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A young woman answers the door and shows me to my father’s office.
“He’s been waiting for you, sir,” she says with a small blush. I roll my eyes, then enter without knocking. He’s zipping his fly and tucking his shirt in. Surprise, surprise he’s fucking the new maid. He rounds his desk and pulls me into a tight hug. He’s always been affectionate to me. Jase not so much. I wonder if he'll still be as attentive and loving when he knows the truth.
“Son, good to see you. But I have to say your phone call was disconcerting. What’s on your mind?” I give him a squeeze, breathing in his spicy cologne in case it’s the last time, then step back and take a seat on one of his leather armchairs directly in front of his massive desk.
“I was hoping to do this in the morning. I'm dog tired,” I start. “But I guess now is as good a time as any.”
He moves over to the drink cart in the corner and pours us a finger of scotch, before coming back my way and handing it to me. He takes the seat beside me and gives me his full attention.
I down it, then look him in the eyes.
“The summer before senior year, we buried a body, and since then we’ve been being blackmailed.” I watch as his eyes widen but he doesn’t interrupt me. I place my glass on the small table between us and continue. “We’ve had to do some crazy, fucked up shit to keep it quiet, and I can’t do it anymore.” I take a deep breath and wring my hands the way Cara always seemed to do. “I fell in love, so did Jase and Layton. We all fell for our recent target. She’s so sweet and compassionate. She didn’t deserve what we had to do. I tried to keep her safe to save her from Penelope’s wrath.” At the sound of her name his face goes pale. He clears his throat and gulps his drink down.
“Penelope Smith? She’s the one blackmailing you?” I nod and try to continue but he cuts me off. “You must do everything she says son. You’re not the only one she’s got by the balls. That girl is true evil if I ever did see it.” I furrow my brow and he stands, pouring us some more scotch, before bringing it back and telling me his own twisted past.
“That’s bullshit,” I roar and jump to my feet ready to storm out. He grabs my arm and holds me back pleading. “No, Dad. I will never marry that manipulative bitch. I love Cara. I want to be with Cara. I want to raise her baby, no matter if I’m it’s uncle. It doesn’t matter because she's the one for me.”
He drops my arm and runs his hand through his hair. “Baby? What baby, Easton?” My eyes go wide and I realize what I just said. Shit! I run my hand down my face and sit back down.
“Cara is pregnant. I just found out. She left campus because of what we did to her, and I went to talk to her and found out she’s pregnant. I haven’t told the guys yet, just you. Didn’t even mean to tell you. Fuck I’m tired,” I groan and he sighs with relief.
“Don’t tell them.”
What?
He holds his hand up, “From what you have said, your brother and that ‘friend’ of his are having a rough go of things. This will only make things worse, Easton. If you care for this girl like you say you do, don’t send some emotionally unstable boys after her.” He pauses and looks out the window. The night sky is void of stars tonight, so I don’t know what he’s looking for.
“If I know Penny, this is just the ammo she’ll need to annihilate that poor girl. Marry Penny. I know it’s not what you want, but sometimes it’s what's best. And let Cara come to you in her own time. Who knows, maybe she’s not even keeping it.”
I shudder at that thought and stand up, turning towards the door.
“I’m disappointed in you Father,” I say, before ripping his door open and striding through the empty halls.
Marry Penny? He is out of his damn mind. I may have considered it once, back when she was kind and my friend. She was a completely different person back then, but quickly turned into a cruel bitch. But now I’ve seen what a loving, caring girlfriend is like. Not a devious, manipulative snake like she is. I will never go back.
After that exhausting conversation with my dad, I leave his home office and climb the stairs to my old bedroom. I crack open the door and groan. It doesn’t look like I ever left for college. Everything's as if it’s not been touched. A shrine of my past self. I move over to the bathroom I shared with Jase and walk through until I reach his bedroom. Fuck! I hope he never comes back here. Where his bed used to be is a large desk full of fabric samples and a yoga mat lies where his dresser used to be. It seems our mother couldn’t use one of the other eight bedrooms on this floor. She had to erase every piece of Jase and turn his room into her workspace...gym… I’m honestly not sure. It looks like some designer threw up in here, mixing a juice bar with a home gym. I close the door and lock it, then flip the shower on.
I strip down to my boxers and toss my clothes in the hamper for our new maid slash mistress for my father. I swear they keep getting younger and younger. This one looks like she’s still in high school. I quickly rinse off then, walk back into the bedroom, climb under the covers and pass out.
The next day I keep to myself. I don’t want to run into my father after what he told me last night. I knew that he and Penny’s father always thought we would be a good match. But things have changed, and just because she videotaped him with his dick in some underage boy doesn't mean I’m going to marry her manipulative ass. The nerve he had to say, “Just take one for the team son. Please.” I don’t know what I’m more angry about, the fact he dismissed my feelings for Cara, his concern that she may be having a Hawthorne baby, that he was more worried about his own ass than what I disclosed about Kyna, or that it was one of my teammates. He gives Jase so much shit about Lay and here he is, fucking guys too. Talk about a hypocrite.
Fuck, I need to calm down. I pull a joint out of my guitar case and light it up then pick up my acoustic and strum some chords. I haven’t written anything new since Cara. I still don’t have any lyrics coming to mind, but a melody is forming.
A knock on the door has me moving from the window seat and lying my guitar on the bed. I dump the joint in the sink, then stride over and open my bedroom door, not expecting to see Penny. She rushes into my arms and plants a kiss on my lips before I can stop her.
“Penny, what are you doing here?” I choke out after she’s done molesting my mouth. She gives me a crocodile smile, and I know I’m not going to like what’s next.
e
I sit down with my parents and Penny’s parents. My father called them. Thought it was time to get together and have a family dinner. How nice of him.NOT!
I listen to their bullshit conversations and choke down this bland shit my mom insisted on serving us all for dinner, when Penny mentions something about not letting legacies join anymore. Like she has that kind of power to change hundred-year-old sorority bylaws. I go to interject but her mother surprises me.
“Oh, Carson Matthews? How is that sweet girl? She was always a joy during the mother-daughter luncheons. Well, before her twit of a mother got sick that is. Then they stopped coming. Shame really, since I would have loved for Cara and Penny to have played more. Maybe she could have rubbed off on her a bit. She always was kind and caring, not a spoiled brat like my Penelope here.”
My eyebrows raise, and I glance at Penny. She has a tight grip on her champagne glass stem. I'm watching for it to snap. She places a complacent smile on her face and nods at her mother’s backhanded insults.
I clear my throat and wipe my mouth, before answering Penny’s mother, Peony. Yeah, I snort every time I have to say her name. Just another pretentious uppity Stepford wife. “Last I heard she was doing well. She left campus and returned home though due to some scandal.” I wave my hand in the air as if it’s not important, and she takes her cloth napkin in her hand and holds it over her mouth in an overexaggerated gasp.
