Chapter Sixteen
The guilt settled in shortly after Kenna left. I was out with my two best friends, and she was somewhere feeling alone and abandoned, two things I knew well. It had never been my intention to make her feel like that. I wanted Kenna to accept me for who I was, respect me.
Didn’t I have to do the same?
Even if she was like those girls I detested?
None of us in the shopping mood, Mads, Ainsley, and I forewent the stores for food. When I was stressed, I normally sought either booze or sex to make me feel nothing. Since neither of those was readily available, I opted for food.
The vibe for the day drifted more or less to somber, but I still tried to enjoy hanging out with Ainsley, since it had been too long. Mads also did her best to keep up a light and fun attitude, but I could see how much her spat with Kenna bothered her. My heart ached for Mads, and I was upset with how Kenna treated her. It was wrong and unfair for Kenna to put Mads between us, to try and force her to choose.
I would like to think that I would never put my friends in those situations.
It was just after four o’clock when I walked into the house, heading upstairs to quickly shower and get ready for work. I had to be there in less than an hour. Regardless of how my day started, I was grateful that I’d been able to spend time with Ainsley. She was the one person who kept me grounded, reminded me of who I was and where I came from in this greedy and materialistic world I now lived in.
I often missed the simplicity of my life before. But then I pictured it without Brock, and I couldn’t imagine going back to how things had been before the Elite.
It just wasn’t possible.
Speak of the damn devil and he shall appear. Brock was in my room, and judging by the look on his face, he wasn’t happy about something. “What happened?” I quickly asked after entering the room and spotting him. I stood in the doorway, waiting for him to deliver the bad news.
He sat on the edge of my bed. His eyes lifted to mine, and I didn’t like the turmoil I saw in them. “Why did Kenna call me in tears to pick her up? What happened?”
I jerked, taken aback. “Are you kidding me? She called you. Fucking figures.” My blood pressure rose, and I could feel my anger taking shape. “You don’t even have a car!” I pointed out, attempting to figure out how she expectedhimto save her.
He gave a small shrug. “I took one of my parents’ when I went back to grab some stuff from my house.”
My arms folded over my chest from where I stood in the center of the room. “So you did pick her up?”
He raised his brows. “What did you want me to do? Leave her stranded?”
I gaped at him for a moment before shaking my head. “She wasn’t stranded. Mads, Ainsley, and I were all there. She’s the one who got her too-tight panties in a wad and stormed off like a spoiled brat. You could have sent Grayson or one of the other guys to get her.” There was no mistaking the irritation in my tone. It came across clear, and if for some reason he couldn’t hear it, he could damn well see it in my expression.
Brock grimaced. “Did you have another fight?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me what she said?”
He stood up, striding to me with just a few steps. “She didn’t give me the details, other than you and Mads ganged up on her. She was too upset for me to get any information.”
My neck craned back as I stared up into his face, brows drawn together. “And you believe I would do that?”
He said nothing, and his silence spoke volumes.
I understood that Brock and I both had loose morals when it came to revenge and justice, that we both might do whatever necessary to protect those we care about, regardless of the costs, but I also wasn’t a fucking bully. Not without a damn good reason. And bullying my family just wasn’t in my moral wheelhouse.
“Okay, yes, I would do that to someone like Ava,” I admitted as he still stared at me with that unreadable face. “Someone I despise, but I don’t hate Kenna. I don’t understand her, but my feelings are far from what I feel about Ava.But, if she keeps trying to take you from me, she and I are going to have a real problem.”
He dipped his head, bringing his face closer to mine, and my heart stuttered. His scent drifted toward me as he softly said, “I made it clear to her that there will never be anything other than friendship between us. I can only handle one of you.”
I wasn’t letting him off that easy, despite the fireworks going off inside me at his nearness. “I can’t believe you’re in my room, ready to condemn me without waiting to hear my side of things. Did she mention that Izzy and Emily showed up, and they started the whole damn thing? I’m guessing from the look on your face, no. They brought up Ava transferring schools and how it was my fault, which, fine, I’ll take partial credit for that shit.”
His eyes darkened, going stormy. “Izzy and Emily were there?”
God, even irritated he was fucking gorgeous. So gorgeous that it was too easy for my brain to forget why I was annoyed with him. “Doesn’t your guy give you a full report of my whereabouts? Mads spotted him today.”
“I haven’t talked to him yet. He only reports if there’s trouble. Otherwise, we only talk every few days.”
“Well, running into Emily and Izzy is how we found out that Ava transferred to Berkton Prep,” I informed flatly. “I can’t believe you fell for the oldest trick in the book. I offered to give Kenna a ride home. She refused and stormed off. Don’t you see what she’s doing?” It was so clear to me. She wanted Brock, and he loved to be the hero.