The Bad Boy's Dance (36 page)

              But I didn’t see criminals. Honestly, I wish I had.

              What I saw was Brenda Curtis, straddling a shirtless Asher on his bed. His jeans were unbuttoned, and Brenda was only wearing a lacey bra and matching panties. They were angled so I could clearly see Brenda kissing him, and Asher’s wet hair clinging to the side of his face. He’d just gotten out of the shower then.

              I stumbled back, and the movement caused Asher’s eyes to flash up to mine. They widened with horror, and he wrestled Brenda off him. “Ivy! Wait!” 

              Spinning on my heel, I dashed like a madwoman down the corridor almost tripping over the spiral stairs as I raced through the front door. I could hear Asher shouting and his footsteps as he pursued me.

              Throwing myself into the car, I started the engine, not bothering to strap on my seatbelt. Asher was running full pelt at the car, and I thought for a minute he was going to throw himself in front of the car. Quickly, I reversed and made a U-turn. When I was sure he couldn’t catch me, I watched his figure get smaller and smaller in the middle of the road.

              Numbly, I barely managed to navigate traffic, and I could feel the tight fist around my heart constricting my lungs too, so I couldn’t breathe. I parked the car haphazardly next to the curb and unlocked the front door with shaking fingers. Not bothering to shut it behind me, I made a bee-line for my room, ignoring my brother’s calls.

              Shutting the door, I hovered over the bathroom sink and heaved. I’d skipped lunch and had a scant breakfast, so nothing came up. I studied my reflection in the mirror, but instead of seeing myself, all I saw was Brenda straddling Asher, both of them half-naked and kissing.

              That’s when the tears started.

              Once the dam broke, I couldn’t seem to stop. Sobs wracked my chest, burning my eyes as the ache in my chest tripled. The image of them, it
wouldn’t go away.
They were laughing at me in the mirror, laughing at my naiveté, at how stupid I was to think a guy like Asher Grayson could care for someone like me.

              With a scream, I hurled the soap dispenser at the mirror, breaking it into a million pieces, and it only got worse. Now there were a million versions of them, laughing up at me.

              My brothers burst through the door and rushed into the bathroom. “Ivy?” Paul gasped, looking at the shattered mirror. “What happened?”

              “She’s bleeding!” Spencer said with alarm, grabbing my hand and tilting it upwards.

              I couldn’t stop crying long enough to answer them. I felt Spencer lift me up in his arms and carry me over to the bed while Paul went to get the first-aid kit. Sobbing into his chest, he wrapped his arms around me. “Shh. Don’t cry. Come on, Ives, you know how much I hate to see you cry.”

              Paul returned, and they bandaged my hand. He knelt in front of me and grabbed my face, making me meet his eyes while Spencer sat beside me, holding my hand. “What happened?” Paul asked. “And don’t you dare tell me nothing.”

              Why bother hiding it? With new tears tracking down my face, I tried to tell them what I’d seen in a clear voice, but words kept breaking. My brother’s faces morphed into twin expressions of potent rage, and they shot to their feet.

              “I’m going to kill him,” Paul growled.

              “That motherfu-” he was smacked in the chest by Paul before he could finish. “The asshole!”

              “P-p-please don’t leave me,” I whispered, shaking uncontrollably. “I need you guys.”

              They glanced at each other and heaved a sigh, but it was obvious from the tense set of their shoulders that they wanted to go out and beat the tar out of Asher. Paul tucked a blanket over my shoulders and removed my shoes while Spencer sat on the floor, so his head was level with mine, and started telling me funny stories about his short stint at a law office.

              Even cocooned by the warmth of my brothers’ love, my heart was ice cold as I fell into a tormented sleep.

Chapter Thirty

    Charlie’s Angels In the House

When my brothers’ couldn’t get a response out of me, they started to panic.

              Saturday morning, the only thing I was capable of doing was staring blankly at the opposite wall as I lay in bed. They tried to speak to me, but the words didn’t register in my haze. With no other options, reinforcements were called.

              Dana burst through my bedroom door, followed closely by Caleb. I couldn’t even bring myself to move, or even look at them. If I talked to anyone, it might make this nightmare real. It would mean Asher really did cheat on me, that everything he’d ever told me was a lie. It would mean I meant nothing to him.

              “That rat-bastard!” Dana growled, visibly shaking with rage. “How could he do this to her? And with that stuck-up bitch of all people?”

              “Shh, Dana, we’ll worry about what to do with the douche later. Focus on Ivy,” Caleb murmured, kneeling beside the bed and taking my hand.

              Heaving a sigh, I felt the bed dip as Dana lowered herself beside me. When she noticed I had no intention of moving, I was lifted into a sitting position, with both my best friend’s on either side of me. “Come on, Ives, snap out of it,” Dana said sadly.

              A tear coursed down my cheek, but I made no move to wipe it away.

              “Don’t cry,” Dana sniffled. “Or I’ll start.”

              “We can’t stand to see you like this,” Caleb murmured, squeezing my hand and swiping the tear.

              My phone started to ring, and I cringed, burying my face in Dana’s shoulder. Caleb stood and ruffled in my purse, extracting the phone. It hadn’t stopped ringing since last night, and Spencer had had to restrain Paul from smashing it. Caleb looked at the caller ID and slid the phone open decisively.

              “Listen dick, Ivy doesn’t want to speak to you, now or ever. So run back to your tramp and leave her alone. You have me and her brothers ready to kick your ass, so watch yourself.”

