“Tell me what happened.”
Piper tucked her hair behind her ears, and suddenly, she didn’t look like the girl that I had mouthed off to in the past. Her clever comebacks and devious smiles in my direction had always showcased her fighting spirit, but right now, it was nowhere to be found. She looked sad. Lifeless. Broken.
“I’m okay,” she finally answered, her voice small.
“You’re crying.”
Piper’s face twisted. Her eyelashes fluttered closed for a moment before she reached up and dabbed her cheeks as if she couldn’t believe she was truly crying.
“Oh.” Her hands fell quickly as she cast her eyes to the ground.
I took a step closer to her, the gravel crunching underneath my shoe. “Don’t do that. Don’t hide from me.”
She said nothing as crickets chirped in the background. The buzz from the flickering light sparked the air with a tension even heavier than what she was carrying.
“I’m learning that you hide from everyone.” Piper slowly raised her chin, and we locked eyes. “Does anyone know t
he real you, Piper?”
I could hear footsteps getting closer. Twigs breaking and small rocks crunching. But Piper and I were at an impasse, and I wouldn’t back down. I needed her to see that I was here…and I was seeing her.
Her tongue darted out to lick her bottom lip. I dipped my eyes down, seizing the emotional hold we had on one another, and felt myself pause. Her shirt was clenched in her one hand from breaking the window, which meant she had nothing on but her bra.
My mouth went dry, and I worked my jaw back and forth. It wasn’t the time to let lust overtake, but I let it anyway. I wanted to pull her in and kiss her. I wanted to wrap my hands around her waist and let our bare bodies touch. I wanted to tip her head back and kiss away her tears and drink up every last secret she held close to her heart.
“There you are!”
Piper jumped back from me and scrambled to throw her shirt over her body, covering up that dainty piece of fabric she called a bra. I cleared my throat and locked eyes onto Christian. A shadow hid half of his face, but I could tell he had several questions on the tip of his tongue. On the way over, I gave them a brief run-down of what we were walking into, but nothing of true substance. Only that Piper had a brother, she was in trouble, and we needed to get her out of Tank’s trailer as soon as possible. They knew nothing about the situation or my racing.
Those were our secrets. I felt overly protective of them and somewhat closer to her knowing we shared something away from the rest of our privileged world.
Hayley rushed over to Piper and threw her arms around her slender shoulders. “Are you okay?”
Piper nodded her head. “I’m okay. I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” Hayley pulled back, and her eyebrows cast an even darker shadow along her face. “You never have to be sorry for relying on us, Piper.”
Piper’s eyes shifted to mine momentarily before resting back on her best friend. “I know. It’s just… There’s a lot I need to tell you.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear again. “But I need to get home right now. My parents are going to flip if I don’t get home. I told them I was on my way a long time ago.”
Hayley nodded. “Go! We will catch up tomorrow. Just as long as you're safe.”
Piper forced a smile at all of us and slowly trudged over to her car. Once she got in and started to pull away, never once looking at the four of us, Hayley turned and faced me. “What the hell happened in there? She seems...”
Everything inside of me was wound tight. “Empty.”
Hayley nodded, placing her hands on her hips. “You two have a lot of explaining to do.” She let her arms fall to her sides. “But for now, let’s just go back to Eric’s and give her some time.”
Eric was the first to walk over to my Charger. “And let’s not forget we just broke a fuckin’ window in that trailer. We need to get going. Now.”
Christian cracked his neck. “Yeah, it’d be a shame if that fuck came at us…”
Hayley started to climb in the back of my car. “You don’t want to pick a fight with a guy like Tank, Christian.”
“I’m not scared. I was giving him one more sly glance in your direction before I knocked his teeth in.”
She rolled her eyes, ready to retaliate, but I interjected as I began pulling onto the highway. “I’ll drop you guys off at Eric’s.”
“Where are you going?” Christian asked.