"Shh! Liam!" She hushed me and rushed to her door, quickly closing it.
I jumped through the window and grabbed her arm.
"Liam... stop," she said in a pleading tone, attempting to pull her arm away.
"What the hell is that, Ry?" I quietly yelled at her. It took me a few minutes but I lined my fingers up, realizing it was a handprint. "Who did this?" I felt a fire in my chest. I was ready to kill. "Who did it?" I snapped at her, seeing tears rolling down her face. "Gage?"
Covering her mouth, she just cried into her hands, not confirming nor denying.
"Ryley, tell me right fucking now before I lose it. Did Gage do that to you?" I was heaving breaths. I wasn't thinking rationally. I wanted blood from whoever hurt her. "Now!" I shouted, startling her into a jump and whimper.
"Yes!" she cried. "He didn't do it on purpose, though!" she swore.
Seeing red, I burst from her bedroom and was stomping down her stairs with only one thing on my mind: killing Gage.
"Liam!" Mrs. Reynolds bellowed when she saw the crazed look on my face. "I thought you left? Ryley! What's going on?" she demanded.
"Liam, stop!" Ryley cried, rushing after me.
Flinging open their front door, I wasn't sure where I would find my brother, but he wasn't home so I paused and it was long enough for Ryley to grab me.
"Please, Liam, don't do anything!"
"What the hell happened?" I growled at her. She wanted to tell me, I watched her mouth try to tell me, but she broke down in tears again. I pulled her into my arms and inhaled her smell, calming down a little. "Ryley, Jesus," I whispered, laying my head on top of hers.
"Liam, what is going on?" Mrs. Reynolds asked, standing at the door.
My ears perked up when I heard the engine of Gage's shitty El Camino he'd won in some shady bet a few months prior. The car whipped into the driveway and he jumped out.
"Get the fuck away from her!" he screamed at me, and I did, but only so I could charge him.
I skipped the three steps to their porch and ran at him. He caught me, but I tackled him and it turned into flying fists and rolling around, pounding the shit out of each other. If Mr. Reynolds were home, he woulda kicked the shit out of both of us, but after Ryley tried to break up the fight and inadvertently got thrown to the side, Mrs. Reynolds called the police. I wasn't eighteen for five more days so Gage got booked and spent the night in jail.
I got my ass up for school the next morning and Ryley and I silently drove in together. I didn't even know if she wanted to give me a ride, but I didn't give her an option. I was waiting on the hood of her car when she came outside. I didn't have money for a car and obviously Gage wasn't doing shit for me anymore.
"See you third hour." Those were the only words I'd spoke and we parted ways.
I was determined to find out what the hell happened and I wasn't going to let Ryley get out of telling me. I was getting it out of her third hour. It turned out I didn't need Ryley to tell me, I found out in second hour when Sara sauntered into the room wearing a bitchy grin, confirming she had to come straight from hell.
"'Sup, Liam?" She flipped her hair, sitting next to me; we didn't sit together. Ever.
"What?" I growled at her, ready to bite her head off if she talked shit about Ryley.
"What'd you do this weekend?"
She fucking knew what I did; I'd seen her at both the parties I went to.
"Fuck off, Sara," I grumbled and faced the front of the room.
"Know what I did?" She leaned over, getting closer to me and I wanted to gag on her chemically floral perfume. "Your brother." She giggled, flipping her hair again and sat forward in her chair.
"What?" One of her equally stupid friends giggled and turned to face her.
"I'm fucking Gage again." She shrugged so nonchalantly I didn't know if it was a lie.
"Oh my GOD!" Katie's eyes flashed to mine and she was fighting back a shitty grin. "Did he break up with Ryley?"
"No," Sara said with no remorse in her screechy tone. "But I'm gonna make sure he does."
Standing, I stormed from the room and went to Ryley's second hour.
"Mr. Porter?" The teacher said my name when I barged into the classroom.
