The Eastwood Series

by M. E. Clayton

  Ford stood up. “Oh, hey…Amelia-”

  My eyes shot up, and anger I didn’t have any right feeling, crept up as I remembered Wendy throwing herself in his arms. “You guys are so quick to fuck whoever throws their pussy your way, but the first time a girl does something more to you than just get your dick hard, you treat her like she’s fucking disposable.”

  Now everyone was standing up. “Amelia-”

  I turned towards my best friend. “Don’t even, Alistair,” I bit out. “You’ve been drowning in pussy since all that shit happened. Don’t act like I don’t know what I’m talking about.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Duke snapped. “You’re making assumptions about us like everyone else in this fucking school.”

  I arched a brow and scoffed. “The hell I am,” I flung back. “And it’s not the fucking that’s the problem. It’s that you guys can’t see a good thing when it’s right in front of you because it’s too easy to fall into some easy pussy than it is to have to work hard for the one girl who is worth it.” I turned to storm off, but I only got two steps in when I turned around and looked at Raiden. All the guys looked fit to be tied, but Raiden looked murderous. “You better hope Mackenzie and Samson find Charlie before I do. Because if they don’t, then I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that girl gets a good hard dicking tonight, so she can quit worrying about your sorry ass.” Raiden roared, but I turned around and kept walking.

  Charlie needed someone who could appreciate her.

  I needed someone who could appreciate me.

  Game on, motherfuckers.

  Chapter 4

  Ford~

  It took fifteen minutes for Raiden to calm down, and that was only because Duke had pulled out the tough love and pointed out Raiden’s hypocrisy by telling him Sandy was probably waiting for him somewhere.

  Raiden had calmed down, but he had gone into the house to look for Charlie. We all followed because we all knew that if Charlie were with another guy, Raiden would go to jail tonight. And possibly for life. He was trying to blame their fucked-up dynamic all on Charlie, but there was more going on. Raiden was at odds with something, we just didn’t know what it was yet.

  As we searched for Charlie, Mackenzie, or Samson, I couldn’t help but feel angry at the bullshit Amelia had spewed our away. Sure, between the four of us, we’ve slept with a lot of girls, but we’ve never led one on.

  Not one.

  Besides, Amelia had forgotten something particularly important during her impassioned speech. She’d forgotten she was the one who told me there’d be no repeat. She was the one who put the restriction of only one night on what we had done. Amelia was being a fucking hypocrite, and I wasn’t going to let her get away with it.

  And then, just like a fucked-up scene in a fucked-up movie, I found her.

  I found her at the same time Raiden found Charlie.

  They were both dancing on the make-shift dance floor in Tyler’s back sitting room, and they weren’t dancing alone. J.C. Grant was wrapped around Charlie and Brian Cutler was wrapped around Amelia. The music was a hip-hop song that was created for exactly what those four, and many others, were doing on the dance floor right now.

  I saw fucking red.

  There was no way I was going to let Amelia rip us a new one for fucking around, and then stand back and watch her drape herself all over some fuck who wasn’t her boyfriend. I reached Amelia just as Raiden reached Charlie, and this had all the makings of a serious clusterfuck.

  I grabbed Amelia by her arm and yanked her to me. “What the hell?” she yelped.

  “Whoa, hey…Abrams-”

  I shot Brian a look that shut him the fuck up and glowered at Amelia. “Don’t fucking move,” I snapped before turning towards where Raiden had J.C. dangling from the air.

  “Are you crazy?!” I heard Charlie scream. “Let him go, Raiden!”

  And Raiden did.

  J.C. went flying through the air, his descending weight creating a path between bodies on his way to hitting the floor.

  “Oh, my God!” Charlie screeched as she rushed forward to help J.C.

  I could only stare in abject resignation as Raiden’s arm wrapped around her and lifted her off the ground. Charlie was kicking and screaming like an absolute asylum patient and everyone had their fucking phones out recording the entire thing.

  And it didn’t help when Raiden’s voice was loud enough to cut through the music. “Touch him again and I will fucking kill him, Charlie!” he thundered.

