“There’s no one!” Liam laughs, rubbing the back of his neck, looking uncomfortable.
It’s not the first time I’ve received the same answer. So far, I know that there’s a girl at Clintwood who hurt my brother his first day as a freshman there. He transferred the very next day.
Liam said Clintwood wasn’t really for him, but I know my brother. He was trying to escape her.
Which means, she did a number on him. And after all these years, he still won’t tell me her name. And despite my best efforts of trying to find out who the fuck she is, no one knows.
Which means, Liam is protecting her.
If he’s protecting her, he still loves her.
“It’s not Mia Montague, is it?” I stop, my voice hard as I stare at my little brother. Jealousy hot and fresh, spikes through my bloodstream, constricting my windpipe. My heart starts pounding all over again as I wait for my brother’s response.
It’s possible that it’s her.
I remember the way he kissed her on that wall. I remember the way he was so wound up, like she did a number on him. He was so damn angry, and fucking pissed off for months after that fucking party that I started suspecting that it was more than just my keeping the whole Aiden thing from him.
Just when I thought my brother and I have a clean slate… I don’t know what I’ll do if the girl that broke my brother’s heart is her, and I don’t want to find out.
“Dude, no,” Liam starts, stopping too. He looks me in the eye, his gaze questioning. I know what he’s trying to do. Making sure I’m not going to lose it. “It’s not her.”
I can see the sincerity mixed with curiosity in his eyes but at least he’s being truthful. Liam can lie with the best crooks, but not to me. I can sense his bullshit from miles away and he knows it.
I release a silent breath, now able to fucking breathe again. Cole catches my gaze, narrowing his in question. I ignore him, then I start walking again.
“Could be that chick with braces that sent you her nudes during Spring break.” Cole throws his head back laughing.
“Girls send you nudes?” I know I shouldn’t be surprised but I feel like I’ve lost touch with my little brother.
“What? You get them too!” he counters. “Besides all that shit, girls trust me with their goodies.”
“Did you just say goodies?” Cole questions, about to laugh.
“Was another word invented yet? I’m so out of touch with this shit.”
“Yeah right, Mr. Goodies,” he mocks and we all chuckle.
“Shut up, Cole!” Liam grunts.
“But for real, who is she, Little Liam?” Cole counters, making me chuckle.
“Don’t you fucking call me that,” Liam growls, his cheeks red. “And I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“Come on, Little Liam.” I muss his hair again. “Give us a name.”
“Let it go or I’ll send out a tweet that you’re here.”
“Too late,” Cole points at the phones still pointed at us. Fuck.
“You’re still not going to tell me her name?” I question, forcing my voice to be lighter. I’m doing a shitty job of looking out for Liam but now that I’m fresh out of watching one brother die of a fucking blood cancer, I’m going to watch over him and protect him. He’s all I have left.
“I told you I won’t tell you.” Liam jokes, relief in his voice when he notices how relaxed I am. Was Mia right when she said Liam gets his cues from me? “So, forget it, will you, and watch me race.”
“I still don’t want you to race that idiot,” I grit out, thinking of Shane FUCKING Matthews. His brother, Sean, is an unhinged asshole. I wouldn’t put it past his entire family on being the same. And after the mess with…
“Too late, everyone thinks you’re racing, but it’s actually the fucking race god!” He laughs, knowing damn well that he’s got the attention of practically the whole town on him.
My brother thrives when he’s the center of attention, which isn’t always a good thing. But it makes him happy. He needs a bit more of that now more than ever.
He turns around to go to his car.
“Liam.” I stop him. He turns around and our gazes clash and I still in my tracks. I can’t help but see Aiden in him. I lost Aiden. And for some reason, I feel like I’m losing Liam too. For a moment, an ugly, twisting feeling floods my chest but I push it down. “Use my car.”
His eyes widen with disbelief and barely contained excitement.
“Fuck yeah!” he hollers. “I knew I would race that baby one day!”
“It’s American muscle, son. You don’t know anything about that.” I laugh, but there’s a warning in my voice.