"This is important." I took Ryley's hand and pulled her from the room. She stumbled behind me, embarrassed and confused. "He cheated?" I quietly asked, pinning her between my arms against the lockers so she couldn't escape. Her eyes shot to the ground and I knew it was the truth. "Fuck!" I punched the locker when I let her go and she flinched.
"Mr. Porter!" the teacher snapped. "I suggest you get back to class, or you can get to the principal's office."
I looked at Ryley and she was still looking at her feet so I pushed her chin up.
"Fuck him, Ry, he's an asshole."
In tears, she ran for the bathroom. She wasn't in third hour and I walked my ass home that day because it was obvious she left early. When I got home, Gage was on the couch and I attacked him again.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I screamed at him and the only thing that made me stop beating on his stupid drunk or high ass was Gram burst into tears. The fact he didn't fight back also made me stop. "You cheated? You put your hands on her?"
"Fuck off, Liam." His slurred speech had me studying his face to confirm if he was either high or drunk, but I couldn't tell which it was.
"Stay the hell away from her!" I growled before going to my room, slamming the door.
***
Gram made Ryley a birthday cake and being I hadn't talked to her in a few days, and obviously she wasn't talking to Gage, Ryley hadn't been around.
"Liam, Pickle," Gram quietly said to me. "Will you take this over to Ryley's?"
I stared at the cake, afraid to see her; she had been in school, but she avoided me. I knew she didn't want to see me and I didn't know if it was the CD or if it was my asshole brother ruining the Porter name.
I knocked on the front door and Mrs. Reynolds winced when she saw the fading bruises on my face from when Gage and I got into it days before.
"You okay, sweetheart?" She pulled me inside.
"I'm fine. Ry home?" I knew she was, her car was there.
"No. She went with Jenny to return her prom dress."
When I jerked to look at her, I almost dropped the cake.
"Why?" I barked.
"Her and Gage broke up, she refuses to go alone. I told her she'd have a good time no matter what."
"I'll take her then," I boasted, offended she didn't give me the option. I was her damn best friend! That's what I was supposed to do.
"Then you get your butt to the mall and buy her dress." She grinned at me, taking the cake from my hands.
After getting the info I needed from Mrs. Reynolds, I rushed into my house.
"Gram?" I called out.
"Liam?" She blurted with worry. It was a hard week on us all and I felt guilty causing her to be so stressed.
"Gram, can I borrow some money and the car?"
She stared at me skeptically for a minute and I didn't know what the hell for. She knew I'd pay her back within a few days, and she knew I would never be reckless with her car.
"For what, Liam? I just borrowed Gage a hundred dollars and he used it to get drunk."
I scowled. Gage had money, he had a job, what the hell was he borrowing money from her for?
"To take Ryley to prom."
"Oh, Liam," she sighed. "I worry about you boys." Shaking her head, she walked to her purse. "I worry about all three of you." She handed me a few bills that I didn't even look at, then the keys. "Just please, no more fighting."
"No more, Gram." I kissed her cheek. "Thanks. Need anything when I'm out?" I looked at the money in my hand, seeing she gave me three hundred bucks. It'd take a few extra days at the junkyard to pay that back, but I would.
I didn't find Ry and Jenny at the mall so I just got Ryley's size and bought her dress, and then I used some of the extra money to buy her a birthday present.
&
nbsp; Prom was the day before my birthday and my good friend Nick had a huge prom and birthday party planned for me, but if Ryley didn't want to do that after prom, I'd take her home. I had to convince her to go to prom with me first though.
I got home late that night because I went to the junkyard to start working off what I owed Gram. Sliding up Ryley's window, I didn't even knock.
"Liam!" she snapped covering her bare chest and I almost fell off the windmill.
I dropped her dress, but luckily it was bagged. I jumped down to give her time to put clothes on and me time to control the stirring in my pants.
"Liam," she called down. "Are you okay?"
"Can I come up now?" The regret in my voice was more for not seeing as much as I would have liked.
"Yeah."
She took the dress then stepped away from the window. "What is this?"
