Conrad

by Emily Rose

He dropped his head before lifting it again, “I’m sorry. She was with Hunter and just kind of hopped in with us,” he said.

  “Or you asked her to come along to get back at me for what I did,” I said.

  Lucas reached inside and touched my arm with his fingers. “No, I didn’t ask her to come along. She asked if she could come with us,” he said.

  I laughed harshly and shook my head at him. “Oh, so she asked now. I thought you just said that she just “hopped” in,” I used my fingers to quote his words.

  Noah cleared his throat beside me, and I knew this had to be awkward as hell for him, but he kept to himself as I stared daggers into my boyfriend.

  “She did, but after I told her it was okay,” Lucas said and then went on to explain, “Which I thought it would be. I mean you do whatever you want, right?”

  My mouth dropped open. “Luke, he gave me a ride to school. I didn’t do anything with him, and we’ve already been over this. Miles is my stepbrother,” I said.

  Anger filled his eyes. “Stepbrother or not, he’s not your blood brother, so shit could happen between you guys without it being fucked up,” he snarled.

  I went to argue with him, but then everything hit me at once. I remembered last night, I remembered what Miles had said to me, and then I felt the guilt as I stared into Luke’s blue eyes.

  “What? Did something else happen?” he asked, instantly reading me like a book.

  Biting at my bottom lip, I debated on how to tell him without making it seem like I had done any of it on purpose, because then I wasn’t any better than he was and I couldn’t exactly be pissed off that Haley was with him. Not to mention, Miles was much older than me, so if anyone knew what he had said or how he had touched me, especially someone like Luke, it could put Miles into a really bad position considering I was a minor.

  I was stuck between wanting to tell Luke the truth and keeping Miles out of trouble, but then I thought about the look I had seen in Miles’ eyes last night. That pain, that anger, that darkness had forever imprinted on my mind and I couldn’t bring myself to add more to his already fucked up life.

  So, for the first time in my relationship, I lied. “No, nothing happened,” I said, instantly feeling the pang of guilt that burned in my heart.

  Luke searched my gaze and I wasn’t sure if he could see it or not since I had never been that good at lying. But luckily, neither one of us had time to finish the conversation, because I heard the carhop at Noah’s window and turned my gaze that way to see her handing our food into the car.

  He paid and then started digging into the bags, pulling our food out. “Here. Eat woman,” he ordered as he sat my stuff on my lap.

  My gaze met Lucas’ again, but he wasn’t looking at me. Instead, he was watching the ground like it would explain everything to him, and his jaw ticked with frustration. It worried me that he had seen right through my sad attempt at lying, because if he had, Miles could be at risk and it would all be my fault.

  But there wasn’t much I could say and despite how much I cared about Lucas, I still felt the smallest bit of distance stretch between us.

  Without saying another word, Lucas stood up and walked away. I watched in silence as he got back into his car and backed out of the parking spot quickly, spinning the tires as he took off out of the lot. My heart ached, because I didn’t want to hurt Luke. I didn’t want him to hurt me. I didn’t want to hurt Miles.

  None of this was fair and I felt incredibly torn between everything. Usually, I wasn’t much of a crier, but I couldn’t stop the tears that formed in my eyes as I stared forward.

  Noah picked up on my mood quickly and reached over with his arm, pulling me into him and resting his chin on top of my head. “I’m sorry baby. Luke will come around,” he said.

  Turning my face away from the glaring lights, I buried it into his chest and sucked in a deep breath as my emotions rushed out before I had a chance to stop them. I stayed that way for a long time before Noah broke the silence.

  “Come on. Let’s go,” he said.

  I leaned away from him and reached up to wipe the tears away before I took a deep breath as Noah started the engine, taking us back onto the main road. With my moment of freak out, I had lost my appetite, so instead of eating the food we had just bought, I sat it on the floor between my legs and looked up to see out the windshield.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “Lila’s. I might have asked her if I could throw a small party at her place tonight,” he said.

