She nods. “I won’t.” Then she takes a drink of it.
I feel eyes on me, and I can’t help but look up. My sister is still staring at me, but now she’s glaring. I pull my shoulders back and narrow my eyes at her. I won’t bow down to Deke, so I’m sure as hell not gonna bow down to my sister.
“Okay, we’re ready,” Austin announces and turns, handing me my drink.
“Thank you,” I say to her.
She grabs Lilly’s hand, and we make our way into the theater and walk up the stairs until we are at our seats. But Austin doesn’t sit down. “Let’s go use the restroom before the movie starts.”
“Okay.” Lilly gets up and follows her back out.
I sit back in my seat, place my phone on silent, and take a drink of my ICEE.
“What the fuck are you doing?” my sister growls from three seats over. I sat so Austin and Lilly are between us.
“Excuse me?”
She eyes me. “I saw the way you were looking at Cole at Silence.”
I laugh at that. She thinks I’m hung up on Cole. Priceless.
“And then when you went to get Austin her gummies, he had to go track you down to get them from you.”
So she paid enough attention to see that Cole left the group and returned with Austin’s gummies but not enough to notice that Deke was gone as well. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Maybe she is the one with a crush on Cole if she’s watching him that closely. Wouldn’t surprise me. My sister has to prove to herself that every guy wants her. That’s why she willingly throws herself at all of them.
She looks at me with suspicion. “I know that whatever you’re trying, it isn’t gonna work.”
Oh, it will. I’m sure of it.
“I’m nothing like you, sis. I’m not into spreading my legs for every guy who looks my way.”
Her mouth opens in a gasp, but she doesn’t have a comeback for that.
I just smile, and she sits back in her seat as Austin and Lilly come walking up the stairs.
CHAPTER NINE
DEKE
BECKY AND I crash through the front door to her house. “Where is your dad?” I ask, my hands already yanking her shirt out of her jeans.
“Out. He’ll be gone until tomorrow.” She undoes my belt.
I run my lips up her neck. “And David?”
“Away …” She sucks in a long breath. “Looking at a college.” I grip her ass and pick her up. She wraps her legs around my waist, and her hands go to my hair. “We’re completely alone.”
I climb the stairs, hanging onto her and shove her door shut with my foot. Walking over to her bed, I toss her onto it, and she giggles. I reach up and remove my shirt before crawling on top of her. I grip the hem of hers, and she leans up, allowing me to pull it off. But the moment it’s up and over her head, I pause. Blue eyes look up at me, but they’re brighter. Rounder. Becky’s are almond shaped. This body is smaller under me, and her hair a tad lighter. “Demi?”
“Yeah, Deke.” She whispers my name and runs her tongue across her plump nude lips. Becky always wears pinks. “You want me to be her? Does that turn you on? Go ahead, Deke. Call me Becky.”
My cock twitches inside my jeans, and she reaches out, undoing my zipper. “I can be anyone you want.” Reaching inside my jeans, she pulls my achingly hard cock free. Wrapping her fingers around the base, she begins to stroke me. Her thumb running over my pre-cum. I lean forward, burying my head into her neck, and she releases me.
“You smell like her,” I growl, hating it.
“Make me smell like you,” she whispers, running her hands down my back. Her nails lightly scratching my skin. It makes me shiver. “Who do you want me to be?” she purrs.
“Yourself.” No! I don’t want you at all.
She chuckles. “That’s no fun, baby.”
I pull away and stare down at her. I blink several times, hoping she’ll disappear and that Becky will be the girl underneath me. The one I’m hard for. But Demi remains.
She moves her hands to my bare chest. Her blue eyes follow them as they skate along my skin before her eyes meet mine. “Pretend I’m her, and I’ll pretend I love you.”
“Demi,” I say her name in warning, but I’m not sure what I’m trying to warn her of.
She seems to understand ’cause she smiles. “Wrap your hand around my throat and show me how much you hate her.”
“Deke?”
