by Mary Martel
Of course he didn’t hesitate to follow right along behind me. Not that I was surprised about this. In fact, I should have expected it.
Gamely, I ignored the door to the office and the fact it rattled loudly as we strolled past.
“Fucking assholes,” Riley spat angrily under his breath, and I swear my eyebrows rose almost halfway up to my hairline at hearing it. “I don’t know how my girl survived living around these horrible people.” He paused, and I felt his eyes burning down onto me. In a much quieter voice, he said, “Or how you did either.”
I didn’t care about any of that. I was stuck back on him calling Gin his girl. He’d sounded so sincere and there was an ache in his voice that absolutely could not be denied.
I was back to hating him once again.
If you loved someone, genuinely loved them, you didn’t go around sticking your dick in their best friend.
Then again, what did I know? I had never been in love before, and I had been raised by a bunch of cheating assholes. Maybe this was normal behavior?
Out of the corner of my eye, I peeked up at the living, breathing Ken doll walking beside me and thought, Nah, he is just a cheating asshole like everyone else.
And I’d do well to never forget it.
Chapter Three
Consider It Done
Riley
I felt like I could come out of my skin, and it wasn’t a good feeling.
Twins.
They were the same, but they absolutely were not. How that could be I did not know, it just was.
Obviously, I knew the mint-haired beauty was not Gin. She was bold, unapologetic, and barely cried at her sister’s funeral. But no way could her red, puffy eyes be missed while she was standing in the kitchen. She’d put on a brave face at the funeral and had waited until she was locked away behind closed doors before she’d allowed herself to cry her eyes out.
Well, my throat closed up painfully. She wasn’t alone exactly, since she’d admitted that psycho twat had been locked away with her.
Now him, I did not like at all. And not just because he’d actually tried to run me over. I mean, who the fuck actually did shit like that in real life? Not a stable human being, that was who. More like a crazy asshole.
And he was in there with her right now, in Gin’s bedroom. I hated that I’d had to walk away from her, leave her there with him. Not because I thought he’d hurt her, but because he’d looked at her and treated her like she belonged to him.
That shit did not sit right with me for reasons I was too fucked in the head to even think about.
Gin was gone.
Dead.
And this girl, Gem, her look-alike, was here, in this house, and sleeping in Gin’s bed.
For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why, when they were identical, I was attracted to this one and hadn’t been attracted to Gin. Maybe a respect thing? Like, when one of your best friends in the whole world confides her deepest, darkest secrets in you and you learn she’s a lesbian you kind of feel like an asshole when your dick gets hard for her. The way I saw it, I trained myself not to look at her that way. Like I said, maybe it was about respect, the kind you showed your friends.
This Gem wasn’t my best friend though, and I didn’t think there was any way I could stop my dick from getting hard just by standing next to her and breathing in her expensive perfume or watching the way she moved in those shoes and that dress with her long, shapely legs on display.
I couldn’t stop myself from going there and felt like even more of a total fucking asshole because the first time it had happened had been at Gin’s fucking funeral of all places with her goddamned twin sister of all people.
What the fuck kind of lowlife went to his best girl’s funeral and then almost got a hard-on while watching her grieving sister practically run away, knowing fully well you were likely the reason she felt the need to run, but fuck did her ass and legs look mighty fine from the back, so fine your dick decided to wake the fuck up.
Yeah, I was exactly that asshole and that realization sucked.
Fucked in the head, that was exactly what I was. And possibly addicted. I wanted more of that face, the sound of her husky but feminine voice, and that curvy, luscious body. I wanted everything I could possibly get from her, knowing instinctively I’d come running right back for more.
That shit was so far from being right it wasn’t even funny. I was going to make myself sick just thinking about it.
If I hadn’t drank so much since getting here, I’d drive myself home. I’d Uber it and come back tomorrow for my truck, but there was no guarantee the gate would be open and if I’d be allowed inside to get my truck. I wasn’t a filthy rich kid and I needed my truck to get me around. I couldn’t just take another vehicle out of our massive garage and go about my business. Mostly because we didn’t have a garage, whether massive or not. And my parents didn’t have spare vehicles on hand. My father had died when I was little, and my mother was raising three children on a single parent’s salary. I paid for my truck after getting a job, working my ass off, and saving up for it.
I was, however, smart enough to know Gin’s mother wouldn’t give the first shit about any of that, and if she was in one of her moods, the gate would be closed and it would stay that way until she felt like opening it again.
That woman did crazy shit like that all the time. Whenever I’d asked Gin about it, she’d brush off my questions and my concern, saying it was just the way things were and not to worry about it because it was normal.
Nothing about Gin’s life had ever really come across as normal to me, and now I was finding this true in more ways than I could have ever possibly imagined.
Having to hide the existence of a sibling, a twin for fuck’s sake, was the kind of thing you’d catch on a Lifetime movie and briefly worry about what kind of sick people were out there in the world roaming free, right before you rolled your eyes at it. What it wasn’t was something you ever thought you’d encounter in your lifetime.
What drove a person to hide the existence of one of their children? And why had they been separated? Wasn’t that supposed to be painful for twins? Like losing a limb? I thought I’d read that somewhere but couldn’t be certain.
