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“Fine piece of ass?” Bennett throws his head back and laughs like it’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard. “She definitely does have an ass,” he sneers, and the words are like knives against my skin.
Vic titters as he starts to pet her thighs, her very exposed thighs because she’s wearing a skirt that barely covers her ass. It’s kind of gross. As his hand starts to go farther and farther up her thigh with every pass, I tear my eyes away from him.
I hate the number of times I blink to stop myself from crying. I won’t be that girl. Hell no. It’s not like Bennett implying that my ass is big is anything new.
“You know,” Bennett muses, “her dad calls her duckling.” He looks right at me, a challenge in his eyes. “I’ve always wondered if it was short for ugly duckling.”
His other guy friend’s voice is lazy, “She’s definitely a grenade.”
When he starts making exaggerated explosion noises, everyone starts to laugh like the dude is headlining his own fucking comedy show. My lungs seize up as I look around and realize just how wrong it is for me to be here. I don’t know what I was thinking. No, the reality is I wasn’t thinking and didn’t feel like I had a choice.
I do have a choice though.
Bennett is laughing so hard he’s almost crying, mirth dancing in his eyes. Vic is laughing, but it’s nowhere near as effective considering she’s also kissing up and down Bennett’s neck.
“No wonder no one will ask that chick, Lennon, out,” Bennett chokes out. “No one will take one for the team.”
I stand up immediately and steel my spine. Fuck this. I don’t need to deal with this. I only have a little while left before I can get the hell out of here, go to the other side of the country, and forget all about my senior year and Bennett, mystepbrother.
Some of the eyes on me turn wary, but I’m beyond caring at this point. Bennett looks confused as hell when I give him a smile and walk out of the living room without looking back. On the way out the door, I grab my keys and purse.
Only once I’m in my car do I let myself break. I cry so hard that I only drive a block before I pull over and let it out. It’s not even like what they said was new. Maybe I just wanted someone to defend me. Just once.
I know I’m not skinny like Vic or the other two girls, but I love myself. Mom isn’t a super girly-girl, but I’ve been learning about make-up and hair stuff from Lennon. I don’t have it right yet and I’m not sure how to dress to show off what I have instead of making me look ridiculous.
Maybe I’m not even all that pretty, but I’m not even 18 yet. I have a lot of growing up and maturing to do and the time to do it.
I can’t wait to get out of this city. I need to go somewhere totally new. I need to go somewhere where no one knows me. Then I can find out who I really am and follow my dreams.
I don’t know if I’ll ever come back to Seattle, but now I know the choice I made to go to New York City, as far away from here as I can get, is the right one. I need to disappear in the crowd. I need to forget.
I’ve always wondered if it was short for ugly duckling.
No one will take one for the team.
Bennett’s words swirl around and around in my head, hitting against my vulnerable parts like a battering ram. We might not be close, but I never thought we would be. I guess I thought—hoped, wished—we were more than his twisted words to me.
Those words are joined by a chorus of all the other shit he’s said to me over the years and it’s almost too much to take. Graduation can’t come soon enough.
Then I’ll fly free.
CHAPTER 4
BACK THEN – HIGH SCHOOL
BENNETT
I wake up with a groan, the pounding in my head competing with the sunlight streaming in from the windows for what I hate most right now. What fucking time is it? Why is the sun so bright? I feel like shit, and I’ve earned it. No doubt about it.
I stretch and stretch as I look around. The only good thing about waking up is finding myself alone in bed. Which is how it should be. I haven’t taken anyone to bed, no matter what I’ve allowed anyone to think, since I moved in with Evelyn.
Yeah, I’ve used girls and their willingness to hang all over me to push her away, but it had to happen. It killed me a little inside every time, but what other choice did I have? She’s too much of a temptation.
I get out of bed and grab my jeans from the floor before I head out to the bathroom in the hallway and swish some mouthwash. The house we partied in last night is huge, which is perfect since it was a graduation party. For most of the year I’ve been avoiding most of my friends and a lot of the parties, but there was no way I was going to get out of it last night.
I skipped out on the family dinner because I couldn’t do it. I’m sure I’ll catch shit for it from Mom and Jerry when I get home, but I’ll deal with it then. I couldn’t go to. Not after I saw Evelyn at graduation.
Not only has she been avoiding me since our parents went out of town and I had a few people over, but she looked too fucking good in the dress she was wearing. The emerald dress she had on hugged her body in just the right way. Her blonde hair looked like gold and her navy eyes were sparkling.