  Before Charlie could-honestly, who the fuck knows what hell Charlie was about to unleash, but before she could unleash anything, Mackenzie, Duke, Alistair, and Samson rushed the crowd. “Charlie!” Mackenzie cried out.

  “Fuck,” Duke muttered.

  “What the-” and Alistair stopped because…yeah, what the fuck?

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Samson bit out. He jerked his head, and we all filed out behind him. There were too many phones out for us not to. However, I didn’t take a step until I had reached back and grabbed Amelia by her wrist. I yanked her forward, and we all had to look like complete imbeciles.

  Samson was pulling a worried Mackenzie behind him. Raiden was carrying an infuriated Charlie out by her waist. Duke was shaking his head and muttering curses left and right. Alistair was wide-eyed and just quietly following in the procession. And I was dragging a pissed-off Amelia Prescott with me out of the house. And with that alone, I knew I was going to have to talk to her brother soon. This shit was already probably flooding social media. If Steele wasn’t combing the house looking for me, it probably meant he was probably already hooking up with someone.

  Fuck me.

  “Let me go, Abrams,” Amelia hissed when we finally reached the front yard.

  I didn’t.

  I dragged the girl along until we were all crowded by a huge Sycamore several feet away from Tyler’s house.

  “What in the fuck is going on?” Samson snapped. “Has everyone lost their fucking minds?”

  Duke took a step back, his hands up in surrender. “Don’t fucking look at me, B.B. I was just trying to get drunk and have a good time,” he defended.

  Alistair mimicked Duke. “Same here,” he quickly yielded. “I was just trying to mingle and make a new friend or two.”

  “Put me down, Raiden,” Charlie hissed, and I wished the girl would just shut the fuck up. She might not be able to see it, but the rest of us could. And Raiden was about to lose his shit.

  And then, I was reminded of my own problems when Amelia spoke up. “I don’t know what the hell’s going on, Samson,” she bit out. “I was just inside, minding my own goddamn business, when Abrams lost his shit.”

  One. Two. Three. Four….

  I turned to her. “Do you really want to do this now? Here?”

  She wrenched her arm out of my grasp and slapped her hands on her hips. “Do what, Ford?” she challenged. “I was just dancing with Brian.” Amelia lifted her chin. “And the last I checked, it wasn’t any of your business who I dance with.”

  “Yeah,” Charlie squawked. “We can dance with whoever the hell we want.”

  “She might be able to, but you can’t,” Raiden fired back.

  “Yeah?” I stepped to Amelia. “Not when you had the nerve to lecture us on keeping our dick in our pants-”

  “What in the…” Mackenzie’s voice cracked out.

  “-and rip us a new one on how we should respect girls better, but then race off to let some asshole put his hands all over you,” I snapped. “Where was your self-respect when you were practically letting Cutler dry hump you on the dance floor?”

  Amelia snarled-actually snarled. “Oh, trust me,” she hissed. “I was full of self-respect when I let Brian put his hands on me. Brian’s one of the ones good for the long haul.”

  The air crackled with enough violent animosity between us that even Charlie stopped fighting and settled in Raiden’s arms. Everyone took a step back and it would hav
e been comical if not for the twitch in my eye and my balled-up fists.

  “You’re the one who said I’d only get one night with you,” I reminded her, not caring who heard us. No one in our group knew about that night with Amelia. She had been in a really bad personal headspace that night, and she hadn’t been a conquest or fodder for gossip. And, in as much as we did sleep around, we’ve never been braggarts about it. If people knew who we entertained, it was because they’d actually seen us, or the girls bragged about it the next day. I didn’t have low self-esteem or a small dick; I didn’t need to brag about anything. But things were different now. Whatever that fucked-up ex-boyfriend of hers did to her, I wasn’t going to let her take it out on me. “You’re the one who told me, to my fucking face, that I was interchangeable that night. So, I suggest you get off your high horse, Amelia, and remember that I wasn’t the one who stormed into a party looking for any random dick to satisfy me that night.”

