Maybe, besides all rumors, evidence and lack of pictures in his apartment, he had a girlfriend?
Except then why was he pushing so hard with me? I was the kind of situation that would piss of any kind of girl.
A girl that owes your boyfriend gobs of money and has to do whatever he says until the debt is paid? A girl he is practically stalking and most definitely harassing and possibly even flirting with? Yep, sounds like a trip straight to couples counseling.
So what gave then? Why had Fin taken himself off the market?
I would investigate this. Soon.
Right now, I had to make sure his morning quickie was still on for tomorrow.
Once I decided he hadn’t actually been on his account in probably two days or more, I felt a little more relaxed.
And brave enough to check his texts.
Why did you leave work early? Was Ty mean to you? I can beat him up if you want me to. Although… he would probably kick my ass. But still, just say the word. Nobody messes with my slave.
I laughed out loud at that. And then I looked around quickly, not wanting to be caught laughing at his jokes. He sent that shortly after I got here. The sEcond message was sent just ten minutes ago.
Usually when I text a girl, I have to turn off my ringer because she won’t stop texting me back… You should text me back so my self-esteem doesn’t start to suffer….
I tried really, really hard to stop smiling at that, but it was a useless effort. With a quick click of a button, I turned the screen of my phone off and decided it was probably a good idea to let his self-esteem marinate, especially after he just had a pretty co-ed banging down his door to give him whatever he “needed.” Obviously, it was for the good of humanity that I let him wait this one out.
I eventually returned to my now cold meal and settled into the remaining minutes of the family dinner. My parents were headed back home tonight, and Lennox to his apartment halfway in between. We kissed and hugged and promised to miss each other in the parking lot and then off they went. I wouldn’t see my mom and dad again until I went home for spring break in three weeks. Which was fine with me.
They however, weren’t as accepting of the idea, begging me to come home this weekend and when I declined because I had to work, they tried to shove cash into my hand.
I eventually let them. My dad only had sixty dollars to give tonight and I was seriously starting to worry about my cholesterol after the sheer amount of cheap food I’d been consuming. Maybe I would buy some fruit. Some…. canned fruit. Plus I could see my brother’s eying me like vultures waiting for their prey to die and I didn’t want to stick around this parking lot longer than I had to.
When my parents were waving goodbye from the street I turned to sprint to my car, but Lennox intercepted me with his arms crossed again.
“Ellie, we want to talk to you,” Lennox said.
Beckett and Grayson closed ranks behind me so I was effectively trapped. Oh gosh. “About what?” I asked innocently.
“First, your roommate leaves. And there are definite rumors about some kind of addiction. Now there’s talk of you and Hunter spending extended amount of time together,” Beckett explained, his gray eyes cold and dangerous.
I held up my hands in a sign of surrender, deciding if I acted like this was a big admission on my part, they might actually believe me. “My roommate did leave. And I can’t say her reasons for sure, plus it’s not my place. All I know is that she’s gone and I’m happy for it. You guys decided it was a good thing she’s gone, too. Remember? And fine, Fin and I have a project we are working on. I saw him twice yesterday,on campus. We talked about the project and that’s it. So stop bothering me about him. We are in no way dating. I’m not interested in him at all. And that’s the end of the story.”
I let out an aggravated sigh, while they stared at me with their narrowed, scrutinizing eyes. SEconds ticked by while they collectively decided whether to believe me or not. The thing was, it was mostly the truth, but my brothers were born with a strong sense of distrust when it came to everything about me. Not that they didn’t trust me, just that they didn’t trust anyone else when it concerned me. I could kill Colton right now for bringing me back into their overprotectiveness.
“We will find out if you’re lying,” Grayson growled.
“Gray,” I pleaded, in my sweetest voice. “Why would I lie about that? If I was dating Fin, don’t you think I would believe he could take care of himself?” Mostly that was a lie. In no way did I think any male alive could hold his own against these three.
They all three grunted in response. I should probably tell them how tough and strong I thought they were, but I was their sister…. I wasn’t supposed to build them up. It was my job in life to dish out as much as I took.
“Besides,” I continued soothingly. “You were all on your best behavior with Colton. It’s not like I’m scared to bring a guy home.” I was totally scared to bring another guy home. And they were in no way on their best behavior.
“Only because he was a tool,” Lennox stated matter-of-factly. “And we weren’t really on our best behavior, we just allowed him to live because we all knew it wouldn’t last with you two.”
Before I could ask any questions about that, Grayson continued, “But you still let that go on way longer than it should. And you got hurt in the end. Ellie, we won’t make that mistake again. You better choose your next boyfriend carefully.”
The three of them nodded their heads in unison and then Lennox added, “And it better not be Hunter.”
Time to defuse this unnecessary tension. I went up on my toes and gave Lennox a quick kiss on the cheek. I felt his shoulders relax and then he pulled me into an affectionate hug. Next was Grayson and I didn’t even wheeze when he squeezed me too tight. Finally Becket, although we just did the side hug thing. We were too close in age to be overly demonstrative.
“Thanks, guys,” I finished sincerely. “I know you’re looking out for me. I appreciate it.”
They finally let me go then, all waiting until I was in my Subaru, with the doors locked and the engine running. The tank read below empty, a dangerous place for the red needle to be. Thankfully dad had pitched in for the tank and I wouldn’t be surviving on fumes for the next week.
But it was the only time I would let him give me money again. Nights like tonight could not continue to happen otherwise I would lose my mind.
