Keep From Falling (Markson Grove Series Book 1)

by Amy Vanessa Miller

  Bree

  “Skylar and Spencer are hiding something from me,” I tell Evan as we are walking, hand in hand, along the boardwalk in Queensland a few days later.

  It was my idea to travel out of town for our most recent date, and as soon as I’d suggested it Evan was happy to oblige. The minute we crossed into the Queensland town limits I sensed a heaviness lifting off of his shoulders and a much calmer and relaxed version of himself emerge.

  “Like what?” he asks.

  I hesitate for a moment, wondering if I should bring up the details of what’s been bothering me the last few days. I’m worrying that Skylar’s cheating on me as I’m off doing that very thing to her. Telling Evan could make this thing so much more complicated than it already is.

  I shrug as casually as possible, not wanting to make this out to be a big deal. “Skylar’s aunt says she had a guy sleep over the other night.”

  “Oh?” he replies, arching a questioning brow.

  I’m not sure what to make of his response, so I continue on as though he had asked me to tell him more. “Skylar told me it was just Spencer but when I confronted him about it, he was all over the place with his answer. He’s lying to me. They both are.”

  Evan’s posture seems to stiffen as he stares off into the water, avoiding my gaze entirely. He doesn’t let go of my hand, but the grip loosens. I shouldn’t have told him. He’s upset that it bothers me that Skylar might be seeing someone else.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask quietly.

  “Nothing,” he replies, but I’m not convinced. I upset him.

  “I’m sorry if I hurt you by saying that. I know that I shouldn’t be talking to you about this. The lines in our… relationship are blurred and I’m not really sure yet about what I can and can’t share with you. It’s confusing.”

  He winces slightly and turns to face me, letting go of my hand entirely. “I hate that the lines even have to be blurred,” he says. “I want you to just be mine. I know it’s selfish, but this is hard enough without reminders that when I’m not with you, you’re with her.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I can’t tell her yet.”

  “If she’s seeing some guy, then why not?” he replies with more force than expected.

  “She doesn’t see guys… not anymore.”

  He sighs, reaching for my hand once again, and entwining his fingers with mine. “There’s something I think I should tell you,” he says quietly. The tone of his voice makes me nervous. He knows something about this that I don’t.

  I look into his eyes expectantly, waiting for whatever it is he knows to be revealed. He hesitates and reaches for a strand of my hair that’s blowing into my eyes. The simple act makes my body blush everywhere. I smile at him and as I do, something catches my eye beyond him.

  Someone.

  Off in the distance, I see a figure appear to be watching us from under a shaded tree. Even though we are over one hundred kilometers away from home, I know almost immediately that the figure is Parker Michelson. I move myself away from Evan.

  Startled by my change in demeanor, Evan turns around to see what it is that has me so spooked. When he sees Parker walking toward us, his posture changes completely, and his body repositions into a defensive stance.

  “Well, well. Look at this. Bree Porter decided to give guys a try,” Parker bellows obnoxiously. His face is full of fresh gashes and bruises from an altercation he must have had very recently since they are hardly healed at all. He shoots me a wicked smile that rips into my gut and makes me want to slap him in the face.

  I clench my fists angrily. “That’s none of your business.”

  His smile grows even wider. A cut on his lower lip splits and begins to bleed. He licks the blood away quickly, not allowing his smile to falter. “What brings you and Evan all the way to Queensland anyway?” he asks, shooting Evan a devilish wink.

  Evan’s face twists into an angry glare. “Walk away, Michelson,” he replies coolly.

  “Oh, come on now, didn’t Bree tell you that we have a mutual connection, her and I?” he says to Evan.

  His words make me want to puke. Nothing about him is connected to me. Nothing.

  “Fuck you!” I spit, venomously.

  I can see the amusement dancing in the shadows of his eyes. “Bree and I share Skylar. Don’t we, Bree?”

  Evan flinches slightly and I can tell that something in Parker’s words really affect him, but I have no clue what it could be. “It’s time to leave, Parker. Walk away,” Evan says, somehow staying calm and collected in spite of how upset Parker is obviously making the both of us.