From what Gin had reluctantly shared about her father, he’d been a marginally better parent than the mother, but he’d still managed to suck. Why hadn’t she been placed with him and her sister?
My stomach churned with unease as I made my way back to the party in the pool house. It was the last place I wanted to be, but since I couldn’t leave and sleeping on the floor in front of Gin’s bedroom door wasn’t going to fly, my feet took me to the only place I actually could be here—the pool house.
I was fed up with the bullshit and didn’t want to be around anyone anymore today, even my so-called friends. Well, except for Gem, I could totally be around her for the rest of the night, and I didn’t think I’d get sick of her.
I knew I should try and get her out of my head, but I wasn’t stupid, and I knew when the battle was lost before it’d even began. I wasn’t into fighting a losing battle and wasting my time.
So here I was, walking into the pool house when it was the last place I wanted to be, and way more sober than I was when I’d walked away from here just half an hour ago.
The place was way nicer than the house my family lived in but not near as big. Still, it was nicer than any place I’d probably ever lived in or even nicer than the place the rest of these fools lived in.
Family room, kitchen, small dining area, two large bedrooms, and three bathrooms. The one bathroom closest to the pool was overly large with benches and an area closed off for changing clothing in and several shower areas. There were shelves stocked with fluffy white towels as well and a wooden bench that ran along half the room.
Everything in the pool house was top of the line and expensive. Probably the best money could buy. Nothing but the best for filthy rich people. Oh how the other half lived.
I’d
hung out here plenty of times with Gin before. When her mother had been home Gin had never really liked for us to be inside the main house. I thought she just hadn’t gotten along with her parental unit like a normal teenager and her mom was more than a little bit moody, but now I was seeing maybe she had a different reason for not wanting any of her friends hanging around inside.
The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if maybe I hadn’t really known Gin at all. Had anyone really known her? It didn’t even appear her own sister knew shit about her.
This pissed me off, and at the same time made me incredibly sad. One of the nicest, sweetest, kindest people I’d ever met, and I now was here questioning who she’d really been as a person.
She didn’t deserve that.
She deserved so much more than that.
Maybe Gem did too. I wouldn’t know until I had the opportunity to get to know her better. I’d get that chance too. No fucking way was I allowing the mint-haired ghost of my best friend get away from me without me getting to know her first. Or touch her. Or maybe even taste her, if I was that lucky.
Yeah, fucked in the head, for sure.
Somehow, I needed to get my head screwed on straight.
“Riles,” Belinda slurred obnoxiously.
She stumbled into my side and I was forced to wrap my arm around her middle and take on most of her weight to keep her standing on her feet. She leaned into me heavily and shoved her face into mine.
She wasn’t just drunk, she was blotto and beyond sloppy. I hated it when she got like this, and it was unfortunate because it happened all the freaking time. I got why she needed something to take the edge off right now, but that didn’t mean I had to like it or that I even wanted to be around her when she was like this.
We were all grieving, nobody wanted to play babysitter to a puking, sobbing, messy Belinda. Which was the only way this would end because it was the only way it always ended. The only person who’d ever been able to control her ass when it got out of control had been Gin.
“Riles,” Belinda repeated loudly in my face. I winced at the vodka stench wafting off of her breath, but she didn’t seem to notice or care. “Where’s you been? Yous been gone too long.”
In her state, it was a wonder she even knew where she was right now, let alone how long I’d been gone for. And it wasn’t like I’d left her here all by her little lonesome. There were plenty of people here to keep her drunk ass entertained. I knew, even sad, she’d more than enjoy the entertainment. She always did even when she was in a committed relationship, the bitch had wandering eyes and roaming hands.
If Gin was still alive, she’d be able to tell you all about that. She’d be so sad if she could get an eyeful of her girlfriend right now.
On that thought, a thought that left a bad taste in my mouth, I shrugged Belinda off of me. I grabbed hold of her arm and dragged her toward one of the leather couches. She whined and sputtered in protest, but I couldn’t actually tell what the hell she was saying because she slurred her words so badly I couldn’t make them out.
Gracelessly, she landed ass first on a couch cushion. Her dress rode up her thighs, stopping at an indecent level, and I quickly averted my gaze. I let her arm go and stepped back as if the touch of her skin had actually burned me.
I leaned over her and hissed, “For fuck’s sake, Belinda, pull yourself together.” I reached down, grabbed hold of the hem of her dress that was now almost all the way up to her hips and exposing her panties, and I yanked it down her thighs. She yelped and her hands flew out to my shoulders. Her nails dug in painfully, and I had to grit my teeth to stop myself from cursing at her. “We attended a fucking funeral today. Gin’s funeral. What the hell do you think you’re doing acting like this? You oughta be ashamed of yourself. Christ.”
I let her go, stood up straight, and angrily raked my hand through my hair, pulling a bit more roughly than I had intended to. I didn’t flinch at the pain, I welcomed it. Feeling a physical pain outside of the pain I already had raging inside of me was a much needed relief. This one hurt a whole lot less.
