Van (Pushing Daisies Book 2)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  Van

  Pushing Daisies 2

  Heather Young-Nichols

  Copyright © 2021 by Heather Young-Nichols

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever including Internet usage, without written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover by Sassy Cat Creative

  Contents

  1. Lexi

  2. Van

  3. Lexi

  4. Van

  5. Lexi

  6. Van

  7. Lexi

  8. Van

  9. Lexi

  10. Van

  11. Lexi

  12. Van

  13. Lexi

  14. Van

  15. Lexi

  16. Van

  17. Lexi

  18. Van

  19. Lexi

  20. Van

  Also by Heather Young-Nichols

  About the Author

  1

  Lexi

  Opening up any social media should’ve been the last thing I did. Ever at this point. There was little interest in seeing what people had cooked up today. Things had gotten so much worse after I’d gone with Mom and Charlie to visit Lawson on tour.

  So. Much. Worse.

  Mom asked me all the time what was wrong. I’d always told her it wasn’t a big deal and I’d be fine, but now I wasn’t so sure. One thing I had going for me was that the semester had ended, so I had months before having to face these people. That was the only thing getting me through this. My ability to hide away from the world.

  Top of my Instagram thread was a post that read, To the girl who got drunk at the frat party this weekend and doesn’t know if she hooked up with Joe Tilden… We know the answer…

  I closed my eyes and took a breath.

  That incident had happened weeks ago and messages were still appearing on social media about it. Worse than that, there was only one person who could know that I questioned what had happened with Joe.

  My best friend, Nora. Yet the post wasn’t from her. She had to be behind it.

  I’d gone to the party and had too much to drink, apparently thought I didn’t usually drink a lot. Still, over alcoholed at a freaking frat part wasn’t all that and I certainly wasn’t the only one that night. I’d kicked myself many times even if I couldn’t figure out how I’d gotten that drunk. Everything was kind of foggy, but I’d made it back to my dorm room. There were some half-memories or things I wasn’t even sure were memories leftover, which made me question if I’d had sex that night and with whom. Joe was the only one who came to mind.

  He and I had been kind of dancing around each other all semester, but it’d never come to anything. I’d told Nora that I wasn’t sure I’d had sex. There were usually signs left behind and I’d had none of them but that damn rumor had started and it wouldn’t go away. Here we were.

  “It can’t be her,” I whispered, not willing to believe the woman who’d become my best friend over the last two years would do this to me.

  The way I saw it, the only option I had was to call her.

  I grabbed my phone off my bed and chose her name from my contact list. In the safety of my bedroom at home, I was feeling pretty brave.

  “Hello,” Nora answered on the second ring.

  “Did you tell Serenity about that party so she could make the post on Instagram?” I asked, having decided not to beat around the bush. There was no point. She’d know exactly what I was referring to.

  “What are you talking about?” Her voice took on a snide sting that bounced right off me at that point. We were adults. We could handle this conversation.

  “The post I just saw on Instagram. I’m going to send it to you.”

  I quickly brought the app up, snapped a screenshot, then sent it as a text to her.

  “Got it,” she said, then a second later, I heard her snort, which was when I should’ve realized that she had told Serenity, who never liked me, about that night. I’d confided in her and she’d run her mouth. “Of course not. I don’t know where she got that from.” Lies.

  “You told her.” It wasn’t a question. “Nora, you’re the only one who knew I had a moment of doubt and now all of social media is making me out to be a slut.”

  “Well… not all of social media.”

  Speechless. She’d actually left me momentarily speechless. “I told you nothing happened. Did I have a second of doubt? Yes. But in the end, we both know nothing happened with Joe.”

  “We don’t both know that,” she countered.

  “What?”

  “We don’t both know that. You say that nothing happened, but you were drunk and don’t remember most of the night. Hell, I saw you surrounded by three guys at one point. You were on the couch and they were around you but I wouldn’t know what you did with them after that either.”

  I groaned. “What happened to the girl code?” I asked her.

  “The what?”

  “The fucking girl code,” I spat back. “You know where girlfriends look out for each other? Where we wouldn’t let the other be swept away by some dude when everyone knew she couldn’t consent?”

  “Are you now saying that Joe raped you?” The incredulity in her voice told me she wouldn’t believe me if that was what I was saying.

  “Of course not.” I mimed like I was going to throw the phone just to make myself feel a tiny bit better. Once I brought it back to my ear, I continued. “I’m not saying that. I’m saying it could’ve happened if I was that drunk. And I didn’t even drink that much in the first place, so I have no idea how I got that way.”

  “Oh, great.” Her voice turned syrupy sweet. “Now Princess is saying she was drugged?”

  “I’m not saying any of that.” My anger grew as my stomach churned with acid. “I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying… you know what? It doesn’t matter. Just stop with the rumors and stop with the posts and pretend you don’t even know me.”

