“You love him.He loves you.I love you both.”Bentley clapped his hands together twice before waving toward the front of the car.“Now, let’s get this little love fest home and get Sixx stitched up before he catches something bad.Like a staph infection.Or gangrene.Either is life-threatening, and the risk of loss of limb is high.I think.Don’t quote me on that.I’m going to study law, not medicine.”
“I’ll be fine.”I brushed off his concern, hugging Ali harder for another moment.
“But you’re still bleeding.”Ali’s voice wobbled.It wasn’t the first time she’d seen me bleed, and it wasn’t likely to be the last.Her emotions were still raw after the intensity of the night, causing her to worry even though she’d seen me with worse injuries.
“I’ll drive,” Bentley volunteered.“You two sit in the back.Cuddle or whatever you two weirdos do.Just no making out.”
“No promises.”Ali tugged me away from the trunk.Once it was closed, I opened the back passenger door for her and waited for her to get in before climbing in with her.
It took a while to get back to Malibu.On the way, Bentley’s phone kept getting blown up with texts.Two each from Hayat and Abi.A handful from Evan.Several from Charlotte with random thoughts and asking if Bentley wanted to have dinner at her place the next day.A dozen from Caprice, demanding to know where her brother was and if she could come hang out with him.He ignored all of them except for the ones from Charlotte, which he had me send replies to.
When we got to Ali’s neighborhood, he shot us a quick glance in the review mirror.“We need to come up with something to appease the parents.Abi’s face looked bad, man.And with your hands all fucked up, it’s gotta be good, or someone might think the worst.”
“That is tomorrow’s problem.Tonight, all I care about is staying with Ali.”
“Who even is that Sammy chick?”
We both looked at Ali, and she shrugged.“Don’t know.I think Abi might have mentioned her in passing a couple of times in the weeks before she had her mental crisis and came home.”
“Should we trust her?”Bentley wondered, voicing my own thoughts.
“Do we have another choice?”Ali responded.
“Currently, it’s the only option we have been presented with,” Bentley said after a short silence.“We should play it by ear, get a feel for her.In the meantime, I’ll do a background check on her.I was getting some weird-ass vibes from her.At one point, I thought she had a gun.Given the chaotic situation, I could have been mistaken.”
“No, I saw it too.Don’t know where it came from or what she did with it afterward, but she for sure had one.”Ali squeezed the bridge of her nose, a telltale sign of an oncoming headache.Hopefully it didn’t turn into a migraine.She didn’t get them often, but when she did, they completely incapacitated her.“What the hell has Abi been up to that she’s made friends with this chick?”
“Looks like both St.Charles girls have been keeping secrets lately.”Bentley pulled into Ali’s driveway.His car was parked in front, which meant Hayat and Abi had already arrived.All the lights were on inside the house.
Any hope that Evan had gone to his own house faded when we walked inside and I heard his voice.Ali stiffened when she saw him stretched out on the couch.He shut up as soon as he saw her.Ignoring him, she dragged me into the kitchen to wash my hands thoroughly, and she wrapped a clean dish towel around each one.From the living room, Evan’s voice carried.Every time he spoke, Ali’s shoulders hitched higher toward her ears.
It was going to be a long fucking night.
“What do you want me to do about him?”I asked, tipping her chin up so she would look at me.She sighed softly, leaning into my touch.
“He doesn’t matter.”Her voice cracked, but she cleared it away and gave me a tight smile.“He’s no longer a factor in my life, Sixx.Currently, he’s background noise.A stranger who means nothing.Whatever happens going forward, he’s not my friend, and I no longer consider him a part of my family.But he’s Hayat’s brother, so I can’t exactly never see him again.”
Seeing the hurt on her face countered any satisfaction I got from having her confirm that Evan was no longer her friend.As much as I hated the asshole, Ali held affection for him.I never once suspected Ali would feel something deeper for Evan, even though I could see how much he struggled with his own emotions for her.That didn’t mean he was powerless to break her heart, and he had.
“I can’t promise I won’t hurt him,” I admitted.It wasn’t like I was planning on fighting him.So far, I’d held myself back.How, I wasn’t sure.The night he’d told me about what was going on, I hadn’t been myself.But I hadn’t been the person I became when the wall fell either.Somehow, I stayed somewhere in between.
For her, I would try to steer clear of Evan.I just couldn’t make the promise that I wouldn’t eventually break and the other me, the one I became when the wall descended, would confront him.
Ali’s shoulders dropped, and she shook her head.“This past week, I’ve realized a lot of things have changed.I made so many mistakes, Sixx.So many,” she whispered to herself, then shook her head.“I don’t recognize Evan anymore.He’s not the same sweet boy I thought of as my brother.Two weeks ago, I would have said I trusted him with my life.Now…”
She trailed off with the saddest look filling her pretty eyes.
“I’m sorry, daisy girl,” I told her, meaning it.
“Me too.”
Sixx
Rubbingmy thumb over the bandage on my hand, I sat down at the kitchen island to eat the eggs and toast Bentley cooked for everyone Sunday morning.Ali was stuffing her face with any food she could reach, starving now that she didn’t have a thousand pounds of worry beating up her stomach.
Abi nibbled on a slice of toast, notably dry rather than smothered in jam or one of her favored nut-butter spreads.When she was on her period, she would reach for the cookie butter and smear it a quarter-inch thick on any carbohydrate she could get her hands on.While Ali mostly craved salt during her cycle, her sister gorged on sugar.
That Abi was barely eating at all hadn’t gone unnoticed by anyone.She could say it was from the pain in her face, a very plausible excuse, but something else was going on.When she caught me staring at her barely touched, very plain, practically burned toast, her eyes glittered with tears that she quickly blinked away before I could question her.