  “Skylar was mine before she was Bree’s. Isn’t that right, Bree?” He stares right into my eyes as he says the words, and I want to convulse into a fit of violent acts onto his face.

  I lunge forward. “You fucking son of a bitch!” I scream as I pound my fists over and over into his chest. For whatever reason, Parker doesn’t react to this. He doesn’t push me off, he doesn’t smile, he simply lets me hit him. Even through my mad rage, I find this peculiar.

  Evan reaches his arms around my waist and pulls me back. “You have five seconds, Michelson, walk away!” he growls.

  Parker lifts his hands in the air, feigning defeat, and takes a few steps backward. He shoots me one last condescending smile before turning around calmly and walking away.

  I only look to Evan once Parker is completely out of my sight.

  “What the hell was that?” Evan asks in disbelief.

  I take in a deep and shaky breath. “He’s an asshole,” I reply, attempting to will my nerves calm. My heart is slamming in my chest and the intensity of it makes me feel nauseated.

  Evan’s eyes are wide and uneasy. “I don’t know what it is he did to you Bree, but being an asshole isn’t usually enough grounds for assault.”

  “Trust me,” I say. “He deserved it.”

  “I don’t doubt it. But what exactly did he do?” he asks curiously, creases of concern etched across his forehead.

  I’m torn by what I should tell him and so I think over my response carefully before finally speaking. “His history with Skylar isn’t a good one.”

  “So they do have a history,” he replies thoughtfully.

  “Why do you say it like that?” I ask. “Did someone tell you they had a history?”

  He shakes his head, “It’s something I saw a few weeks ago. An exchange, I guess.”

  “What kind of exchange? Between who?”

  “Skylar and Parker, in class, they were looking at each other…actually they were staring at each other. It was intense but not in a bad way. It felt like…like I was watching something intimate. Does that make sense?”

  No! That doesn’t make sense at all!

  I want to scream at him for even suggesting something so outrageous. I try to keep calm and collected, but my brain feels fuzzy as I attempt to understand what it is Evan is telling me. “There is nothing intimate about Parker and Skylar,” I hiss finally, letting my composure fall away and my disdain for Parker shine through.

  “She was looking right at him, right into his eyes and he was looking back and they both looked… sad. There was no anger there, I’m serious.”

  I shake my head stubbornly. “You’re wrong,” I say firmly. “You saw wrong.”

  He looks unconvinced but doesn’t try to argue further. I consider digressing the conversation since he isn’t pushing it along, but something inside of me makes me feel the need to tell him the truth. If nothing else, I want to convince him that what he saw couldn’t be what he thinks it is.

  “He raped her,” I say quietly.

  Evan’s eyes grow wide, “He did what?”

  “He raped her!” I say again, this time with so much force that Evan actually takes a step away from me. “He took her out on a date, he beat her, and then he raped her. There’s nothing intimate about that! He’s a fucking monster!”

  “Did she report it?”

  I shake my head, tears of anguish flow
ing down my cheeks. “She pretends like it never happened. The only times we are ever reminded of it is when Parker comes around and tries to talk to her. She’s petrified of him. She trembles in fear when he’s around. What you saw, it just couldn’t have been like that because… her ripped clothes, her black and blue face… she was covered in dirt and mud—” my voice cuts off abruptly, as I get choked-up by the memory.

  Evan shakes his head in disbelief. “He’s lucky I didn’t know any of that a few minutes ago! I would have beaten him to death right here!” he growls, clenching his fists angrily.

  “I know the feeling.”

  “I always knew Michelson was a piece of shit.” He takes a deep breath, exhaling long and hard. He reaches for my hand, “Are you ok?”

  I nod. “I’m fine. I’m sorry I reacted that way, it’s such a dark memory for me.”

  He forces a weak smile as he brushes away my tears with his index finger. “Let’s forget about it for a few minutes and get this date back to a happy place, ok?” he says, shaking away his anger and showing me that cute half smile he knows I love so much. I can tell he’s forcing it, but I appreciate the effort.