“We’re just a year and a month apart, J.” He rolls his eyes, shaking his head. “Tone it down.”
“I would, if you knew how to stay out of trouble.” I shake the tension in my muscles, then swallow, trying to loosen the knot in my chest as I stare at my brother. I toss him my car keys and he tosses his to me. “Be careful.”
“You know I always am!” He laughs, shooting me an exaggerated wink. “Although, I think you need to be more careful on how you dish out threats, brother.”
And with that, he’s gone, snatching two girls, one on each arm as he goes.
“He’s too wired,” I start as we walk toward Cole’s car.
“If you weren’t such a Mother Hen, you’ll figure he’s actually excited to make Clintwood suck it, again.” Cole laughs, clapping my back. Hard. “Besides, he’ll be running shit here next year.”
“That’s the part that’s giving me nightmares.”
That’s a lie. My nightmare just gasped and moaned in my arms, her body fitting perfectly with mine. And I hate her more now than I ever did before.
“Yeah, well, we’ve got a different kind of nightmare to face right now,” Cole starts, his voice strained. “I’m pretty sure some fool got that clever thing you just did on camera. I don’t have to tell you that if the girl decides to take this matter further…”
“She won’t do that.” I look around, ignoring the curious and frightened eyes watching us, all of them parting like the Red Sea for us as we go.
“You sure about that?” Cole questions.
We reach his car and then lean back on it, turning around to watch the rest of the world unfold in front of us. I find her in the crowd easily enough. Her tight, petite body moving with a fluid grace that I want to taste so bad.
She’s one person I’m not sure about. She’s too much of a mystery. Plays her cards close to the chest and I bet everything I have in my name that she doesn’t even know herself, let alone the people at her school. They don’t know her story. Any lick of it.
She made me lose control tonight and she saw shit in me no one sees. She said shit no one else would dare utter to my face. She’s a firecracker that will burn this world down if left unchecked.
“Make sure we have Scotty get on that video shit.”
“Already did.” Cole nods as we watch Scotty, the guy who runs the bets and shit out here, walk around with his lackey who has a basket, taking everyone’s phone. No one argues with Scotty, not unless you want to find your life suddenly shitty, ridden by ill circumstances and misfortunes.
“Reason?” I question. Somehow, my eyes wonder back to Mia. In that same moment, she looks back and our gazes meet. She’s now surrounded by dumb-heads from her school. Including the younger Matthews asshole brother, Shadrach?
“Shane.”
I guess I spoke out loud.
“He’s a fucking douche-bag.”
“Agreed.” Cole chuckles. “He’s got a hard-on for you.”
“What were you saying again?” It’s not like me to lose my train of thought. I can multi-task better than anyone but staring at Mia talking to that asshole makes me mad for some reason.
“Phones, dude.”
“Yeah, what did you tell Scotty?” He was a money hungry bastard, but he was good people.
“Well, it’s a
big night. No recording shit. You’ve got to be here to believe it.” Cole chuckles. “And to think I thought you were racing, asshole. I just bet ten Gs on your ass.”
“First of all dude, you’ve got a gambling problem.” I narrow my eyes at him, but he just looks away. “Besides, aren’t you the one who just hyped Little Liam up just now?”
“That was different. You need to cut the boy some slack.”
“Cutting Liam some slack is the worst thing I can do for him. Besides, I just don’t feel like it anymore.”
From the moment I arrived, I saw her in her car, a stricken look on her face. She looked like she was about to flee, like the world was suddenly a big, terrifying place for her, and that, for some reason, pissed me off. She’s made of much sterner stuff than that.
I look up in her direction again, and our gazes clash and hold. Again.
“Let it go, J.” Cole claps my shoulder. “Watch the race. Let Little Liam do his thing.”
I don’t say a word, but a feeling of unease starts pooling in my gut the longer I stand there. I watch Shane as Mia turns around to look at him, listening to whatever crap he’s saying.
“Where’s that jerk, Matthews?” I demand, looking around.