  “I can do one of those and trust me,” she added, “things are about to get much, much worse.”

  I ended the call and really wished I had thrown it against the wall. Then again, that would cost me my phone and I wouldn’t ask Mom and Charlie to pay for a new one. We lived comfortably, but it wasn’t like we had a ton of money. Which would mean calling my brother, Lawson, and asking him to get me a new one and he’d for sure want to know what had happened to this one.

  Not worth it.

  Fuck my life.

  The biggest mystery of all was why Nora had turned on me this way. We’d been friends who turned into best friends for a couple of years. We rarely fought about anything or even really disagreed. We had an easy-going friendship. Literally, the only point of contention was that she hadn’t met my brother yet. Which wasn’t a big deal.

  I spent the next week ignoring social media and watching TV. The semester had ended and I’d moved back home, which meant Mom didn’t let my new mood go unnoticed. She didn’t ask, but I knew she wanted to. She watched me. She waited for me to come clean about what was going on in my life but I did my best to give her a fake smile and talk to her the way I normally would. Still, she knew something was wrong.

  Another week went by before I opened a social media app on my phone. I used to be on all of them and now I wanted to ignore everything.

  On Instagram, the number five in the corner had my attention. My friends and I usually chatted through Snap, not Instagram, so getting DMs there was weird. Somehow, I knew before I
clicked through that I’d regret it.

  Regret it, I did.

  One message after another. Five different guys, but more than one message each asking me weird fucking questions and telling me that if they’d known I was into group stuff, they would’ve messaged me earlier.

  Which led me to all of my other social media. A lot had happened while I’d been ignoring the world, apparently. An entire group of friends had blocked me on all socials.

  “Ugh.” I groaned and tossed my phone onto the coffee table.

  Mom, Charlie, and I lived in a two-bedroom condo in the River North section of Chicago. It had a brick exterior and reminded me of a New York brownstone, but not quite. It was small but had a tiny backyard area that not everyone in the city got. This had been Charlie’s place before he’d married Mom. But now that they were alone most of the time, it was a great size for them. It opened up right out onto the sidewalk and wasn’t an apartment, Charlie insisted.

  With Erica married and Lawson on tour with Courting Chaos or in his own place when he wasn’t on the road, all they had left was me. I still had a year of college to go. After living in the dorm most of the year, this place wasn’t so small.

  “What’s wrong?” Mom asked from the kitchen. I got my looks from Mom. She had the same dark hair and blue eyes as I did whereas Lawson and Erica’s were brown. Mom was taller than me though. Lexi and I were shrimps for some reason while Lawson towered over all of us. A lot of people told Erica and me that mom could be our sister. She hadn’t aged at all since she was a teenager according to our grandparents.

  The condo had an open floor plan, which made the place feel bigger. Downside was, there were no hiding things from anyone. Even when I tried, they’d eventually pick up on my mood.

  “Nothing.”

  “Don’t give me that.” She dried her hands on a towel. “I’ve seen you in a bad mood for weeks. What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” I snapped and immediately felt bad. Then I sighed. “I’m sorry I snapped at you. It’s just friend stuff. Not a big deal.”

  Surprisingly, she let it go, but I knew that wasn’t going to be the last I heard about it from her.

  Another week later, and a few dozen worse DMs from creepy dudes who definitely didn’t go to my school, I’d about had enough.

  On the verge of deleting all of the apps, I got a text message.

  I’m down, was all the text said.

  What? Who is this?

  Elijah Maltzman. I’m down. If I’d known you were, we could’ve hooked up sooner. I only knew him in passing and how he’d gotten my number, I’d never know.

  Fucking Nora and her fucking mean girlfriends. What are you talking about?

  Your profile. A dick for every hole? I have friends. We’re up for it.

  Speechless. Again. I hardly ever didn’t have a comeback, but this summer was turning me on my axis. Why couldn’t they all just leave me alone and let me be a hermit while playing Words with Friends? With friends, I didn’t have, but whatever. Strangers on the internet counted at this point.

  I ground my teeth together so hard. I’d had one moment of fun when Mom and Charlie had brought Erica and me with them to see Lawson and meet Pushing Daisies, not only my favorite new band but the band whose singer my brother had somehow gotten to fall for him. Lawson Styles was hot by most girls’ standards, but since he was six years older than me—me being twenty-one and him twenty-seven—he’d always been the protective older brother in my life. ’Course he was the protective younger brother with Erica.

  Instead of sending another message, I tapped his contact number at the top of the screen to call him.

  “Does this mean you’re in?” he answered, which earned him a disgusted sound from my throat.

  “What are you talking about? I demanded.

  “What? Do you only want to hookup through the app? Seems ridiculous when we’re on the phone now.”

  “Elijah! What are you talking about?”