  I blinked in surprise. “Really?”

  He nodded. “Don’t worry. It’s a small gathering. I couldn’t do it at my house or yours since there’s alcohol involved.”

  Lila had never said anything about it, but it wasn’t like she had to tell me about every decision she made. Still, letting Noah throw a party at her place was a bit risky, especially for her, but I kept quiet about it and sat silently as we drove toward the house. When we pulled down the alleyway, I saw that the party was already going full-blast and the first thing I noticed was the fact that Brad’s car was there along with Lila’s.

  But they weren’t the only ones I saw.

  Parked next to a certain black Chevelle, I saw Lucas’ car, which meant he had known this was going down tonight and he must have taken Brad back to his car before coming here.

  Dare’s Jeep was nowhere in sight as Noah parked on the other side of Lucas’ car and cut the engine off. When that happened, I heard the music playing inside Lila’s house and wondered if she was here, even though her car was. She could have gone with Dare. I didn’t even know if Miles was here. They all could have left.

  “Are you alright to do this?” Noah asked.

  I looked over at him. I couldn’t say that I was completely okay after what happened, but there wasn’t much I could do about it either. I just had to deal with it and try again tomorrow, so I nodded and then stepped out of the car after him. When we walked inside, I half expected to see complete craziness going on, but instead, all I saw was that someone had brought in a table and placed it in the center of the room.

  Cards were scattered out across it. Brad seemed to be the dealer as he passed cards out to Will, the other guy from the team, Lucas and Haley. But I was even more surprised to see that Lila sat between Will and Lucas, smiling and teasing Brad about how slow he was passing the cards around. All around me, I heard music booming and I realized that the song was Right Round by Flo Rida.

  “Hey!” Lila said as she jumped up from her seat and bounced toward me, nearly falling directly into me.

  I caught her at the last second and steadied her as she started laughing. “Are you drunk?” I asked, surprised.

  She shook her head quickly and chuckled. “No, not drunk, but definitely south of buzzed.”

  My gaze met Noah’s, but he only shrugged and then went to take a seat with the rest of them, getting into position to play cards. Lila grabbed my wrist and pulled me with her as she found her chair again.

  Once she was seated, she shoved Will out of his chair and then patted it for me. “Sit,” she said.

  I looked at Will, but he didn’t seem bothered by her actions. Instead, he simply took the empty seat next to him, so I sat down. I couldn’t stop myself from glancing to Lila’s other side where I saw Luke sitting. He didn’t meet my gaze, but sat with his eyes fixed on his cards, completely ignoring the fact that I was here.

  My heart split just a little bit more and I looked away from him, deciding to watch the rest of them play cards and try not to think too much about Luke or his mood swings.

  “Oh, you suck at being dealer!” Lila said as she threw her cards on the table and I knew she had just lost that round.

  Brad laughed, “Hey, don’t hate the dealer.”

  She flipped him off and sat back in her chair, crossing her arms and glaring at the rest of them as they continued the game. The song switched again and Baby One More Time by Britney Spears blared throughout the house. Lila nearly jumped out of h
er chair with excitement and then started singing along with the lyrics, swaying back and forth.

  “Seriously…” Noah groaned as if he couldn’t take another moment of this and dropped his forehead to the table.

  I couldn’t stop the smile that pulled at the corner of my lips at the situation playing out in front of me. Lila thought it was funny too, because she started singing the lyrics even louder as if she was trying to sing them directly to him. A laugh escaped me when Noah shook his head at her like he thought she had lost her mind completely.

  “I got something even better,” Will said after a moment and then grabbed Lila’s phone from where it sat in the middle of the table. He scrolled through the songs until he found the one he was looking for and then tapped the screen.

  A second later, Everybody by Backstreet Boys started playing and I barked out a laugh when Noah started singing along with the lyrics. Brad shook his head like he couldn’t believe he was friends with these people, but then Will joined in with Noah on the singing.