I hear a familiar male’s voice off in the distance, pulling me out of my dream. Nightmare. I’m not sure what it is at this point. I ignore it, trying to push myself back into it.
“Come on.” She lifts her hips to meet mine. “Do it. I promise I can take it.”
“No.”
Her arms fall open on the bed, and she arches her back, exposing her neck to me, and releases a laugh. The sound so loud and condescending, it makes my jaw tighten.
“She makes you so fucking soft.” She relaxes back into the comforter and looks up at me. Narrowing her eyes, she spits out. “She always made you weak. That’s why she did to you what she did. Because you let her.”
I lift my right hand and wrap it around her delicate throat. Her smile grows to full victory, but I tighten my hold, and her eyes widen. Her lips part, and she tries to suck in a breath. “Isn’t this what you want?” I ask, tilting my head to the side as I watch her pretty eyes change from triumph to full-out fear. It turns me on. “Becky?”
She digs her heels into the comforter, and her hands slap at my chest. I sit up, my legs pinning her hips to the bed. “Becky never could handle what I liked in bed. And you’re no different.”
She struggles to no avail. “Look at you now, Becky,” I taunt. “I get to choose if you live or if you die.” I smile. “And too bad for you, your life no longer matters to me.”
As if she accepts her fate, she stops fighting me, her body relaxing once again. Her eyes softening, her nipples hardening. I watch her in complete fascination as her body comes alive before me. Her hands come up to cup her breasts, and she arches her back. But I don’t let go. I wanna see just how far she’ll let me go.
How long until she loses consciousness? Time seems to slowly tick by, but she doesn’t push me away again; instead, she takes it. Like a good girl or a love-struck fool. Her pretty eyes roll back into her head, and her lips turn blue. When I finally decide to let go of her neck, she doesn’t move. She doesn’t breathe. I did exactly what I threatened I’d do. I killed her.
I wait for her to turn back into Becky. She’s the one I really wanted to hurt. But she stays Demi. And I start to panic.
“DEKE!”
I sit straight up in bed.
“What the fuck, man? Wake up,” Cole snaps, standing next to my bed with a look of rage in his blue eyes. “Get your ass out of bed and meet me downstairs,” he demands before he walks out of my room, but not before he flips the light on and leaves my bedroom door open.
“Fucking prick,” I mutter.
I bow my head and close my eyes. What the hell was that about? Did I kill Demi in my dream because she was trying to be Becky?
Why the hell was she there in the first place?
I run a hand through my hair and jump out of bed. Throwing on a pair of sweatpants, I make my way down the stairs to find him pacing the kitchen. “What’s wrong?” I ask through a yawn after noting that the clock on the oven reads a little after three a.m. I just got home twenty minutes ago. After Demi left, I had called Cole because his father had called me looking for him. He ended up coming home, and I went out to a college party. I had just gone to sleep. And dreamed of both Becky and Demi. That can’t be a good sign. “This better be good …”
“I got a text.”
Sighing, I pinch the bridge of my nose. I was hard for Demi, but I was pretending she was Becky. And I would have fucked either one of them. Fuck!
“So?” I know Cole isn’t all that into technology, but a text is nothing new to him.
He snatches his cell off the kitchen c
ounter and shoves it into my bare chest. “Fucking read it.”
The light is too harsh, so I blink a few times waiting for my eyes to adjust. He turned my bedroom light on but not the one here in the kitchen. “What is it?”
“Pretend I’m her, and I’ll pretend I love you.”
“Just read it!” he orders.
Blinking rapidly, I put it up to my face. “This is a Facebook PM,” I note, realizing it’s not a text. “I didn’t think you used your Facebook?”
“I don’t!” he answers, continuing to pace. I know he had our other friend Bennett delete Austin’s, but I thought he had gotten rid of his as well.
What the hell has him so wound up? And what am I gonna do about that dream? “This is to you?” I ask, trying to get my mind off it.
“To us!” He yanks the phone from my grip when he realizes I’m not catching on as quickly as he wants me to. He points at the top of the screen. I didn’t see that my name was involved in the chat too.
