Ava caught his tone and playfully punched his shoulder. “Why so glum? I haven’t seen you since the party at Oakwood a few weeks ago.”
“I think you’re mistaken.”
Why was he acting like a dick? My eyes flicked to my brother, who was already giving our corner his full attention.
“No, I’m not,” Ava said as she accepted some bacon from Jamie. “Remember, you’d lost your keys.” I saw her frown as if she was remembering something. “No, not keys,” she murmured to herself.
“You’re mistaken,” he snapped at her.
Ava shook her head. “You were going to walk me home,” she whispered, the bacon falling from her fingers. “You gave me a bottle of . . .” Her eyes flew to mine, and my eyes snapped to Derrick’s.
“Water,” I growled as I surged forward, my fist scrunching his shirt as I hauled him toward me.
“It was you.”
Chapter 33: Jett
“Easy, brother,” Gray said calmly behind me.
“You fucking piece of shit,” I ground out through my teeth. “You drugged me?”
Derrick glanced at Ava, and I banged his head off the wall. “Her? It was forAva?” My fist connected with his jaw, but I kept him standing, and I punched him again and again and again.
“Jett!” Ash’s hand was on my arm, and I shook him off. “Your hand,” he warned me quietly as he made me take a step back.
“Talk.” Shoving him into the wall, I stepped back and watched as he wiped the blood from his nose.
“Why are we listening to the little slut?” He tried to laugh it off. I leaped forward again, but Gray was there, his arm across Derrick’s throat, pinning him to the wall.
“I suggest you speak fast,” he said, his voice low and steady.
“Who was the water for?” I asked Derrick. I needed him to say it, and I felt Ash clasp firmly onto my shoulder, holding me back.
He licked his lips, and I was sure he was going to say nothing, and then Ava moved in front of me, her eyes wide with unshed tears as she looked at him.
“Why?” she whispered. “I’m nobody! I’ve spoken to you maybe three, four times?” Shaky hands pushed her hair back, and if my cousin wasn’t holding me back, I would have gone to her.
“You’re not nobody,” Derrick said. The change in his demeanor was quietly terrifying. “You’re beautiful. You’re kind. But you have shit choices in friends.” Scorn curled his lip upward, and he looked at me. “And guys. I could have shown you.”
It was his look that was the trigger for my memory, and I remembered. He’d been in my ear for too long at the party, and the guy I was looking for wasn’t there. I said as much to Derrick, and he told me the person he was looking for wasn’t there either. His tone had caused me to look at him, and I remembered asking who he was looking for. He had laughed it off and said he’d see me later.
He had gone to the kitchen and studied the bottles of water for so long that I asked him if he was okay. He’d jumped like he’d been caught doing something, and then he asked if I was going back to the house. I said yes, and he had handed me a bottle of water for the walk home. He’d told me he’d be back soon — he needed to find his keys — and then picked two bottles of water up and hurried out the door.
The whole situation was weird, and sensing something was off, I followed him. He didn’t head back to the dorm house, and, curious, I stayed back and then felt like a paranoid dick when I heard the music coming from Oakwood. He was going to another party, no big deal. It was probably to get his keys that he’d mentioned. I opened the water and drank as I turned to head back to the house.
I saw her at the same time he did. Blonde, pretty, wearing simple jeans and a T-shirt, and at first, I thought she was hammered. Her feet tripped over themselves, and Derrick launched forward and caught her.
Her voice and hand movements were completely contradictory to a drunk person, and I realized she was maybe just clumsy. She sounded clear, but the more I watched her, her body started to tell a different story. Moving closer, I saw him cop a feel of her ass as she spoke to him animatedly; she didn’t seem to notice he’d just felt her ass. It didn’t sit right with me, his hands on her body, and I moved into the light so he knew I was there.
“Ava recognized me,” I told him. “She gave me some shit about fluffing up three of my passes against Kentucky.” I looked at her, and she wiped her eyes hurriedly. “I remember now. I couldn’t figure out if you were drunk, high, or just annoying.” I scoffed a laugh. “You spoke so clearly.”
“I told you that,” Ava whispered with a sad smile.
“You couldn’t keep your hands off her.” My attention went back to Derrick. “I didn’t like it. It wasn’t right.”
He said nothing as he stared at me, only wiping his nose every now and then when the blood from his busted nose trickled into his mouth.
“You offered usbotha bottle of water,” Ava said to him sadly. “For the heat.”