  There was a moment of silence, which I took as hesitation. “Your profile. On the Tickle Me app.”

  “The hookup app?” I asked. I’d heard of it but wasn’t familiar.

  “Yeah. Said you are always down for a dick in every hole, which I took to mean you’re into group stuff. Let’s make this happen.”

  “Jesus. Christ.” I groaned loudly in frustration. “I’m not on any fucking app. What are you talking about? Is this a joke? A prank?” Orchestrated by Nora no doubt.

  “No,” he said seriously and I had no reason to believe him. Nora had always run more in the jock click and Elijah wasn’t part of it but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t have reached out to him.

  That was the biggest joke about going to college. There weren’t supposed to be groups anymore. Not like high school and maybe there weren’t for most people. But for Nora, there most definitely was.

  “Seriously, Lexi,” he said. “Your profile on there. It’s you. I thought it was kind of fucked-up, but I don’t know you that well and maybe you’re into that shit. Why do you have a profile if you’re not?”

  I clenched my teeth together and said, “I. Don’t.” Silence hung in the air between us. “I have to go.” I hung up without waiting for a reply from him.

  This summer was getting worse and worse.

  As I paced the floor, I tried to wrap my brain around what was happening. Now there was some fake profile out there for me? That was why I was getting the weird DMs.

  Finally, I threw myself onto my bed and grabbed my phone. If it was out there, I needed to see it.

  For the first time in my life, I downloaded a hookup app and unfortunately, it didn’t take very long to find myself.

  There I was smiling out at myself wearing that slutty nun costume from last Halloween that Nora had talked me into. The things on the profile were… disgusting. Everything Elijah had told me and more. Things like I was up for anal on the first date and I didn’t mind multiple guys a day or at a time.

  I had to stop reading to keep my stomach from spewing its contents all over my comforter.

  That was when I knew I had to figure out how to delete this thing.

  I tried every combination of my email and password. Even tried to the forgot password, but the email address didn’t match. I tried Nora’s email, then sent a message to the support and surprisingly got an answer an hour later.

  Basically, I was fucked. There was nothing they could do to help me because I don’t have the login and password. I told them it was a fake profile but it was on me to provide proof. If it was me, I would have the username and password but since I couldn’t provide them any of the information attached to the account, there wasn’t much I could do. I was going to have to send them a bunch of proof and I’d do that but the guy said it rarely worked.

  Fuck my life.

  If my brother saw this… he’d either lay into me or try to murder whoever had done this to me.

  2

  Van

  “What’s your problem?” my twin brother, Bonham, asked. Looking at him was like looking in a mirror. Same dark hair. Same brown eyes. Same fucking facial structure. We were even the same height. Not an inch of difference.

  We were backstage at the arena, where we were to play our next show opening for Courting Chaos. Though this tour hadn’t gone exactly as planned.

  For example, I hadn’t expected my twenty-one-year-old baby sister to fall for the much older manager of Courting Chaos. Lawson Styles was probably a decent guy, but he was six years older than my sister Daisy and that was too old in my book. Though no one with a dick was good enough for her, anyway.

  “Nothing,” I told him.

  “Something,” he countered.

  Bonham had known me every second of my twenty-three years on Earth. He’d been here about sixty seconds longer than me. Mom always said I didn’t want him to beat me and had barely given her a chance to catch her breath before I came sliding out.

  “Fess up.” He waved his fingers at me as if he were growing i
mpatient. Probably was. My brothers Bonham and Daltrey seemed to have grown used to Daisy and Lawson together while Mack and I were still brooding. No one could ever say the Thompsons weren’t complicated.

  “I’m just irritated.”

  He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. As our drummer, Bon had pretty strong arms, while I played bass, which didn’t require quite as much muscle, but we still looked exactly the same. The four of us guys had dark hair and brown eyes while Daisy had gotten red hair and hazel eyes. I used to wonder every once in a while if she was the baby Mom had actually had at the hospital. Daltrey played guitar, but Daisy put us all to shame.

  When we were performing, she mostly just sang and then brought out her violin every once in a while, which gave those songs a unique sound. But she could legit play any instrument we could throw at her. Like a savant or something.

  It was Mack’s job to wrangle the whole lot of us. As the oldest, twenty-seven like Lawson, he’d been doing that our entire lives anyway.

  “Daisy? Still? Seriously?” Bonham shook his head. “You’ve got to get over that shit. She’s a grown woman and can decide whom she wants to be with.”

  “Yeah, but why can’t she decide to be with no one?”

  “Or someone her own age?” he asked, which was what I’d really been thinking. “You seriously think you want that? You know what twenty-one-year-old guys are like. Just drop it.”

  I shook my head at him and left the dressing room. How he couldn’t see where I was coming from, I didn’t know.

  When I stepped out into the hallway, I was slapped in the face with it again.