I stared at him, confused. “Huh?”
He rolled his eyes. “It’s Amy’s party and we’re late. Hurry up.”
I snorted, lifting my headphones back over my head. “Nah, I’m not going.” Rough hands yanked my headphones away. I looked up to meet my twin’s glare. “What the fuck? Give them back.”
“Get changed,” he said curtly. “I don’t want you there any more than you do, but we don’t have a choice.”
“Gee, thanks for the love,” I said sarcastically. “Let me jump right to it.”
Max blew out a breath and shifted on his feet. “Look, Amy wants you there. If you don’t go, she’ll think it’s because of me.”
I snatched my headphones out of his hands. “Maybe you should’ve thought about that before being a dick for the past seven years.”
Max sighed, running his hand through his hair. How he got it to look like that, I’d never know. We might have had the same hair, but where his was artfully messy, mine looked more like I’d stuck a finger in a plug socket. “Okay, don’t do it for me. Do it for Dominic.”
My shoulders stiffened. “What?”
“There’s something up with him,” Max said, fidgeting with his sleeve. “He won’t talk about it, but he’s been fucking miserable since the day…”
“The day you were a dickhead and we both told you to fuck off?”
Max scowled. “Not exactly how I remember it, but yeah.”
I picked at a stray piece of cotton on my jeans. “It’s got nothing to do with me.”
“See, I’d like to believe that, but despite what Mum and Dad think, I’m not stupid.”
I frowned up at him. “They don’t think you’re stupid.”
“Please.” He rolled his eyes again, crossing his arms. “Anyway, you’re no longer hanging around and Dominic keeps sulking. I don’t know what the fuck is going on between you two but it needs to get fixed.”
“Nothing,” I said hollowly, trying to ignore the rising heat in my cheeks. “Nothing is going on.”
“Whatever.” Max’s phone buzzed. “Amy wants to know where we are. Come on, don’t do it for me. Do it for Dominic.”
“He won’t want me there.” That he hadn’t dragged me out of the library or so much as looked at me on the bus proved that. “Trust me, me going there isn’t going to help his mood.”
“Fine. If that’s the case then I’ll admit I made a mistake. Just…do this? Please?”
I couldn’t remember the last time Max had asked me for anything other than to leave him alone. That was the only reason I stood up.
Not because of Dominic.
Sure.
God, you knew things were bad when even your inner voice called you out.
Before I got to the door, Max stopped me with a frown. “You can’t go like that.”
“Why not?” I glanced down at my outfit. Okay, it wasn’t the fanciest. Just a Henley and jeans, but they were clean. “I don’t have anything else. It’s not like I’m out all the time like you.”
“I have to do fucking everything, I swear,” Max muttered, disappearing from my room. When he returned, he had one of his shirts and a pair of trousers. “Here. Wear these.”
I stared at them, unsure what his angle was. “Why?”
“Because you look like shit,” he said bluntly. “These clothes make me look good, and seeing as we’re identical, they’ll make you look good too. Now put them on and hurry the fuck up before Amy has my balls.”
I hadn’t beento a party since I was a kid, but nothing about the scene I walked in on surprised me. Loud music thumped through the air, making my feet automatically tap out the beat. Amy had changed the lightbulbs out for red ones, the glow picking out the drifting smoke from the various cigarettes and joints being passed around.
