“Did Weston drive home last night?! Did youlethim drive home?” I stomped past him and jabbed my finger towards the stairs. “Is he up there? I’m going up there to tear him apart.”
I didn’t wait for him to respond and I wouldn’t have heard what he said anyway. I could only hear the blood rushing past my ears. I charged up to the third floor and shoved Weston’s door open so hard that it crashed into the wall behind it with an ear-splittingbang.
Weston shot out of his bed, bleary-eyed and naked. He looked around wildly before settling his gaze on me. I watched him struggle to recognize me and when he did, I had the pleasure of watching him turn green as he sank onto the side of his bed.
“You!” I stomped across the room and shoved my face closer to his. “Look at what you did to me last night. Do you understand how much this shit hurts? It hurts to fucking breathe, asshole! I should tie you down and let a rabid raccoon bite your dick off. I should run you over with your stupid truck! Did you drive your truck home last night? Did you drive drunk? You stupid, stupid asshole. I thought you were a piece of shit before but last night really sealed the deal. You’re a drunk. You stink. You look like shit. And if my future didn’t depend on me tying myself to you, I’d be gone so fast.”
“He didn’t drive. Everything else you said is true. Just that part, the driving, isn’t. I drove us home.” Cash appeared behind Hayes and inched his way into the room. “But please, go on.”
I twisted around to glare at him, too. “What is going on here? Why the fuck are you two allowing him to get like that? You’re so worried about what a little sex will do to your rep but meanwhile your brother is stumbling around campus, trying to fight people and elbowing girls in the face. I swear to god, I want to pretend like none of this ever happened. I wish I could turn back time and go to fucking ASU or something.”
Weston managed to pull himself up again and he swayed towards me. “I’m…so-”
“Shut up!” I waved my hand in front of my face as the smell of sweat and liquor wafted from him. “I’m stuck with the three of you but if you don’t clean up your act I’m done. I’ll blow everything up if it means not wasting a second more of my life with you while you’re like this. I have no plans on sticking around and watching you drink yourself half to death. It’s not exactly a secret, either. You don’t think people talk aroundcampus? You keep living like this and it’s only a matter of time before people forget about you fucking the whore from USC and only talk about your drinking problem and when you’ll be forced into rehab.”
“Fuck. I-”
I cut him off again. “Look at my face, Weston. You did it. I’m going to look like this for a couple of weeks so I hope you don’t have a weak stomach. Asshole.”
I shoved my way through Cash and Hayes and raced down the stairs and back out of the house. My hands were shaking and all my anger was spent which was just leaving me with pain and a sinking feeling of despair.
The last few years of my dad’s life had been spent nursing a bottle. He’d been a good dad until he just wasn’t one morning. I didn’t find out what changed to make him forget that he normally stopped drinking after two beers until he was dead. For whatever reason he let a cancer diagnosis end his life long before he died. Maybe it was the fact that he’d seen my mom die from her own cancer battle. Maybe he couldn’t face leaving me alone while sober. I would never know.
What I did know was what it was like to carry my dad to bed while he was so wasted that he didn’t know who I was. I knew what it was like to watch a grown man piss himself and then cry about it before begging me to help him get cleaned up. I knew what it was like to lose someone to a bottle and have them scream in your face for more.
I didn’t like Weston. I felt like I could hate him. No matter what I felt for him, though, I couldn’t handle the idea of watching him throw his life away drink by drink. I’d heard rumors about his wild partying but I hadn’t seen it so I hadn’t let it bother me. Seeing him the night before had made things clear, that level of intoxication scared the hell out of me.
I leaned against the side of my car and closed my eyes as a wave of pain hit me. I gave myself a minute to get myself together before I left. I wanted to get home and see what it felt like to have an aunt fuss over me.
22
***Cass***
Ihid in my office the next day and wore a baseball hat when I had to run out to grab lunch. I’d considered staying home and hiding until my face didn’t look so horrible but I needed all the experience I could get doing massage therapy on the team. If the odds were already stacked against me, I needed to make sure I had real world work behind my name.
I didn’t check the schedule to see who I was going to have on my table next so that I didn’t have time to fret if it was someone I disliked so I was surprised when I looked up and saw Weston letting himself into my space. He shut the door behind him and leaned against it. With a day to recover he looked as good as new. He smelled good, too. All signs of the drunken dickhead were gone. Even the typical scowl was gone from his face.
He slowly lifted his eyes to mine and I watched him flinch. My face was even worse, with multi-colored bruises covering most of it. He seemed like he was on the verge of speaking but I didn’t want to hear anything from him.
“Go ahead and undress. Face down on the table when you’re finished.” I turned my back to him and pulled up his chart in the PT program the school used. I already knew I’d be focusing on his back for therapy but when I opened the chart and scanned the notes I scowled and turned back around to face him. “Why does your chart show that you haven’t had anyone working on your back in months?”
He worked his joggers down his legs and then stretched out across the massage table in just his boxer briefs. The black material boasted an expensive label that made me want to thump him in the back of the head even harder. Who paid that much for underwear? Idiot.
“I don’t want to start this out with a lie, Cassidy. Don’t ask me that.”
I stretched a sheet across his lower half and sighed. “I’m not going to waste my time rubbing your calf muscles when you need your back worked on, Weston.”
He gripped the massage table and swore. “Fine.”
I did my best to be a professional while staring down at his wide shoulders and lean waist. Even when I thought I hated him it was impossible not to find him attractive. When he was sober and smelled good, anyway.
I skipped the normal questions I’d ask and worked oil into my hands. “I don’t need to go over the normal intake procedure because I’m familiar with your injury and have worked on you before. Kind of.”
He tensed even more than he already was the moment I touched him. “You’re familiar with my injury?”
I found it easier to focus on what I was saying instead of the feel of his warm skin under my hands. “When everyone said that USC caused the injuries I looked into it. I studied the film and then I did a little digging and found more information aboutyour back. I left out your name for obvious reasons but I did a project on the injury for a class last year.”
He went up on his elbows to look at me. “You’re serious?”