“After you wiped his ass with hot asphalt last week, I’d be surprised if he had the balls to show up here tonight.” Cole points out. “Shit, J, you’ve got stalker eyes.”
Shane moves closer to Mia, watching me over her shoulder, he leans in to whisper something in her ear. I tense and stand up straight, watching the cocky look on his face. She laughs, but I can read her enough to know that fucking sound was forced and she looks uncomfortable.
She takes a step back, but he grabs her hand. Then her smile is genuine again.
She likes him.
“Is that her boyfriend?” I demand.
“Whoa, dude.” Cole almost chokes on his beer. “We’ve gone through this before. You know Ice Queen over there isn’t dating anyone. Hell, it’s said that she hasn’t been to any parties in a while. I’m surprised to see her here tonight.”
They call her an Ice Queen, but the truth is, she’s anything but. She’s liquid fire, angry and fierce. I have a feeling she holds a lot of herself back in that feisty body, taming herself.
I wonder what would happen if she had someone to re-direct that fire.
“So, what’s the plan?” Cole questions, bringing me back to the present. “I know you’re going to bury her for pulling that one over Liam but also for the thing with your…”
“I’m going to end her,” I say simply. “Girls like her have weaknesses.”
“Tiaras and pink clothes?” Cole watches me, eyes narrowed. “Something tells me she’s different.”
Oh, she’s fucking different alright.
“Doesn’t matter, at the core of every girl like her, the Casey’s and the Stephanie’s, is a girl that craves attention.” I watch Mia, feeling oddly hungry. “It’s attention that I’ll give her.”
“Yeah, but the problem with that shit is, she’s not a fucking Casey or a Stephanie.”
No, she’s not. She’s classy, elegant, bitchy, with an attitude that makes me feel shit I’ve never wanted to feel.
“She’s definitely not,” I murmur.
“So, you’re done with Casey?” Cole questions, then chuckles. “That girl is hell fire. You strung her along for too long. I don’t think she’ll let go that easily.”
“Are you talking from experience?” I chuckle, accepting the can of beer he holds out for me. Just one for tonight. Tomorrow, Cole and I have an early work out session.
“Well, there are rumors that Steph pulled some strings to come along to S.U.,” Cole grumbles, displeased.
“I thought you had a thing for her.” Being seniors at St. Jude, the hourglass was running out. Soon, we’ll be graduating, then we’ll be out of here before summer ends for early football practice. Which means the burdens of Palos Verdes weren’t going to follow, they’ll stay buried. This place has nothing for me now, except for Liam.
And that’s one of my biggest concerns right now. Can I leave Liam alone with my father and the gold digger he recently got engaged to in one house? Don’t even get me started on Mia being there while I’m not. I fucking hope she doesn’t move in.
“That girl is insane. Too clingy, immature, and fucking psycho for my liking,” Cole grumbles.
“And you still fuck with her anyway.”
“Mainly because if I so much as breathe in another girl’s direction, she’ll scare that poor soul away.” Cole leans back, and just as he says that a white convertible pulls up.
“Speak of the devil…”
“And the devil shall appear in her hot neon stuff.” Cole whines. “I need to get out of here.”
“Go hide then.” I chuckle. “I won’t tell.”
Cole stares at me for a while, but he doesn’t move. He’s been watching me for hours now, well, since the funeral.
“Nah, I’m good right here. Come she-devil or not,” he answers softly. We stand there in silence, not saying a thing, watching the world unfold with adrenaline and energy around us. But I can hear his questions.
“I’m alright, Cole.” I look away, noticing Liam in the distance, laughing but it’s not genuine. That’s not his usual laugh. “I’m not going to go up in flames.”
“That’s what I’m worried about.” Cole tilts his head, eyeing me. “I’m wondering if you’re starting to catch fire and if it’s because of her.”
Nobody ever said Cole fucking Perry was dishonest. We’ve been best friends all our lives, got into trouble together. Set shit on fire together and in all that time, he’s one of the two people that tells me shit as it is. Even when I wish he wouldn’t.
