Just like he’d said, the men fall back even more, grumbling in irritation. My voice is loud enough for them to hear; now, they know I have a police officer coming for me.
Owen is silent for a moment, obviously confused, but then – “Tell me where you are.”
Chapter3
Gracie
The apartment has three bedrooms, each filled with an occupant. The one on the far left is home to the man I lost my virginity to. The one on the far right is home to the man whose virginity I took. Then, there’s me, right smack in the middle. I’m the delicious part of this sandwich, the luscious meat within that puts it all together. Because without me, there would be no sandwich.
Okay, so there’s no actual sandwich here. You need the bread to make it; I don’t have that on either side. I’m a lonely piece of meat, lying in the bottom of a fridge waiting to be noticed. All right, so they do notice me. They both have for so long. How else could I have had sex with either one of them? They’re just off-limits right now. Their rule, not mine. It’s their guidelines for living together; no touching. I don’t even know how it happened, but the two became such great buds sometime in the past year and a half that they decided to live together. It means no fighting over a girl.
How. Fucking. Lame. Men can be such dicks, which is unsurprising as they only tend to think with them as it is. Those luscious, plump dicks that make my thighs tingle and my back arch…
Woah, back up, Gracie, back up.
I know what they both look like beneath their clothes. I know every little touch that makes each of them melt. I know their favorite foods and what each mood means, even if it’s nothing more than an eye roll with nothing to follow suit. But the bastards long ago decided that bro code is far more important than sticking their dicks in me. Even if I know that they both loved me once before.
“Earth to Gracie.” The exasperated voice pulls my head out of dick-swinging fantasies and back to reality.
Marcy stares at me with an arched eyebrow and pursed lips of impatience. I blink and feel heat flushing up my cheeks at having been caught in the middle of my daydreams. If I were a guy, I would have ended with a seriously raging boner as evidence of my impure thoughts. Maybe it was a good thing I didn’t have that slab of meat dangling between my thighs.
“Did you hear a word I said at all?” she questions, eyes narrowing at me in suspicion, daring me to try to wiggle my way out of this one.
I shrug, huffing out a breath of air, and tilt my head back to stare at the cream-colored ceiling. No cracks, no stains that would arouse any questions at all. There is nothing. It is all practically brand new, built just under a decade ago, and kept in as close to pristine condition as possible. It’s one of the best apartment complexes here in the city. Daddy made sure of that. There was no way he would’ve let me live in something crappy with being far from home. Safety for me was and is his number one concern with me living so far away from him. Even if it did put him in a bind to pay for the place. He’d told me plenty of times, though, that it’s worth it if I keep up my schooling.
Except for the loneliness of living alone. Or at least it’s how it had been in the beginning. I got lucky when I’d found out the guys were completing their dreams in the city as well, or I would’ve been left entirely by myself. Something I just can’t handle, and everybody who knows me knows that. Marcy found a school three states away from me, and I know she isn’t going to even consider changing it any time soon. She’s determined to be an elementary teacher, and I know better than to try and take it away by whining.
“I said,”Marcy continues, annoyance decorating her tone. “How’re you dealing with Owen’s girlfriend?”
Donna isn’t new to me, and this isn’t a topic that is rarely spoken about. I grimace visibly, so Marcy knows exactly what those particular words mean to me: a slap to the face. I loathe that girl who prances around my man with doe-like eyes, pretending to be helpless. I know her type well enough – I used to be her type. She feigns innocence just enough to keep Owen wrapped around her tiny little finger. I hate her so much, but if I even dare to voice my feelings to Owen, I will be accused of rampant jealousy. Maybe I am a little jealous, but I still know something is wrong with her. Something is just off about that woman. She and Owen don’t belong together. Just like Kate and Devon don’t belong together.
They aren’t happy with these chicks. At least, Owen isn’t. He’s annoyed and moody after being with her. Devon, well, he’s something else. I can’t quite explain it, but I know he isn’t happy in my gut. Is it just stupid hope curling in the pit of my stomach or real gut instinct?
“You’re just going to have to get over it, Gracie. Find a new guy or go lesbian but stop mourning what’s been gone a long time. Remember”—Marcy grunts as she rises to her feet and stretches her arms over her head—“you gave them both up, not the other way around.”
She doesn’t wait for a response as she steps over our looted candy pile and leaves my room. I stick my tongue out at her back and fall onto my pillows, once again staring at the cream-colored ceiling. Marcy is right, not that I am ever going to admit that, of course. Not to her face or to anyone at all. Devon had asked me to marry him at one point. I turned him down. The stupidest mistake I have ever made. And Owen had almost been mine again, but I had stolen all his money from his wallet and left a pathetic apology note in its place before running off. No wonder they don’t want me.
Maybe I’m not allowed to be pissed because they have told me off to my face. A small part of me knows that it is partly my fault. Or maybe entirely.No, nope, not a damn chance.They have to be at fault to some extent too. Not just me. But, and no surprise, I am the one being blamed for it all. Even in my own heart, damn wretched thing betraying me. The plop of a body dropping onto the pile of pillows on the ground turns my head, and my eyes fall to the reappearance of Marcy.
“So,” Marcy drawls, popping a bitesize Twizzler into her mouth. “I had sex.”
I squint my eyes at her, unimpressed by the news. I’m the one who’d lost her v-card before hitting eighteen.
“So?” I quirk an eyebrow, still slightly confused at the confession.“We’ve both had sex, Mar. It isn’tthatbig of a deal anymore. We aren’t teenagers, you know. Sex is part of life.”
Marcy’s face turns beet red, and she ducks her head, feigning interest in the threads hanging from the pillow she sat upon. “It’s not that I did it, not really. More like withwho.”
Well, this just got interesting.I sit up on my bed, propping my head on my hand, and arch an eyebrow, urging her to keep spilling the beans. The air seems to sizzle as I wait for her to speak. I don’t want to say the wrong thing and make her lose her confidence.
“It – it was Landon,” she rushes out, her face snapping up towards me, an apology twisting it.
My eyebrows shoot up at her, and this time, I pull myself up to a fully upright position, crossing my legs beneath me on the bed. I’m surprised at her words, but more so that she even bothered to tell me anything. It isn’t exactly a surprise about their fling. Landon already spilled the news weeks ago when the two first got together. He’d been worried I would end up hating Marcy for going out with him or hating him for going out with her. Plus, Landon isn’t the best at keeping secrets. I also know about the two from when they’d had a small thing in high school – again, all Landon’s fault. It had bothered me then, but I’m mature now – a grown-up. Plus, I’m not in charge of who Marcy wants to be with, even if it is my lame-o nephew.
“So, are you two a thing then?” I ask, trying to sound indifferent about it, gnawing at the inside of my cheek.
Marcy shrugs with a shake of her head and drops her gaze to her hands, picking at her nails. “I don’t know. Maybe? I’m really confused about it all. Are you mad, Gracie?”
Her question takes me by surprise, and I lean forward just enough to not fall face forward off my bed. “Why would I be mad?” I pretend to be clueless, but we both know that I know what she’s talking about.