“Why are you butting your nose in my business, motherfucker? And why are you even here? Get the hell off our campus,” Caleb says, just as he tries to spit at Eli’s feet.
God, boys are disgusting.
Eli sidesteps the phlegm and goes right for Caleb, clutching the front of his shirt in his fist as he thrusts his face in Caleb’s. “You don’t want to fuck with me tonight. We usually get along, but I’m not in the mood to listen to your shitty mouth say shitty things. Neither are my friends.”
I sit in my car, frozen. Caleb’s alone. He has no backup. Eli is surrounded by his friends and teammates. They could beat the absolute shit out of him if they wanted to. There’s no one else in the parking lot, since not as many people park over here for games. Caleb doesn’t usually park here either.
It’s almost like he wanted to get me alone. And that makes me uneasy.
“We can forget this encounter ever happened, am I right?” Eli asks when Caleb still hasn’t said anything, though his lips are tight and his eyes are blazing with seething emotion. “We’ll let you go, and you’ll leave Callahan’s sister alone.”
Caleb’s lips turn white, and he nods once. Eli releases his grip on the shirt with a little shove and Caleb glares at all the boys who now surround him, proudly wearing their purple and gold.
“You say one word about this and I’m blabbing it all over Snapchat and Instagram that you tried to fuck her.” Eli points at me. “Jake will come for you and you know it.”
“What the fuck? He won’t believe you,” Caleb says with a sneer.
“You want to try me?” Eli’s brows shoot up.
Caleb stays quiet. I’m guessing that’s a no.
“Fuck this,” Caleb mutters, sending me a quick glance. “You okay, Ava?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“Roll up your window and get out of here,” he says just before he turns tail and runs back the way we came.
The Mustang football team all start to talk and laugh the moment Caleb disappears. Eli watches me, his hands on his hips, his upper lip curled in disgust. “That motherfucker just ran off,” he says to me, his tone incredulous. “Didn’t even stick around to make sure you got away safely.”
“Is that what you’re doing?” I ask him pointedly. “Making sure I’m safe?”
“We parked over here.” He starts to approach just as I start to roll up my window. He stands in the spot Caleb just vacated, his gaze on mine as the window shuts. He doesn’t leave. Just stares at me, his hands shoved into the front pockets of his jeans, his expression…sad? We continue to watch each other through the window, and I know I should take Caleb’s advice. Just put my car in drive and take off.
But I don’t. There’s something in Eli’s gaze. His face. He looks so…
Vulnerable.
He glances over his shoulder and yells at his friends.
“Leave.”
That’s all he says.
“You sure?” one of them asks.
Eli nods. “Just go. I’ve got this.”
They send me curious glances as they make their way to their vehicles. I watch them go, Eli still standing beside my car, my window still rolled up. Once they all pile into their cars and I hear the engines start, I roll down my window once more.
“What do you want?” I ask him, my tone snotty, like I can’t help it.
He brings out the worst in me.
“Why did you stay?” he throws back at me.
I can’t tell him I stayed because he looks sad. He might think I’m taking pity on him, and that’s not it. There’s something bothering him. I almost feel like—
He needs me.
“Are you all right?” I ask, my voice lowering.
He steps closer to the car then kneels down, so his face is level with mine, his long fingers wrapped around the door frame. This close, with the light from above shining down upon him, I can see every little thing on his flawless face. The swirl of green and brown and gold in his eyes. The old, jagged scar just beneath his chin. The little wrinkle that forms between his eyebrows when he frowns, which is what he’s currently doing. “No, I’m not. I feel like shit, Ava. And it’s all your fault.”
My frown matches his own. “How is it my fault? I haven’t talked to you in weeks.”
“Exactly. That’s the problem. You won’t talk to me. I nurse you back to health after you practically threw up all over my face and then you ditch me. It’s bullshit. You know how I feel about you.”