  And he sounded amazing.

  My mouth dropped open and I looked at Lila to see that she was just as amazed at how Will sounded too. I had no idea that Will could sing, but he definitely could.

  Even Brad and Lucas looked up when they heard him.

  “Holy shit,” Noah said as he paused singing long enough to listen to Will.

  Finally, the song ended and another one with a dancing beat came on and that was when Will took a deep breath before looking around at all the eyes on him.

  “What?” He asked.

  “Dude, we had no idea you could sing,” Brad said.

  He shrugged. “Eh, it’s whatever.”

  “You should do the national anthem at the football games,” Noah added.

  Will laughed and then looked down at his cards. “Yeah, no thanks.”

  “I think you sounded amazing,” Haley added, speaking for the first time since I got here.

  Before anyone could say much more on the matter, I heard Lila’s bedroom door open and looked up to see Miles. He was dressed in gray sweatpants, no shoes, and a white T-shirt. It was pretty clear that he had literally just walked out of the shower considering his ink black hair was still wet, causing the ends to curl over his forehead.

  Brad, Noah, Lila, and Will all seemed blind to him as they continued chatting about Will’s ability to sing. Lucas, on the other hand, noticed him almost instantly and so did Haley, who looked as if her jaw was going to fall off.

  Miles ignored everyone as he bypassed the table and went straight to the kitchen. I heard him get into the refrigerator behind me and a shiver ran up my spine at the sudden memory of when he stood behind me, touched me, and told me to stop reacting to him. My heart started racing and I glanced sideways at Lucas only to see that his jaw was ticking with anger as he stared down at his cards like they were the only thing keeping him calm.

  Oh no.

  This was about to go south real quick and I couldn’t let that happen. I had to do something to divert the storm I saw flaring up in Lucas’ eyes, so before I let myself think this through clearly, I shot up from my chair. With my heart in my throat, I walked directly over to Lucas and without asking for his permission, I straddled him and leaned my mouth down until it connected with his in a deep kiss.

  I half expected him to throw me off, but instead, his hands automatically found my hips and he pulled me closer to him, kissing me as deeply as I was kissing him. Behind us, I heard the group whistle and a few of them laugh, but I ignored them. Tilting my head to the side as I kissed Luke, my eyes opened for a split second.

  But that was long enough.

  Directly behind Lucas, I saw Miles as he leaned against the counter with a bottle of water in one hand and his eyes pinpointed on me. He watched me steadily and the look in his eyes sent a burning chill straight down my spine.

  It was so strong that I felt the need to close my eyes again and focus on kissing Luke instead who hadn’t noticed anything at all, but I wouldn’t forget that look Miles gave me. It was the look that simply said one thing.

  “Well fucking played, Lesley.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Lesley

  The next week passed quickly and then it was Friday, the day before prom. Things between me and Lucas seemed to go back to normal after my little stunt at Lila’s last Saturday. I wasn’t sure if it was the fact that I did it or the fact that Miles saw it, but either way, Lucas had been in a much better mood.

  And despite usually spending all my extra time at Lila’s house, I hadn’t been back over there since that night nor had I seen Miles. She had texted me a few times throughout the week and we had chatted that way, but I could tell that she thought it was better if I just stayed away until whatever was going on with them blew over, even if she wouldn’t tell me that.

  Noah, on the other hand, had refused to let me live that moment down. He kept teasing by saying that I had done it to make Miles jealous, but that wasn’t the case at all.

  I did it to distract Luke, because the last thing I wanted was for him to start shit with Miles, but there was also a tiny part of me that did it for myself too. I wanted to make things right, even if that meant doing the extreme.

  And plus, Miles had made it clear about where he stood. Not that I blamed him. He was older and had way more shit going on, whereas I was just a high school girl preparing for prom. We lived totally different lives and that was just how it would be for us. It wasn’t like we would ever be a thing.

