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“I am. You wanna be bad with me tonight?” I quirk a brow at her. It’s a cheesy line, but I figure she’ll take it for what it is. I want to hook up tonight, and she’ll either be down or not, and if not, then I’ll go on my way.
“You know I do.”
I set my cup down, the beer already forgotten. “Come here, then.” I hook my finger in the belt loop of her shorts and tug her closer. Danielle comes easily. “Let’s stay here for a while first.” Because I’m curious who the guy is with Troy and if they’re going to disappear together for the night.
Brenner and Taylor mumble something about me being a lucky motherfucker, and to them, I probably am. Not just because of Danielle, but because they don’t know shit about my life, not really.
They don’t know how much I hate my father, that even being in the same room with him makes me feel like I’m suffocating.
They don’t know that every time I look at him, I’m drowning in the pain of losing my mom. That I stood by while he’d broken her heart so he could play house with Troy’s mom. One big happy family. Fuck that noise.
It’s all on me that my friends don’t know much about my life. We basically live to bust each other’s balls. It’s our friendship language, but I also know I can trust them. They’d be there for me if I let them. I just don’t know how.
Danielle presses her breasts against my chest, and I let my hand slide down her back, then land high on her ass, in the same spot I’d once had Troy’s name written… Like, what the fuck even is that? I don’t understand how he gets me to do shit like that. I excuse it with the logic that if I don’t follow through with the bets I lose, he won’t follow through with the bets I win—and that is the best fucking feeling.
Danielle’s lips ghost over mine, and I kiss her back, tongue in her mouth. When I look over again, Troy is watching me, and damned if I don’t watch him too while I’m kissing her.
*
Sunday comes muchtoo quickly for my liking. I hate these fucking dinners Ellie and Glen put on, pretending we’re one big happy family and that Glen wasn’t secretly fucking her while he was still married to my mom.
If it wasn’t for my little tit-for-tat with Troy on Friday night, I wouldn’t be going at all.
We’re supposed to be there at one. They do this late afternoon/early dinner thing that makes no fucking sense to me. Can’t we eat at a normal time like most people? But they like us to get there early for more family time, which I think makes Glen feel important. He likes to feel important, and Ellie sure gives him that.
What I don’t expect to happen today is the knock that comes at my apartment door at twelve. It takes an hour to get home, and my plan is to leave at twelve thirty so I get there late, but as soon as a text follows the knock, I have a sinking feeling I know who’s standing outside.
I pick up my cell from the arm of the beat-up couch, and sure enough, there’s a text from Troy.
Lil Stepbro: Open the door.
Because of fucking course he would come here and ride with me.
“Get off my dick!” I call out, but the jerk just walks in.
“I’m not on your dick. It’s time to go.”
I lean back and turn my head to take him in—his dark-brown crew cut and the way it always looks neat as opposed to my longer, dirty-blond waves that I constantly have to push off my forehead. They never look like I haven’t spent my whole day running my fingers through them, partly because I have.
He’s clean-shaven, with innocent brown eyes that say he just wants to be a good boy—for our parents, in school, in life. I sorta want to say he has dick-sucking lips, though I’m not sure if that would be homophobic since he’s gay, but yeah, even I notice the mouth on him. And despite not playing football anymore, he still looks like a jock, wearing a Peach State U team shirt and shorts that look like a cross between dudebro and pretty boy. He’s everything Glen wishes I was but that I’ll never be.
“Why did you come here? You know I’ll always follow through on our deals. Missed me?”
“Like a rash. And I came so you wouldn’t be able to come sauntering in an hour or two late.”
“Me? I would never.”
“Let’s just go. Mom and Glen want us both to be there.”
“Ellie and Glen want a lot of things I don’t.” Like, they wanted to sneak around together at work to cheat on my mom, even though I didn’t want that.
“You only call him by his name to piss him off. Why is that fun for you?”
I shrug because he’s right. I like to piss Glen off in a different way from how I do it with Troy. With Glen, I really hate him and will never be able to forgive him for the shit he’s done. Plus,Dadis a title that’s earned, and if you ask me, he hasn’t fucking earned it.
I sigh and stand. “If you wanted to spend more time with me, you just had to ask.” Forget the fact that I still don’t have to ride with him. I can easily take my own car, but I won’t.
“I’ll drive,” is all Troy says, rather than rising to my teasing.
