Ash presses his hand down on the blanket, leaning to the side. “She wouldn’t let me even if I tried.”
Shade snorts while someone’s phone chimes. I know it wasn’t mine, but then I feel a vibration in my pocket. It’s probably Tilly’s. I’ve still got it jammed in the pocket opposite where mine sits. Shade pulls his out of his hoodie pocket and holds it in front of him, squinting slightly.
I watch his face, not bothering to pull mine free. I’d bet money that it’s Lacey sending us some group message about them being trapped in the washroom or something.
But then Shade’s frowning. The glassy look in his eyes slowly retreats, making room for panic. I sit straighter in my chair, the hairs on the back of my neck rising like a nasty omen. Ash blinks furiously, sensing what I am while he scrubs a hand down his mouth.
“What?” My tone is vicious.
Shade adjusts the brightness of his screen. When it glows against his skin, I realize just how pale he’s gotten. I push out of my chair and stand behind him, hovering like a ghost. The sound from the video registers first, filling the silent campsite with?—
“Shit,” Shade sputters.
Ash is too close. I shove his shoulder so he can’t see what I have, terror seizing my lungs. Tilly’s voice clings to the leaves, and the flames from the fire swell, colouring the tents in roaring red and orange. Ash trips on the leg of my chair, and he falls to his ass so close to the blaze that I think he might have burned himself.
I can’t check to see if he’s okay right now. When I look at the phone again, I see her again. And she’s not alone. Ezra is with her. Beneath her with his hands on her naked waist.
Fuck.Naked is all she is as she cries his name, pleading for more.
I take the phone and throw it into the fire. Shade lets me. Ash remains on the ground, his breath sawing in and out of him with a force I feel from here. My back pocket buzzes again. Twice. Ash’s chimes.
Nausea swells in my stomach. I taste the bile that climbs my throat, desperate to spew across the thick grass. My fingers shake when I pull my phone free and see the messages on the screen. An unknown number sent the video, in addition to a bunch of words I can’t make myself digest.
I walk away from the others.
A tree branch pokes into my arm and neck, leaving burning skin behind. I hear the ground crunching beneath my boots. Then, the pine needles and tree roots turn into gravel. Headlights paint the road ahead of me, and I recognize the car they’re coming from.
The driver’s door opens and Ezra steps out, grinning from ear to ear. His hair is just as shaggy as it always is. He’s thesame height as me, but so scrawny he could ride a foal without making it break a sweat. I think the fire might have singed my eyes because everywhere I look, I see red.
“Did you like the video? I figured you would. Maybe now you’ll give her the attention she wants so fucking desperately,” he sneers at me, stepping away from the car. “If you’re worried about her terrible attitude, it gets easier to be around when she’s moaning.”
Tilly’s voice floods my ears, but she’s nowhere near me. I shake my head to try and clear the memory of her that’s etched into the backs of my eyes now. My fingers are already curled. I don’t feel pain when Ezra hits the side of his car. His head bounces off the window, and then he crumples to the gravel.
He’s so easy to lift. I feel his nails dig into my forearms, cutting through the skin before I drop him again, this time further down the road. His eyes bulge out of their sockets when he makes contact with the ground and cries out. I fill his mouth with my fist, and blood splatters my shirt.
“You’re going to wish you’d never met her,” I snarl, jutting my palm down to make contact with his throat. “Going to regret ever touching her. You never deserved to see her like that.”
“At least one of us has. And it felt as good as it looked. If she offers her pussy to you the way she wants to, make sure to take her up on it. Best fuck of my life.”
His leg flies up, and I grit my teeth at the pain that blooms in my spine. Fear swallows the panic in his eyes when I don’t budge. There’s a roar filling my ears now. I feel this inescapable need to make him suffer for betraying her. For taking an intimate moment and broadcasting it to others.To her brother.I hear the last text he sent like he’d said the words to my face instead.
Tell her she can apologize for being so cruel yesterday, or the entire town will be talking about how well she takes it by tomorrow morning. I’m here waiting.
38
TWENTY-ONE YEARS OLD
TILLY
Lacey keepsher arm laced through mine as we walk back to the campsite. She’s got some quick-tempo song playing from the speakers of her phone. We hop to the beat, and I blow out a laugh, letting her lean into my body when she moves too fast.
My parents have already been out doing their final check around the grounds, but my dad’s always extra cautious when we’re all here like this. He’s overprotective to the extreme sometimes. I’d have thought he’d know better than to waste his time now that Ash and I are officially adults. Something tells me Dad will never grow out of his ways.
“How are you feeling, Tills?”
I shrug. “I’m okay. If this is how all breakups feel, then I don’t really know why everyone makes them out to be some big, scary thing.”
“You really don’t care?”
