort of mail. “No. I’m not exactly sure.”
He puffs the A4 envelope’s sides out and tips it up. The contents fall onto his lap.
“Photos.” He gathers them into one pile.
“Show me.” Rebel holds out his hand for them.
Riot passes some over. Then hands me some too.
“Fuck,” I say, checking out a photo of my twin and Summer in the pool at Ethan’s hotel. The image is devoid of other people and it looks like they’re skinny dipping. “How is this even possible?”
“I don’t know.” Rebel snatches it out of my hand. Passes a different one over. Me with a girl I don’t recall.
We flip through them faster. Hand them to each other as we see which one of us is in them. Riot groping some girl in the green room after a concert we all attended. Rebel and Summer in a million different places. Me with another girl that meant nothing to me. I don’t recall her name or where the photo was taken. Then another. And another. Riot again. Ro too.
“This.” Rebel holds one up. He speaks through his teeth. Seething. His blue eyes are icy. He puts it on the top of my pile forcefully.
It’s at Rebel’s house. Our home. Inside. During one of our parties. We’re all there. Ro too. But not Summer. This was before… before Rebel went to prison. “Is this the party? The night it—”
Riot snatches it out of my hand. “The night it happened, yeah? Ro was wearing that dress. I remember. I complimented her on it.”
“Fuck,” we all say as we scramble for any more images to do with that night.
There are a few. Innocent enough images at first, except for the fact that we have no idea who took them or why.
“Do you have any idea how they ended up in Emmy?” I ask as I flip through the ones that Riot and Rebel hand me.
“Not a clue,” he says. Then he stops to stare out the windshield and roll his jaw. “Wait. Summer said someone tried to break into Emmy before the Bilsons’ event last summer.”