  I was pissed. I was pissed that she was being a hypocrite, and I was pissed that I’ve been pining away for this girl for fucking months, and she wanted to treat me like I was trash. And, mostly, I was pissed that she stuck to the deal when she and I both knew that what happened between us that night had been more than a random fuck. Or fucks, I should say.

  Hey big brown eyes widened, as Alistair muttered, “Fuck…”

  And then, my head snapped sideways with the force of her slap.

  Alistair had Amelia in his arms, and everyone else had rushed me before I could get one step in. “Come on, Amelia,” Alistair rushed out. “Let’s…let’s go.”

  “That was private,” she seethed, her eyes shooting hate in every direction. “I trusted you.”

  I lifted my chin. “No, you didn’t,” I shot back. “You just got comfortable because I’ve kept our dirty little secret this long.” Her lip curled and there was real loathing crawling all over her beautiful face. “Well, I have news for you, Amelia. I’m done.”

  She straightened. “With what?”

  “Waiting for you to come to me,” I informed before I turned around and walked off.

  Chapter 5

  Amelia~

  I sat in the passenger seat of my brother’s car, and he was just eyeing me, silently wishing I’d tell him what was wrong, but I couldn’t.

  I couldn’t because I wasn’t entire sure what was wrong.

  When Ford had stormed off after telling all the business, Alistair had ushered me to his car, and we had driven to an all-night gas station where we had bought stale nachos, cold hotdogs, and large drinks. Then we’d gone to the edge of town where there was a small picnic rest stop right before you left Eastwood. We sat and ate as I told him everything about the night I had caught Ernest with that other girl. Up until Friday night, Alistair had believed we had just gone our separate ways because that’s what I had told him. Alistair was my best friend; I hadn’t known how to tell him the truth without telling him the entire truth about that night.

  After I spilled my guts, Alistair’s entire spine crumbled in hurt and disbelief. Hurt that I had kept it from him, and disbelief that it had remained a secret. Then he went on to hit me with logic when he had said Ford must have gone out of his way to keep it a secret because someone, even if it had just been one person, someone at that party had to have seen Ford pull me into that empty bedroom that night. For it to not have gotten out, Ford must have gone into double efforts to make sure no one spoke about it.

  I had ended up feeling like a heel by the time he had dropped me off at home two hours later.

  And once there, I had laid in bed feeling like an asshole for taking out my issues on those four boys who’d done nothing to me. Even if Raiden was stringing Charlie along, it wasn’t any of my business unless Charlie made it so, and so far, she’s been mum about whatever was going on between them two. Duke’s never done a thing to me and Alistair was my best friend. I let that stupid, stupid Wendy Allen upset me and I acted like a complete tool because of it.

  And all because I just couldn’t tell Ford Abrams that I liked him. That I’ve thought about our night together often. That I hated knowing he wasn’t the committed type. And that, even if he were, we were heading off to college soon, so why start something if it couldn’t last?

  The next morning, Steele had barged into my bedroom demanding I tell him what the hell was going on between me and Ford Abrams. When I had lied to his face and told him there was nothing going on, he had showed me the video of Ford and Raiden dragging me and Charlie off the dance floor. I had lied again and told him I had just gotten caught up in Raiden and Charlie’s crazy, and that’s all. But as he sat in the driver’s side of his car, eyeing me, he knew I had been lying to him.

  “Do you want to take you home?” Steele asked. “I can tell Mom and Dad you were sick.”

  I shook my head. “No, I…it’s fine, Steele,” I muttered.

  “Christ, Amelia,” he grumbled, “tell me what’s wrong? Please? I can’t stand it when you’re upset.” I closed my eyes and let out a deep breath. Steele really was a great brother, twin or not.

  When I opened my eyes to look at him, I blurted, “I like Ford Abrams.”

  His brows shot up. “You like Ford Abrams,” he repeated. “I…I didn’t know you even knew Ford that well.”

  There’s no way I was going to tell my brother about that night.

  No. Way. In. Hell.