"I'm taking you to prom, Ry, and don't say no. You've been excited about prom since school started and I know Gage was taking you, but now that.... Whatever, I'm taking you. He's only one Porter brother, Ryley, he doesn't set the precedence for all Porter men. I'm taking you to prom."
"You weren't even going to prom," she quietly said, still staring at her dress. "How'd you get this?"
"I don't give a shit about prom, but you do and I'm your best friend dammit, so I'm taking you," I snapped at her because I was afraid she'd say no.
"Really?" Tears magnified her blue eyes.
It was a lot easier than I thought to get her to agree and I was suddenly nervous.
"I got you this too. Happy birthday," I tossed her the box, then started climbing out the window.
"Liam?" she blurted in confusion.
"I'm tired, Ry. I worked five hours straight at the yard. I gotta get home." I wasn't tired, I didn't have to get home, but I was feeling this strange nervousness that told me to get out of there.
That nervousness wouldn't stop me from taking her to prom though. Gage hadn't been around a few days and I couldn't bring myself to care. I hated him for the things he did to hurt her. She shouldn't have been put through that.
It was a group of us at prom, and I was glad I ended up going because it was a good time. I expected Ry to be down about Gage still, but she wasn't, she probably had the most fun.
"Aren't you going to ask her to dance?" Jenny's annoying voice made me cringe. Just to get away from her, I walked over to Ryley and took her to the dance floor.
"I like that dress," I said, pulling her closer.
"You told me that." She giggled.
"I mean, I like you in that dress."
Her arms went around my neck and she pressed in closer to me.
"I love my bracelet, Liam. I wish you had one, though."
"I do." I pulled back a little and smiled at her, pulling the original out of my pocket, watching her eyes light up before a smile filled her face.
"I didn't think you still had that. I thought you got rid of it a long time ago."
"Never. I keep it with me every day, always have."
"Are you serious?"
"It's our bracelet, Ry, of course I kept it," I said a little offended she didn't think I would.
She just pushed in closer and tightened her arms. Jenny had slowly been feeding her Boone's Farm all night, so by the time we had to decide if we were going to the party, she was drunk and ready to party more. She kept trying to feed me drinks, and I'd take them, but I wasn't drinking them because I wanted to keep an eye on her. She wasn't incoherent or anything, but I hadn't seen her drink that much before.
It was just after midnight when she ran toward me like there was trouble. I immediately stiffened, ready to kill anyone that was fucking with her.
"Liam!" she squealed. "Happy birthday!" Her arms flew around my neck and her mouth crashed down on mine.
I should have pulled away, I should have left it at the closed mouth kiss, but everything inside me came alive and I felt as happy as I did years before when I was still a jovial kid. My hands slid into her hair and I parted her lips with my tongue. When she moaned into my mouth I deepened our kiss. My eighteenth birthday was going to be my best birthday.
When I pulled out of the kiss because I had to get her out of there, she stumbled back a little stunned.
"Ry, shit," I said, getting nervous that I shouldn't have done that.
"Come on," she blurted, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the door.
When we got into her car, I put the keys in and the CD player turned on, playing the CD I burned her. I was ready to apologize, but I didn't get the chance. She jumped on me and soon we were moving to the backseat without words.
"I love you, Ryley," I groaned while running my mouth over her cleavage and she rubbed herself against my leg. "God, I never stopped." I cupped her tits and she moaned.
"Make love to me, Liam." She pushed harder into my hands.
I was sober, I knew she was hurting about Gage, I shouldn't have done it, but what she said next I felt I was entitled.
"I didn't know what to get you for your birthday. I want it to be this." Her hands heatedly worked on my zipper.
Happy eighteenth birthday to me.
"I never wanted to break up, Ry," I told her while I worked her out of her dress in the tight space of the backseat of her car.
"Shh, stop," she whispered, pulling me from my pants and sliding down to the floorboards.
Not one part of me thought to stop her, especially not when her hot mouth wrapped around me and made me thrust upward, gagging her. She didn't stop though, but I didn't thrust again. I hadn't meant to do it in the first place and I felt guilty for that. I'd had sex, I'd gotten blow jobs, I'd kissed other girls, but none of it felt like that. Being with the girl you loved was nothing like burying yourself inside a girl to not hate yourself. Like I'd been doing for a few years.
