“I don’t want to hear it,” she snaps at me. “Just… leave me alone.”
I sigh and fall back against my chair, hating that this conversation has gone this way. Maybe I should have waited until tomorrow or maybe I should have just said nothing at all. All I know is that I feel even worse than when all this bullshit happened in the first place.
Jackson pulls up at our place and she storms inside while I hang back and apologize to Jackson for having to sit through all that. “Sorry you had to witness that,” I tell him with a cringe as I look after Brooke.
“It’s cool. I guess it’s the only way I was going to find out what was going on with you guys. You’re both always so secretive about yourselves.”
I shrug my shoulders and give him a tight smile. “I guess.”
“Look, did that really happen? The shit with Lukas in the kitchen?”
“Yeah,” I tell him.
“Shit. Nate is going to kick his ass.”
“Yep,” I grunt. “Please don’t say anything. I haven’t told him yet and I don’t want him finding out through someone else.”
“Yeah, alright. Do you want me to get Lukas to back off?”
I look back to the house to where Brooke had disappeared and cringe. “Nah, that would just piss her off more.”
“Ok,” he says, reaching out and squeezing my shoulder. “Sorry your night went to shit,” he says. “I’ll see you around.”
“K,” I grumble, watching him go back to his Charger. As he pulls out of the driveway, I turn back to the house and make my way inside. The second I close the door behind me, Brooke slams her bedroom door, letting me know there’s no chance of speaking about this tonight.
With a sigh, I go down to my bedroom and get changed into my pajamas before grabbing my phone. Now it’s time to let Nate and Jesse know exactly what I was up to tonight, and let me tell you, they’re going to be pissed.
Chapter 9
I barge through my front door to find Jesse taking up residence on my couch. He’s laying down with his feet propped up on the armrest, completely making himself at home. “Geez,” I laugh, walking deeper into the house. “Make yourself at home.”
“Yeah,” he grunts, watching my TV, probably using my Netflix account as well, though from the looks of it, he’s not really watching the TV, just has it on as background noise. He’s more interested in studying the coffee table. “Brooke let me in.”
I nod my head as I drop my bag down on the kitchen table before diving through it. My fingers curl around the packaged plastic and I pull it out before dropping down on the couch beside Jesse, making him groan and grunt as he adjusts him to get comfortable again.
“Here,” I say, dropping the packaged plastic into his lap and stealing the remote to put something better on. I prop my feet up against the coffee table and relax back into the couch.
He looks down at his lap before his eyes widen. “A slap band?” he shrieks in excitement before tearing into the packaging and ripping it open. “Where the hell did you get this?”
I smirk as I watch him with the child’s toy. “A store was giving them away and the second I saw it, I thought of you.”
In the blink of an eye, he leans forward and slams the slap band against my ankle. The sharp slap rings out through the living room as my skin instantly stings with the slap. “Shit,” I gasp as the slap band curls around my ankle.
My hand shoots out to retrieve it, but Jesse is already there, uncurling it from my ankle, probably so he can do it all again. I rub the sting on my ankle as Jesse chuckles to himself. “If I knew you were going to do that, I wouldn’t have gotten it for you.”
I feel his laughter rumble right through the back of the couch. “What did you think I was going to do with it?”
“I don’t know,” I groan. “Get your brother. Not me.”
“No way,” he sulks. “He’ll take my slap band away.”
I can’t help but grin as I think of the three of us growing up together and realize Jess is right. Nate would more than take it away. He’d take it, use it on Jess until his skin was red raw, and then hide it away somewhere he’d never find it. Growing up with them was always fun, but not once would Nate let you forget who was boss. Now at nineteen, not a damn thing has changed.
“Yeah, you’re right,” I say as he straightens the band back out, preparing to use it again. I shuffle away just out of his reach. “Get Kaylah with it then. She’s not strong enough to steal it off you.”