              He hung up and switched the phone off. Climbing into the bed next to me, the pair comforted me while my senses slowly returned to me after being shocked to death by what I’d witnessed yesterday. The cycling emotions of grief, despair, and anger had calmed, until I thought maybe I could speak.

              “Water,” I croaked. Dana handed me the cup immediately, and I drank it all in one pull. She returned the cup to the dresser and watched me with concern.

              “Spencer and Paul told us what happened,” she said gently. “I’m so sorry, honey.”

              “I almost had to tie her to the roof of my car to keep her from going to his house,” Caleb chuckled humorlessly.

              Dana glanced at the clock on my wall and inhaled sharply. “Caleb! You’re going to be late!”

              He shrugged. “I’m not going. Ivy’s more important.”

              What? It dawned on me the next minute. Today was Saturday, the day of Caleb’s big soccer game! College reps were going to be at the game, and it was his big shot. No
way
was he missing it for me. “Hell no,” I coughed, clearing my throat. “You’re going to the freaking game.”

              “See? She wants you to go. C’mon Caleb, this is your chance to shine. It’ll be worse if you stay here and miss it. I’ll take care of Ivy, okay?”

              Caleb studied me before nodding his head decisively. Dana started to smile victoriously until he spoke. “Only if you two come.”

              I shrank into the headboard and Dana glared at him. He shrugged innocently. “What? I need my two best girls there. Please, Ivy? I’ll put you both in the commentator’s section. You won’t have to talk to anyone.”

              “B-but what if…what if
he
is there?” I whispered. “I can’t see him, Caleb.”

              Caleb shook his head adamantly. “He won’t be there. He never goes, none of the Plastics do. You just have to sit there and watch me ‘chase a little white ball’.”

              How could I say no when he was pleading like this? He’d been training for this game for ages, and I’d be a terrible friend if I stayed here to nurse my wounds instead of supporting him.

             
Please God, don’t let me have a panic attack and embarrass him at his game. Please.

             
“Okay,” I sighed with resignation. Caleb whooped and hugged me gently. Dana rolled her eyes and nudged me up. Getting up from bed was the hardest part. Spencer had shut the door of the bathroom tightly, obscuring the shattered mirror from my view. Dana cast a glance at my bandage only briefly, meaning my brothers’ must have already explained my ‘episode’.

              I knew I looked like a mess. I’d fallen asleep in my clothes last night, and my hair was curled into nightmarish knots, but I didn’t care. Why bother? Tugging a knit beanie on my head and a cardigan on, I followed Dana and Caleb. Paul and Spencer were sitting on the couch, but they leapt to their feet when they saw me coming down the stairs. They were watching me like I was a fragile piece of glass or a ticking time bomb.

              Both assessments were correct.

              “We’re going to Caleb’s game,” Dana explained. “Ivy wants him to go, and he wants her there. She’ll be okay, I promise. We’ll have her home in two hours, tops.”

              I tried to smile at them reassuringly, but I think it was more of a grimace. Paul snatched Dana’s wrist as we walked by, pulling her to him and Spencer. He said something, and Spencer nodded. Dana paled and pursed her lips grimly.

              I couldn’t bring myself to care what they were talking about.

              Caleb seated me in his car, and Dana jumped in a few minutes later. They chatted easily as we drove, but I was silent, staring ahead and watching the houses pass by in a blur. A conversation I’d had with…
him
rose to the surface.

             
“I don’t know why this is bothering you so much. My relationship with Brenda was the same with the other girls: sex. That’s it.”

              My mouth twisted. “You just used them for sex?”

              “No! They knew what I wanted, and they wanted the same. It wasn’t like I promised them fantasies of ponies and castles in the sky.”

              By the second half of the game, my head was ringing and I was curled into the fetal position on the foldable chair. Dana was smoothing my hair and telling me to hold on, keep it together till we returned home. Whenever Caleb glanced over, I’d make sure to plaster a fake smile on my face, but judging from the worried crease on his forehead, he wasn’t buying it.

              Caleb played phenomenally. Dana nearly busted my eardrums cheering for him, and I even managed a few ear-splitting whistles of my own. I felt terrible I’d dampened a special day for him, and I was trying my hardest to make up for it.

              The game was almost at its conclusion when it happened.

              I saw
him.

              He was weaving through the crowd, eyes searching. My whimper must have alerted Dana, because she glanced up and spotted him too. I felt her stiffen and start to stand. “No,” I murmured shakily. “Please. Just get me out of here before he sees me.”

              Dana helped me up and slung her arm over my shoulders, pulling me tightly into her side. I held on to her as we made our way to the car. We were almost across the parking lot when a shadow fell over us, and Dana tensed.

              “Get out of our fucking way, asshole,” she snarled.

              I keep my eyes squeezed shut and turned my nose to Dana’s shoulder. She started walking again but stopped. “I said,
move
.”

              “Angel?”

              I bit my tongue
hard
to keep the sob building in my chest from releasing. Why was he doing this? Why couldn’t he just leave me alone?

              “What’s wrong with her?” he breathed, and I heard a loud thump as Dana presumably stopped him from coming closer.

              “If you don’t move Grayson, I’m calling her brothers’ to come beat the shit out of you. And screaming bloody murder so the entire stadium hears,” Dana threatened harshly, attempting to elbow him aside again with no avail.

              “It’s not what you think, angel,
I swear
. I would never do that to you!” his desperate voice nearly undid me then and there, and I shuddered. Part of me was annoyed I couldn’t bring myself to tell him off good and proper.