  Not because he’d go after Ford. Hell, he’d probably see it as Ford doing him a favor in making sure I had ended up with someone who had showed me some actual respect that night. No. Steele would kill me for storming into a party on a mission to sleep with the first guy who caught my eye for revenge. And I’d probably never see daylight again if I told him the truth.

  “We’ve been hanging out a lot more now that Mackenzie’s dating Samson, and he won’t let her out of his sight,” I lied.

  Again.

  Steele gave me a tight nod. “So, then…what was that shit really about Friday night?”

  “We’re going to be late for c-”

  “We’ll sit here all fucking day and night, Amelia, until I get the truth,” he threatened, and I knew he was serious. He used his ‘big brother’ voice, even if he was only two minutes older.

  I chewed on my lower lip a bit before I twisted the truth a bit. “He…uh, took exception to the way I was dancing with Brian,” I said. “I had just…uh, lectured them all on respecting women a little more, and he got pissed because, afterwards, I had immediately started…dancing with Brian with a little more familiarity than was…respectable.” I shrugged a shoulder. “Ford called me a hypocrite.”

  Steele dropped back in his seat and ran his hands down his face. “Jesus Christ.”

  I looked down in my lap and started playing with the hem of my blouse. I knew what was coming. I knew my brother wasn’t stupid. I knew he did his best to respect me and my choices, never once going all protective-big-brother on me when I had started dating Ernest. No. Steele never stepped in unless he had to. But the few times he’s had to, it hadn’t been pretty.

  “Amelia, look at me,” he demanded.

  I raised my eyes and my stomach dipped with the look on my brother’s face. “All of it,” he bit out. “Now, Amelia. I want to know all of it now.”

  “Stee-”

  “All of it, Amelia,” he barked. “I know there’s shit you’re not telling me.” His chin lifted and he exhaled slowly and steadily. “I also know you’ve already slept with him.”

  My eyes widened. “What? Ste-”

  “Don’t,” he snapped, cutting me off. “You told me you told him off for sleeping around, Amelia. No one goes against that group. No one would dare. If you went off on a tirade because of their casual hookups, that reeks of jealousy, Amelia. And there’s only reason you’d be jealous of who Ford is sleeping with.”

  “I already told you I liked him,” I reminded him.

  Steele let out a hollow laugh. “Amelia, stop it,” he said, a bit of sadness in his voice, ma
king me feel like the lowest human being on the planet. First, I yelled at boys who haven’t done anything. Then, I had hurt Alistair by keeping secrets. And now, my brother was disappointed in me for lying to him.

  “You have to promise me you won’t get mad, Steele,” I begged. “You have to swear.”

  His back straightened, and his eyes narrowed. “Why would I have to promise that? I don’t care who he is, Amelia. I’ll fucking kill him if-”

  “No,” I squeaked out. “Not at him.”

  The silence felt like a drowning wave crashing over me. The first warning bell for class sounded, but we made no move to get out of Steele’s car.

  He finally said, “Okay. I promise.”

  And so, I told him.

  I told him the truth, and I told him everything. I hadn’t given him details of the conditions that were placed on what we had done or what had gone on inside that empty bedroom, but I had told him about Ernest and about how I had been out for revenge.

  “So…let me get this straight,” he said, his voice sounding clipped and angry. “You were going to just pick…some random guy to get even with. Ford tried to talk you into just getting a drink and just taking a moment, but when you…contested that idea and started back on your mission, Ford…thought, what? Better him than someone else?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know,” I answered. “I…never asked.”

  “And…what? You caught feelings, and Ford did what Ford always does; moved on?”

  I shook my head. “No,” I admitted. “He doesn’t know I like him, and…he’s…been nice to me and has never mentioned what I did that night, but…”

  “But, what?”

  “Things got heated after he pulled me away from Brian Friday night, and he said…that he was done waiting for me to come to him with,” I mumbled pathetically. Having to recite the entire mess to my brother made me see just how ridiculous this whole thing was. “I’m not exactly sure what he meant, but-”

  “Christ, Amelia,” Steele snapped. “What in the hell do you think he meant?”