I want to argue that my vomit came nowhere near his face, but that would be pointless. “See, and that’s where I have a problem. Why should I talk to you when you treat me like all your other hos?” I ask, annoyed that we’re having this conversation. In the parking lot at my school, of all places.
“All my other hos?” He starts to laugh, the bastard. I curl my fingers into fists and glare at him, fighting the humiliation and shame that wants to wash over me. “You’re like no other girl I’ve ever met, Ava.”
My entire body softens at that one statement, and I tell myself I’m weak. When it comes to Eli, I’m a weak, wimpy mess and I don’t get it. I don’t get him.
I don’t get us.
Eli glances over his shoulder and I look in the same direction. We both hear the voices coming closer, and he turns his head, meeting my gaze once more. “Can we go somewhere and just…talk?”
It’s how he asks and the tone of his voice that gets to me. He sounds desperate. Like he wants to be with me and no one else.
Again, a weakness. But I’m grasping at it with slippery fingers, and I will do what it takes to keep it—keep him—with me for a few minutes longer.
“Okay,” I agree softly. “But we’re only talking.”
Lies. And I know it.
“Yeah. Talking. That’s it.”
He knows it too.
“I mean it.” No I don’t.
“Sure.” Eli rises to his feet and jogs around the front of my car, getting in on the passenger side. He glances around with a low whistle, slowly shaking his head. “This is one slick ride.”
My parents got me a steel gray BMW 7-series four door sedan over the summer. Yes, that sounds like a boring car. But let me tell you, it’s not. It’s hybrid, it’s luxurious and the engine is powerful. This is why Jake never drives it. He’s reckless.
Like Eli.
“Want to drive it?” I offer.
If my dad heard me right now, he’d kill me. Murder me in my sleep. When Autumn first got her license, she let one of the guys from the football team drive her car once, after a game when everyone was hanging out in the parking lot, doing God knows what.
The dude rammed it into a pole. His family didn’t have insurance. We all thought Dad was going to have a coronary.
Eli lifts his head, his gaze meeting mine. “Really?”
I nod, not sure of what possessed me to make the offer, but screw it.
No one will find out.
Actually, I take that back. I know why I made the offer. Because I knew it would make Eli happy. I wanted to put a smile on his face. Ease his mood. He’s been in a dark one for a while, I bet.
I can relate.
“Fuck yeah, I want to drive it,” he breathes as he reaches out and runs his hand over the dashboard with reverence.
I almost snort. Boys and cars. I will never get it.
We quickly swap places, and I have to admit, Eli looks pretty damn good sitting behind the wheel. He sits there for a moment, stroking the steering wheel as if he’s trying to make it come. I shiver as I watch his caressing fingers.
Remembering how he would caress me too.
“I have an idea where we should go,” he says as he puts my car into drive.
“Where?”
“It’s a surprise.” He glances over at me, a tiny smile curling his lips. “You in?”
I am so in…
It’s downright scary.
Twenty-Four
Eli
Fucking Caleb the motherfucker, hanging
all over Ava’s car and staring at her like she’s a tasty snack. Fuck that asshole and his too pretty face. I wasn’t lying when I said Jake would be pissed if he knew one of his best friends was trying to get with his baby sister.
I know he’s protective of his family, Ava specifically. He knows what a bunch of jackasses his friends are.
Correction—what a bunch of jackasses all teenage guys are.
Jealousy clawed at my insides the second I spotted Ava and Caleb together in the parking lot. They’d make a pretty couple. They’d probably make pretty babies. Immediately I picture Ava on her knees in front of Caleb. Lying beneath him as he porks her.
Fuck that noise. Fuck it, fuck it, fuck it.
I’m sure Drew Callahan would welcome Caleb into the family with open arms.
I’d probably be burned alive if I bothered to show up on the Callahan doorstep.
Well, guess who’s laughing now? I’m currently the one sitting in the driver’s seat of Drew Callahan’s baby daughter’s car. My foot is heavy on the gas pedal, the engine roaring as we head up the highway, leaving our small shitty town behind us.
