“She needs someone, Styx. She needs a fucking shoulder to cry on, and you dropped her when she needed you most.”
“I didn’t drop her, I—”
“Stop trying to convince me that you’ve done any of this for her. I’m not fucking buying it. If you really were then you wouldn’t have let me convince you to take her that night. You want her so fucking bad it’s bordering on embarrassing, man. And pushing her away isn’t making it better for either of you.”
“But D—”
“Fuck D. He’s banging her best friend on the daily. He is not in any kind of position to have an opinion.”
He grunts some kind of agreement.
“She’s drowning, bro,” I say. “All this shit with her mom. She really didn’t need you dropping her. You’ve made it worse, not better.”
“You’re not making anything better,” he groans.
“Sorry, truth hurts.” I shrug, draining my beer before Styx reaches out for the other bottle I brought down.
“She let me see her tonight. Let me talk to her,” he confesses.
“And I’m guessing she told you about me then,” I mutter.
“No, actually. She never mentioned your name.”
“Huh.” I kind of thought after leaving her with cum dripping down her thighs and weak knees that I’d have been at the forefront of her mind, but there we go.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“N-nothing. So what made you force your way in here and take a swipe at me then?”
“She told me that she was seeing someone. That it wasn’t serious but that she went out with him tonight. Then I left, got halfway home and reality hit me like a fucking truck.”
“She smelled like me, huh?”
Something I’m not used to feeling knots up my stomach at the thought of him getting close enough to her to find that out, but I force it down. It is certainly not a feeling I’m willing to accept or deal with.
Anger twists up his features, his eyes darken, and his fists curl once again.
“Nah, I made sure that by the time I left, she’d forgotten all about you.”
Fuck if that uncomfortable knot doesn’t come back stronger with those words.
“So she heard you out then?”
“Something like that.”
I watch him, fighting my own internal battle as he drains his beer.
I don’t give two shits about sharing her with Styx. Hell, if she were to turn up right this second then I’d be the first to suggest we have a little repeat of that night, sans mask. But the thought of him having her without me. Shit. There’s something about that image that just doesn’t sit right with me.
“You’ve made up?”
His eyes flash with something before he leans forward. “It sure felt that way.” A smirk kicks up the corner of his mouth. “She was fucking gagging for it, man.”
My teeth grind, and I have to force myself not to react to his taunts. He’s hurt finding out that I’ve been giving her what she needs while he’s been sulking in the shadows like a pussy. He wants me to hurt just as much.
But it’s not going to work.
Or at least, he’s not going to think it is. Because it shouldn’t. I don’t do serious. And I certainly don’t do it with one of my brothers’ little sisters.