  I kiss him quickly on the cheek. “Are you hungry?” I ask, pointing to a canteen at the end of the boardwalk. I’m still feeling queasy, but I know it’s the best way to get all of this off of his mind. I had no idea he would react so strongly about what happened to Skylar.

  I decide that talking to him further about Skylar and Spencer’s lie isn’t really something I need to do, and bringing it up to begin with just brought a lot of negativity to our already complicated situation. I don’t want the rest of our date to go back to that.

  He smiles and moves himself in front of me, wrapping his arms around my waist. He gently pulls me to him and I look up into his big brown eyes, wanting nothing more than to kiss him over and over again. “I’m so crazy about you, Bree Porter.”

  I kiss him hard on the lips, savoring the taste of his mouth as he eagerly kisses me back. The gesture makes me tremble, and all I want to do is kiss him harder, and push my body closer to his. “I feel like I’ve been going crazy since the day I met you.”

  He smiles, flashing his beautiful dimples yet again, and all thoughts of food and everything else goes flying out the window. “I feel exactly the same.”

  Evan

  “So Queensland, huh?” Derrick says to me the minute I pull up into his driveway that night. He’s lying in a hammock that’s attached to the front porch and rolls out of it, making his way toward me. He’d texted me earlier that night and I’d stupidly told him where I was and who I was with. You’d think I’d learn.

  “It was Bree’s idea. So Skylar wouldn’t find out.” I roll up the window of the car and get out, slamming the door behind me.

  Derrick pats me on the back, “She’s still seeing Skylar, huh?”

  I nod but say nothing. There isn’t anything to say. There isn’t anything to do about the situation. What am I going to do? Fight a girl for Bree’s love? Nope, that’s not an option.

  “Where’s Kels?” I ask, heading toward his steps and taking a seat on the top one.

  He sits down next to me. “When I told her you were heading over she left. She’s still pretty pissed, man.”

  I look at him sideways and cock my eyebrow. “Apparently,” I say, thinking about the dirty look she shot me in the hallway at school yesterday.

  “Doesn’t matter, bud, I’m here. What’s up?”

  “Parker Michelson was in Queensland today. He saw us walking on the boardwalk.”

  Derrick shrugs, indifferent to the fact. “It’s only an hour away, you can’t expect not to bump into somebody you know. What’s the big deal anyway, did he say something?”

  “Yeah actually, he did,” I say bitterly.

  “Really?”

  Derrick knows that even though Adrienne cheating on me with both Parker and Tris left me resentful, I’ve never once confronted them about it, and they’ve never confronted me either. It was like we all just pretended it never happened and moved on. Well, except for the fact that I no longer had a girlfriend that is, but I guess that decision was on me.

  “Not to me,” I say. “To Bree. I mean, yeah he was trying to piss me off too… indirectly, I think. But he was really trying to get under Bree’s skin.”

  “She knows him?”

  “Yeah, she seems to know him,” I say, staring off into the distance. I think about what she told me he did to Skylar and how much I think it could be true.

  “Shitty deal, man.”

  I scowl. As if every girl who knows Parker just automatically cheats on her boyfriend with him.

  “She’s not going to cheat on me with him. She hates him.”

  Derrick laughs. “Yeah, they all hate him until they love him.”

  “Would you shut up and listen to me!” I snap, visibly annoyed. Why do I even bother coming to him for advice? This happens every time. “She’s not into him. She hates him. And do you want to know why she hates him?”

  Derrick scratches the top of his eyebrow with his index finger absentmindedly, “Why?” he asks with a sigh.

  “Because she says Parker raped Skylar.”

  Derrick stops scratching and stares at me for a moment before looking away abruptly. He doesn’t speak at all. In fact, he is eerily silent. It isn’t normal to be able to render Derrick speechless like this.

  “What?” I ask finally, breaking his silence. I’m officially worried by his reaction.

  He shrugs casually, but I can tell he’s forcing it. “I don’t know, that’s a pretty serious accusation. I mean, he’s a dirtbag and a total ass, but rape?”

  “Bree seems pretty convinced.”