Ava bends forward, unzipping the backpack at her feet and pulling out what looks like a pair of sweats. “I hate this uniform,” she says.
Right before she peels off her top, leaving her sitting there in just her short cheer skirt and black sports bra.
I do a doubletake and nearly drive the car off the highway and down an embankment.
“Eli!” She gasps, sending me a wide-eyed glare. “Watch it!”
“You can’t expect me to drive like a normal human while you strip,” I warn her, my voice extra rough. I’m currently white knuckling the steering wheel thanks to her antics.
“Here’s your warning then,” she says, irritation in her voice. Though I hear a hint of amusement there too. “I’m stripping.”
She shakes out the black jogger sweatpants and then shoves one foot into a leg. Then the other. I watch in distracted fascination, keeping one eye on the road and the other on Ava, which is pretty much impossible. The car drifts to the right, drifts to the left, with me always righting the steering wheel at the last second.
“Pay. Attention. To. The. Road,” she chastises, and I swear she sounds like she might be laughing at me.
This girl twists me up inside, swear to God.
She tugs the pants up her legs, lifting her butt off the seat and slipping them on under her skirt before she turns it around by the waist, undoing the button and zipper. She pulls the skirt off, letting it drop to the floorboard and now she’s just sitting there in a bra and sweatpants, looking like the sexiest girl I’ve ever fucking seen.
When she pulls a T-shirt out of her backpack, I have to put my foot down.
“No.”
Ava pauses in her movements. “No what?”
“Absolutely not.” I shake my head. “You’re not wearing that. Uh uh.”
She huffs out an agitated breath. “Why not?”
“Because you look hot as fuck sitting there, just like that.” I wave a hand in her general direction. The black sports bra clings to her perfect tits and exposes her tan, flat stomach. I want to check her tan lines. See how pale she really is. Run my mouth all over those secret spots.
I start to sweat. She starts to laugh.
Feeling high on the sound of her laughter, I drive around the curves along the lake road way too fast. Ava squeals like the tires do when I take them extra sharp, and I just laugh at her obvious fear. Like a maniac.
Like I have a death wish.
Maybe I do. This week has been shit. It feels good to have some freedom. Away from Mom. Away from her threats. Away from that house that seems to close in on me every time I enter it.
“You’re freaking me out,” she tells me after I take yet another hairpin curve too quickly. Her hands are fists resting in her lap, and I feel sort of bad.
Then again, I don’t feel anything at all.
“Sorry.” The word falls from my lips with too much ease because I don’t mean it.
“Where are we going?”
“I told you, it’s a surprise.” My voice is measured. Even. I sound like I have my shit together, but deep inside, I’m a sloppy ass mess. Nervous. Which is fucking hilarious, because girls don’t scare me. Not usually.
This one sitting in the passenger seat terrifies the shit out of me.
Within minutes, we’re at the old Johnson resort. The scene of our last crime. I half-expect to see yellow police tape surrounding the area, a chalk outline showing where we last stood. Though really, that chalk line would be down at the lakeshore, right next to that log where I kissed her.
Before she barfed.
Good times.
“Why here?” she asks as she peers out the window. The moon is full, casting its silvery glow on everything in front of us, including Jackson’s uncle’s cabin. There are other cabins out here too, most of them tattered and abandoned. With sinking floors and torn up roofs. I don’t know why this resort didn’t succeed while so many others thrived. They still thrive. This one is like a ghost town.
I think it’s my new favorite place to hang out.
“Come on,” I tell her, shutting off the engine before I open the door. I don’t answer her question. She’ll figure out soon enough why I have her out here.
I exit the car and so does she, looking unsure as she approaches, wearing the sweatpants and the sports bra, her pristine white cheer shoes still on her feet. She doesn’t normally strut around like this, I can tell. Whereas a lot of girls prance around campus or at parties wearing little to no clothing, that’s not the vibe Ava gives off.
She’s a good girl.