“I’m wondering the same about you,” I counter, the words clipped.
“This isn’t about me.”
“It might as well be, Cole.” I glance at him. “You don’t talk about her, it’s like she doesn’t exist.”
“She exists just fine,” he grits out, his features tightening with tension beside me.
“Really?” I counter. “When was the last time you—”
“Fucking drop it,” he clips out, crushing the empty can of beer in a snap but I don’t move nor am I surprised. Cole’s cool and all that but underneath that shit is a guy who’s in the grips of his own hell.
“Drop it too,” I murmur, and he shakes his head slightly.
“No.”
“Drop. It,” I grit out and he shakes his head.
“Aiden’s gone. Matthews is out for blood. She’s an issue.”
“She’s not an issue,” I deny, but we both hear the lie as loud as the TikTok famous song “Lottery” by K Camp, blasting over the speakers. Over-played and over-done. This summer will be long, I can feel it in my bones.
The truth is, Mia Montague turned my life upside down three years ago. I haven’t forgotten the way she put my family through a paparazzi shitstorm, with headlines of Aiden plastered all over the papers, on screen and everywhere else.
I remember how John blamed me but after he read the papers he dropped it, seeming to focus his anger on someone else. Meanwhile, Mia Montague lived her life while my brother died slowly.
Then she fucking kissed Liam right in front of me. She deserves to rot in garbage. She makes me so damn livid I can’t think straight.
“Okay, fine.” I sigh. “She is an issue.”
“Whatever you’re planning to do man, just remember, Aiden—”
“Don’t you dare speak my brother’s name in defense of her!” I growl, standing up now, the urge to set this world on fire taking over me, clawing my insides up. “He wasn’t there for him, and now he’s changing our whole lives, for who? For his new wife?”
Cole sighs, shaking his head. “I’m not defending big John, but I do think you need to keep a level head here.”
I don’t bother responding to that. I’m sure he saw that when I’m around Mia all common sense flees out the fucking windo
w.
“Liam shouldn’t race tonight.”
“He’s already gone.” Cole points out. I notice Shane pressing something in Mia’s hand and she smiles, then stands back, watching him go. He turns around to say something and she nods, then glances down at something in her hand.
Then Shane glances at me, a smirk on his fucking ugly face.
Without thinking, I start walking just as Scotty gets up on the little makeshift raised platform, with his trusty but shitty mini-microphone in his hand.
“Come on, J.” Cole is right behind me. “Leave him be.”
“I was supposed to race tonight, Cole. With Sean.” I keep going, but the noise, the music, the dancing has my mind racing. “The change was made last minute. Why is fucking Shane racing?”
“Unless there’s something cooking.” Cole meets my gaze. Without even saying it, we rush to the front of the crowd just as Scotty announces the race. In that moment, I notice Sean, his eyes widen when Liam’s name is announced.
“He seems surprised that Liam is racing.”
That doesn’t sit well with me. Without care, I start pushing people out of my way, shaking off girls that want to touch me, desperate for me to fuck them. But when I get to the track, it’s only in time to see my brother smile at me, already in my car.
“Go!”
And they’re off!
“Julian!” Someone calls, a girl. I look back and meet her gaze. Mia.
She’s frantic, trying to get to me, but through the cheers and the screams I can’t make out what she’s saying. She looks terrified and shaken.
“Julian!”
But as I look into her beautiful eyes, everything that happens in the next seconds is an agonizing, unending sequence of events that I caused.
There’s a loud pop, making me turn around but I don’t do it fast enough. The next thing I hear is a loud burst, and the smell of burnt tires on asphalt.
Then the air lights up with the explosion as my car goes up in flames.
14
There are only a few moments in my life where I’ve felt crippling terror. The kind that freezes your blood in a split second, the cold, emptiness seeps into your bones, and latches on to your soul.
Devious Kisses: A Bully Enemies -To-Lovers Romance (It's Just High School Book 1) Page 19