  “But didn’t you tell me that you saw Skylar and Parker having a moment or something?”

  I nod. “An exchange…a few weeks ago… yeah, so?”

  “Well, would you say that what you saw was the result of a rapist-slash-victim type of exchange?” he asks, making air quotes with his fingers before and after the words ‘rapist’ and ‘victim’.

  I shoot him an annoyed look, “Be serious.”

  “Oh, I am. Deadly serious. Because I really don’t think he raped her.”

  “Want to tell me exactly what makes you think that?”

  Derrick lets out an uncomfortable sigh. “Not really.”

  I look him over uneasily. “What do you know?”

  “I can’t exactly tell you what I know.”

  This makes no sense. How could Derrick possibly know something about Parker and Skylar? And even if he did, why wouldn’t he be able to tell me about it?

  “You’re being crazy. You’re going to keep a secret from me for Parker Michelson?”

  “It’s not for him, it’s…” he hesitates. “Ok, if I tell you this, it’s between us forever. It can never get back to Kelsie, all right?”

  I squint my eyes and look him over uncertainly. “Ok,” I agree.

  “I’m a Misfit.”

  I feel my jaw drop open in complete shock. “You’re a what?” I ask. I heard what he said, but I can’t wrap my head around the idea of it. It makes absolutely no sense!

  “A Misfit… have been for over two years now.”

  “You’re kidding me,” I manage to sputter.

  “Nope. Total truth, cross my heart.”

  I freeze in place, completely shocked. “What do you go there for?” I ask finally, the minute my voice returns to me. And then an unsettling thought creeps into my mind. “Oh my God, please don’t tell me you go there for sex!”

  “What? “He looks at me like I’ve grown two heads. “Fuck, No… Jesus, Evan! I love Kelsie.”

  “Then what?”

  “I place bets on fights.”

  This doesn’t seem real. I’ve known Derrick for nearly four years and suddenly it’s like I never knew him at all. “What kind of fights? Illegal fights?”

  “Whatever you want to call them,” he replies, making it clear that he isn’t going int
o detail about any of that.

  “Are you fucking with me?” I manage to say. Derrick is a Misfit, he bets on illegal fights… at the mansion. I can’t even let the knowledge of that sink into my brain without my mind wanting to explode.

  “People fight at the mansion every weekend. Really hardcore shit. I bet on who’s going to win.”

  “All right,” I say. I want to try to get my mind back to where we had originally started our conversation. “So you’re a Misfit. What does that have to do with Parker and Skylar?” I ask even though I’m beginning to have a good sense where this is heading.

  “I’ll be so dead if you repeat this to anyone, ok? So seriously, don’t. Ever. I’m telling you this, but you can’t tell Bree…or anyone… I’m bound by oath. We don’t talk about what we do inside the mansion and we definitely aren’t allowed to talk about what others do. You understand?”

  The seriousness and urgency in Derrick’s voice leaves me unsettled. I’ve never seen him like this before; torn about what to say, and worried about what saying it could possibly do. “I won’t say anything. I promise.”

  “Parker and Skylar are Misfits too.”

  I nod. I saw that coming. In fact, I had already suspected that Parker, Tris, and Adrienne were all Misfits and the mansion was where they had hooked up. After just finding out about Derrick, Skylar being one isn’t a huge shocker.

  “Skylar hasn’t been there for over a year now, but before that, Skylar and Parker were inseparable.”

  “Inseparable? What do you mean? Like a couple?”

  He shakes his head. “That’s too easy of a description for the mansion. I don’t know their agreement or their boundaries within their agreement. But I do know, everyone at the mansion knows, that Parker was protective of her. Like, crazy protective. Before…” he stops what he’s saying and frowns, “You have to promise me you won’t repeat this.”

  “I told you already, I promise. I won’t say anything to anyone,” I snap, clearly becoming annoyed with his hesitation. Where the hell is he going with this story anyway?

  “Ok, fine. So, before Parker came along Skylar was called The Goddess because she would sleep with guys and girls, but mostly guys, for hits of ecstasy. We’re talking three or four different people a night.”