I pull my phone out of the pocket of my sweatpants and look at it. Sure enough, I have a message, so I open it up. “Who …?” My voice trails off when I see who it’s from. “No way,” I say, shaking my head in denial. “It can’t be.”
“When was the last time you used it?” he snaps.
“I don’t know.”
“Fucking think!”
“Uh … months,” I answer honestly as I try to get my head in the game and out of that nightmare I just had. “Back when we were in Collins.” I close out of my account and try to log in to my spam account that I’ve had for a few years now. “Shit!” I hiss and then my eyes meet his. “I’m locked out. Someone got access to it and changed the password.”
“Goddammit!” he shouts.
“Cole?”
We both look up to see Austin enter the kitchen. She flips the switch on the wall, making us both squint at the harsh light. She runs a hand through her tangled dark hair. Wearing a pair of Cole’s basketball shorts and a T-shirt, she yawns. “Why are you guys down here yelling? In the dark?”
“Go to bed,” he orders, ignoring her.
That seems to perk her up. Her green eyes widen, and her brows lift. “Cole, what are you …?”
“Go back to fucking bed, Austin!” he shouts.
Even I am surprised at his tone. I haven’t seen him talk to her like that since he first met her. Back when she was just a game to him. Something to destroy.
She storms into the kitchen and reaches for the phone in his hand, but he snatches it back before she can get her hands on it. “No!” She crosses her arms over her chest. “You’re gonna tell me exactly what the fuck is going on. Right now!”
He shoves his hand through his disheveled hair and then storms out of the kitchen and down the hallway.
I know exactly where he’s going. You hear the sliding back door open and slam shut a second later. She goes to follow him, but I reach out and grab her upper arm, pulling her to a stop. “Don’t.”
Her worried green eyes meet mine. Cole has always been a hothead, but things haven’t been the same since our friend Kellan tried to kill her.
“Something is wrong.”
“I’ll take care of it.” I always do. Always have. Cole is my brother. He’s been through some shit, and I’m always there for him. “Just go back up to bed.”
She looks like she wants to argue, but I turn and open the fridge. I grab a bottle of vodka that I was saving for this weekend and then a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of our junk drawer and leave her standing in the kitchen.
I exit the house and step out onto the back patio. Cole’s shirt sits on the ground next to the pool with his sweatpants. He has “Things That Make You Scream” by Memory of a Melody playing softly from his phone through the outside speakers. And I wonder if it’s a sign from God regarding the dream I just had. Which is crazy ’cause I’m not religious.
I plop down in a chaise lounge chair and unscrew the cap on the bottle. Breathing in the cool night air, I take the new pack of cigarettes and slam the end into my palm. After the whole Demi and Becky thing, I could use a fucking joint, but they drug test us at the university. The only downfall of being an athlete.
He pops his head out of the water and takes a deep breath.
“It’s not her fault,” I tell him.
“No. It’s mine.”
I can’t argue that. “I can’t let you take all the blame,” I counter with a smile, trying to lighten the mood. He doesn’t return it.
“I’m not doing this, Deke,” he growls, running his hands through his wet hair to shove it out of his eyes. “I said I was done, and I meant it.”
I nod, lighting the cigarette. Taking a long drag, I blow out the smoke. I don’t normally smoke, but I need one right now. “I don’t think it was talking about Austin.”
“Then who was it talking about?” he barks.
“Maybe Becky,” I offer.
He snorts. “Why her?”
“It could have been the fact that she walked away from the accident.” At the mention of her, I take a swig of the bottle. I need to tell him … Maybe I’m having fucked-up dreams because I’m not being truthful to my best friend.
“How would they know?” he demands. “I only told you and Austin.”
Hmm. True.
I offer. “Maybe someone else was there …?”
“No!” He shakes his head. “There was no one for miles. And if there were, they wouldn’t wait until now.”
True.
I take another drag from the cigarette.