  First, because my dad would probably flip his shit, especially since he hasn’t even met Miles yet. I still didn’t know if my stepmom had told him about Miles, but I wasn’t about to try and find out either. I knew from experience that my dad would be completely against me having any kind of relationship with Miles considering his age and his relationship to me.

  It would be against the rules my dad had put in place when he decided to marry Kelly. I could remember to this very moment the way he expressed it. She had older kids, all of them boys besides Lila, and Dad had me. I knew it freaked him out having just Dare around, so I felt guilty. I knew I should have told my dad about the situation with Miles and what had gone down between us, but I just couldn’t.

  Dad would see it as Miles threatening me, especially since he didn’t know him, but that wasn’t it at all. When he had touched me, I never felt like I was being forced into anything, but even if I tried explaining that to Dad, I knew without a doubt that he wouldn’t listen.

  He would simply want to murder Miles and then all hell would break loose, so it was better for everyone, including Kelly, for me to just keep my mouth shut.

  Miles was the black sheep. He was the unknown, even if Kelly knew he was her son. She still hadn’t mentioned him, and I wasn’t even sure how he kept hidden this long. There was so much history, so many secrets, about Miles and that whole part of the family that I didn’t know, but strangely, I didn’t care to know.

  All I knew was that Miles came out of nowhere and he was supposed to be dead, which should be enough to make anyone run in the opposite direction.

  I was just not one of those people.

  All of these thoughts ran through my head as I walked out of school that afternoon with my book bag flopping against my side. A warm breeze blew over my skin, tousling my hair around and the heat of the sun beat down on me as I walked toward where Lucas had parked his car. I was the first one there, so I placed my book bag on the trunk and leaned against it to wait for him and Noah.

  It wasn’t long before I spotted them heading in my direction. When Lucas got close enough to the car, he unlocked it. Grabbing my book bag off the trunk, I walked over to the passenger side and opened the door, throwing my bag into the floorboard before sitting down. A few seconds later, Lucas’ door opened and he got in.

  I looked around for Noah. “Is he not riding with us today?”

  Lucas started the engine and shook his head. “No, he had his mom bring his car to school at lunch,” he said as
we started out of the parking lot.

  “Oh,” I said.

  “And I might have something to do with that,” he admitted as we pulled out onto the main road and headed in the opposite direction of my house.

  I looked around, confused. “Where are we going?”

  Lucas smiled without looking away from the road. “You’ll see.”

  My mind tried to come up with places we could be going, but none came to mind, so I decided to stay quiet as Lucas lead us out of town. As he drove, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and sent a quick text to my father, letting him know I was with Luke and I might be a little late getting home. I knew it wouldn’t be a problem for him. He loved Lucas and he didn’t care about how long I hung out with him.

  On our way out of town, I watched out the window as the buildings started to thin out and were replaced with trees instead. It wasn’t until we got a mile or so out of town that we came up on an empty parking lot, only it wasn’t completely bare. I saw a sign that read “Twisted” in neon letters, but they weren’t lit up anymore.

  And in the center of the lot was what looked like an old building, except it was halfway torn down and had clearly been destroyed by a devastating fire.

  That was when it hit me.

  I gasped and spun around to keep my eye on the building.

  Miles had said he got those scars from a fire and that it had been a bar. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t put two and two together. I remembered reading about the fire that burnt Twisted down in the newspapers. I should have known. It was the only other bar besides Paradise in the whole city of Hampton.

  “What?” Lucas asked.

  When the bar was too far away for me to look at, I spun back around and blinked several times as I tried to process this new information. The fire at Twisted had always been suspicious to everyone in town, but nothing had ever been proven. That didn’t mean I hadn’t heard the rumors flying around town about what actually happened.

  From a drug deal gone bad to a professional arsonist. People truly believed that the bar was caught on fire for a reason and that the people who were supposedly involved were big time criminals, but the press never did release the names of the victims due to their own wishes. But if even just part of the rumors were true, then Miles could very well be involved in some really bad shit, more than I even pictured.