Throughout high school, I’ve discovered good girls secretly want to be bad. You can’t expect to keep that façade up forever, am I right? They put on a big show, making everyone think they’re sweet and innocent, but really? They want someone to dirty them up. They seek the thrill of being with a bad boy.
Is that Ava’s game plan? Just looking at her fills me with lust. Fills me with the urge to mess her up. Strip her down and put her back together again.
“It’s cold out here,” she says on a shiver, wrapping her arms around herself. “I want my T-shirt.”
“Fuck that.” I grab her arm and pull her into me, holding her close. She presses her cheek against my chest, and I rest my chin on top of her head. She’s the perfect fit. I’m tempted to say the words out loud, but she might tell me to go fuck myself. “I’ll keep you warm.”
She nods. Burrows her face into my chest, like she’s trying to slip beneath my skin. If I could, I’d let her.
We break into Jackson’s uncle’s cabin. It was too easy, and when we stumble inside, I try to turn on the lights, but they don’t work.
Weird.
I open the fridge door to find a few stray beers inside and I grab two, offering one to Ava. She shakes her head no so I crack one open and bring the other one with me after I slam the refrigerator door. “You’re not thirsty?”
“My water bottle is out in the car.” She glances toward the front of the house. “I could go get it.”
“I’ll get it. You wait here.”
I dash outside and grab her backpack, bringing it into the house and handing it over to Ava, who’s now sitting on the sagging couch. I settle in next to her, not leaving much space between us, leaning my head back against the couch and staring up at the ceiling. The curtains are pushed back, exposing the windows and letting in the light from the moon, making it a lot easier to see.
The first thing I notice are the cobwebs. It’s strange, how this little cabin was lit up like a Christmas tree only a couple of weeks ago, and now everything is shut off. Like it hasn’t been used in years.
“We should go down to the lake,” I suggest.
“So I can freeze my ass off? No thanks,” she says, taking a sip from the straw top of her Hydro Flask.
I stare at her lips. Imagine them wrapped around my dick. I remember how we we
re out by the lake and she actually had her lips on my dick.
Well. On top of my dick, with two layers of clothing between them.
Close enough.
“I have a question,” I say to her after a few beats of silence.
“What do you want to know?”
I turn my head to look at her, blatantly studying her open, friendly expression. I want to know what she’s thinking, but then I might discover something awful so…
I don’t ask that particular question.
“Was Caleb hitting on you?” The words leave me like hostile bullet points. I sound like a jealous fuck.
Maybe that’s because I am a jealous fuck.
“No.” She laughs. Shakes her head. “My brother’s friends don’t flirt with me. They’re too scared of my brother.”
I scoff. That asshole doesn’t scare me one bit. “Caleb was looking at you as if he could imagine the two of you fucking.”
She sends me a disgusted look. “I thought the same thing.”
Wait a minute. Did she just agree with me?
“But he looks at all girls like that,” she adds. “It’s part of Caleb’s…charm.”
I laugh. “If you actually mean that, then you must think I’m Prince Fucking Charming.”
“What are you saying?”
My laughter dies. “I always look at you and imagine what it would be like.” I hesitate. “Fucking you.”
She remains quiet. Takes another sip from her Hydro Flask. It’s bright yellow and covered in stickers that all have the same color scheme. Pale yellow sunflowers and lemons with cutesy sayings that are really all a bunch of horseshit. Girls call that sort of thing aesthetically pleasing, and I suppose it is, though I honestly don’t know exactly what they’re talking about.
“You’ve fucked lots of girls, I’m sure,” she finally says, and my mouth drops open when an f-bomb flies from pretty perfect Ava’s mouth. “I don’t understand your interest in me. Is it because of Jake?”
I blink at her twice. Jake who? Seriously, I am at a loss…
Oh. Right. Her asshole brother.
“Is this some way for you to get back at him for whatever it is he’s done to you over the years? Am I some sort of revenge fuck?”
Addicted To Him Page 20