“Well … I guess, maybe …” He trails off, rethinking that option. “But what about what happened to the baby? She had to have gone to the hospital. I’m guessing she lost it.”
I stiffen at his words as I’m thrown back into the conversation I had with Becky three months ago at Mr. Holt’s house in her bedroom.
The first tear runs down her face. I watch it in complete fascination, thinking it’s a good look on her. That I should have made her fear me more than try to make her love me.
“Was it mine?”
No one knows how far back Becky and I go. Cole believes I’m in love with her, and a part of me was, but we started fucking long before he told me she had broken up with David. I had to pretend I didn’t fucking know. That just gave us the green light to go public. And the fact that Cole went all alpha for Austin, making the entire school aware he was claiming her, took the attention off what Becky and I were doing. The few whispers I did hear were shut down quickly for her sake. But we had been fucking for months prior to that. David be damned.
“So, keeping us a secret had nothing to do with you and David. It had to do with you and Eli.” Until he died. I get it now. Fuck, I was stupid for her. “Was the child …?” I begin to ask again, but my voice trails off. I chuckle. This bitch! “You weren’t even pregnant.”
“Yes …”
“No.” I shake my head. Of course. How could I have forgotten? “You weren’t.” She swallows nervously. “I remember us hooking up the weekend before that in my parents’ pool house, and you were on your period.” Her face falls. “Don’t you remember, baby?” I ask, reaching out for her. I pull her shaking body toward me. “You told me that I couldn’t fuck you ’cause it was that time of the month”—I lower my lips to her ear—“and I told you blood didn’t bother me.” Fuck, this bitch has told so many lies. “I can’t believe you let him take the fall for you.” I understand why Cole did what he did. I would have done the same thing, but this is why she never wanted me to find out. Because she knows that I can prove she lied to him. And no one wants to be on Cole’s bad side.
“Cole.” I sigh and take another quick drink from the bottle. He was man enough to tell me, so I need to do the same. I just hate that it’s like this. I should have done it the moment I realized she had lied to him.
“She was bleeding. Pretty badly. She had to require medical attention,” he continues as he stares down into the water that he loves so much.
&n
bsp; “Becky was never pregnant,” I blurt out before I lose my nerve.
He frowns, his eyes meeting mine. “Yes, she was.” I shake my head. “She sat there in the middle of the road, next to my car, holding her stomach, crying and told me she was pregnant.”
My teeth grind. That fucking bitch … “She lied to you.”
A silence falls over us, and he just stares at me. A look of nothing on his face. The old Cole would be furious. This is the new Cole. The one who is unpredictable.
I lean forward, placing my elbows on my knees. “I went to her house after you told Austin and me that Becky was the one driving and that she was pregnant.” I start to explain. “And I demanded to know about it. I thought it could have been mine.” His eyes widen with my confession. “We were sleeping together …” I run a hand through my hair. “And had been for a while at that point. Then I remembered that I had been with her the weekend before the accident, and it was her time of the month. She couldn’t have been pregnant.” I take another drink of the vodka, but the words I just spoke burn more than the alcohol. “I’m sorry, man—”
“None of it was your fault,” he interrupts me.
“She lied to you,” I grind out.
“Doesn’t matter.”
He can’t be serious. “But it does,” I argue.
“It doesn’t change anything.”
“I know, but …”
“It doesn’t fucking matter, Deke!” he snaps. “I don’t give two fucks about Becky! What matters now is that we got a text that puts Austin in danger. And I’m not gonna allow that.” He climbs out of the pool, picks his shirt up off the ground, and dries off his hands before holding it out to me. “Let me see your phone.”
I pull it out of my pocket.
He dials a number and then places it on speakerphone before dropping it onto the round glass table next to me. I take a quick look to see who he’s calling and refrain from sighing.
It rings once, twice, three times. After a few more times, it goes to voicemail. “You’ve reached Bennett …”
Cole hangs up and dials it again.
“Heellloo?” Bennett’s groggy voice answers after the second ring this time.
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