Belinda stood up and rushed me. Her hands went into my chest and she sloppily shoved me back. I only went back so I could try to get away from her. I kept backing up until I cleared her entirely and she tripped over her high heels that she, for some idiot reason, still had on her feet.
As she sprawled chest first, ass up, on the plush carpeted floor, I couldn’t stop myself from comparing Belinda to Gem and coming up short on my friend’s behalf. My lip curled in disgust.
Gem had showered and changed into comfortable clothes. She had looked exhausted, rightfully so, and it had been more than obvious to me that she was in an immense amount of pain, but had been working overtime to keep it contained so it didn’t spill over onto the people around her. She was in so much pain, though, it hurt just to be around her and just existing in the same room she stood in.
Belinda hadn’t lost her twin sister. She’d lost her friend and longtime girlfriend she screwed over all the freaking time and cheated on. And yet here she was acting like she was attending a frat party and wasn’t grieving the death of a loved one.
I had not noticed until that moment that I really did not like Belinda. We’d been good friends since third grade and practically grew up together. It wasn’t that I thought we’d be friends forever or something and buy houses up the road from each other in the same suburb. But I hadn’t expected there to be a day where I openly thought to myself that I actually did not want to be friends with her.
But that day had come and here I was.
Today was that day.
And I knew to the depth of my soul that I no longer wanted to be friends with this bitch. It was done and we were over.
It didn’t have anything to do with the fact that she was right this second a very sloppy, drunken mess. It had everything to do with a dead girl who’d never been anything but the best friend we could have ever wished for to the both of us.
That girl, even dead, demanded a certain level of respect, and this bitch had failed to deliver that even during the funeral when she’d been too busy clinging to a football player in the hopes of him letting her ride his dick later. I didn’t give a fuck that he was one of my supposed friends, and that Belinda and Gin hadn’t been public with their relationship so he didn’t know to respect that. A funeral absolutely was not the place to find your next hookup, and then acting on it at the dead girl’s family home was even more of a dickhole move.
Belinda sure as shit knew it. She just did not care.
The football player knew better than to do this shit today of all days. He just thought more with his dick than he did his brain, and nothing, absolutely nothing, meant more to him than getting his dick wet.
The rest of these motherfuckers currently raising hell in this pool house? Well, clearly they’d loved Gin, thought they’d known her, and were now attempting to drown their sorrows while celebrating the short life she’d lived.
“Riley,” Belinda wailed as she struggled to gain her feet. She rolled over onto her back and kicked off her shoes. “How dare you put your hands on me?”
The music shut off and the room suddenly grew silent. The silence was deafening.
Everything else was utter bullshit. She’d put her hands on me, not the other way around. This shit was on her, and I wasn’t about to take another second of her abuse.
The bitch.
Ignoring Belinda’s struggle to remove her socks, I turned on the rest of the room. Nobody would look me in the eye. All eyes were on Belinda, and I hoped for her sake her goddamn dress was covering her crotch this time. No way would she be able to live down flashing her pussy to a roomful of our classmates, even if it was covered in lace. People would take pictures and then her drunk ass would have even more regrets to wake up to come tomorrow morning.
Fuck it.
As of five minutes ago, our friendship came to an end. Her shit no longer became my problem then.
“Party’s over,�
�� I barked out loudly, and the people around me jumped in surprise. “Either go to sleep or get the fuck out. Those are your only options, but you’re done getting fucked up here tonight.”
As usual when I spoke, people listened to what I had to say and complied.
People immediately started grabbing their buddies and belongings, and they started clearing out. Unfortunately for me, Belinda wasn’t one of them. Neither was Jason, the football player and my friend whom she’d decided to latch onto for the day. Two of his jock buddies hung around him. As did Monica, one of Belinda’s besties.
I cringed at the sight of the redhead, thinking it was just my luck she’d be the one to stay behind and stick close to her friend in a show of support. It couldn’t have been anyone else? Someone maybe who hadn’t been obsessed with my dick since eighth grade? Someone who maybe I hadn’t stupidly allowed a taste of it, and the crazy chick hadn’t been obsessed and ready for more ever since? Someone like that, perhaps?
Admittedly, not my finest moment, but horny teens did all kinds of stupid shit and I was blaming that particular mistake on my raging, out of control hormones at the time.
Bummer for Monica it didn’t take me long to smarten up and get my shit under control. I never went back for seconds and had yet to find a girl I wanted to lock down for a real relationship.
Bummer for me because Monica was still interested in more than just my dick and had since proved to be quite resilient and very stalkerish.
Fuck my life at the moment, in so many different ways.
I scratched at the back of my neck awkwardly. This was exactly the kind of thing I absolutely did not need to be dealing with on today of all days. I was suddenly exhausted and overwhelmed with all the bullshit going on around me.
It made me less careful with my words than I normally would have been.
“Don’t even think about it tonight, Monica,” I snapped at her irritably. I powered through her angry glare and kept right on going. “I went there once and haven’t thought about going back since. Christ, it’s not like I’ve been subtle about it. How you can miss out on it never fails to amaze me. But I guess some people are just born that stupid. Now, I’m done with being subtle. Get over yourself, move the fuck on, and stay the fuck away from me.”