"Fuck me, Liam," she moaned, sliding up my legs, straddling me on the seat.
I wasn't going to fuck her, I was going to make love to her like she originally asked me to. That I knew I could do, even though I was used to plowing into a girl, trying to get off before she stupidly confessed her love for me, like I'd heard a few times.
"I love you, Ry." I shook as I flipped her to her back and buried myself inside her.
"God, I love you, Liam."
I covered her mouth with mine and pushed deeper, harder, swallowing her moans, loving every minute I was submerged inside her. It'd been a moment I'd thought about so many times, and none of my fantasies came close to the real thing. I hooked her leg over my arm and drove deeper, making her cry out louder.
"Please don't stop!" she begged me, sounding like she was in tears, but I was used to that from girls and could differentiate pain and pleasure tears; Ryley's only came from pleasure.
"Never, Ry," I told her and felt the first signs of her orgasm as she began to tighten around me. Next came the vibrating in her thighs, last came the trembling of her entire body as she bowed up and her mouth fell open, unable to scream like her lungs wanted her to.
"Liam!" she managed to scream, and it wasn't the first time a girl screamed my name during sex, but it was the last girl I ever wanted to hear it from.
"Fuck, Ry," I groaned, not able to hold back any longer.
Usually I could've gone for close to an hour; I probably could've gone longer, and usually thoughts of Ryley were what got me off when I was with other girls. Being that this was the real deal under me, letting me inside her body, crying out for me, I couldn't last that long, even with my eyes closed because her panting moans sounded exactly like I imagined them.
"I love you," I grunted, thrusting once more before I was emptying inside of her.
"Happy birthday." She kissed me and I laughed into her mouth until she was in a fit of giggles.
My eighteenth was my best birthday ever.
RYLEY
I woke up the morning after prom with a massive hangover. Never had I actually drank that much, never had I not remembered how I fell asleep. Jenny let me sleep on
her parents' couch since I was not in any shape to go home to my parents.
I remembered dancing, I remembered drinking. God, I remembered the car. Liam. Everything I ever wanted, but would probably never have again. We were crazy drunk, living in the moment like teenagers should. None of the worries of those past few months bothered us that night. It was just me and him, two best friends, enjoying one another. And it was a mistake. I didn't believe that one bit, but if I thought it and said it enough, maybe one day it would be true.
Sure I loved Liam, I'd always loved him. Not the type of love that you save for your best friend or mom, but the type of love that only comes around once in a lifetime. After he broke my heart a few years before, though, things had been different between us. I would have been surprised if he were actually capable of loving someone correctly after all that.
After I showered, I was getting dressed when I remembered my gift from him. Glancing down at my wrist, the same wrist that I used to wear our friendship bracelet on, was the bracelet that Liam gave me for my birthday. I hadn't taken it off since he gave it to me. I twirled it around my arm and smiled to myself, remembering just how much better of a lover he was than his brother. Sure Gage was built and had the body of a Greek God, but he didn't have what Liam had. He didn't have the emotion, the expressions, the talent. My GOD, he knew what he was doing.
I needed to stop thinking about that, though. My mind needed to believe that it was a mistake.
And Gage could never find out.
"Ryley! Liam's here for you, sweetheart!" my mom hollered up the stairs.
I grabbed my sandals and headed downstairs, grabbing a water and aspirin from the kitchen before heading out to the porch. Liam was waiting for me on the steps, staring out at the yard deep in thought. He turned and smiled when I opened the screen door. It was then that I noticed the flowers. They were wildflowers, all different colors, but he made sure to get some Daises in there too. White ones, my favorite.
Looking at Liam holding those flowers made me think back to when we were kids and I would make the boys tie them together for me and make me flower bracelets and crowns. They always acted like they hated it, but neither of them ever left to go do anything else when I suggested it, so there must have been some enjoyment from it.
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