CHAPTER SIXTEEN
JAX
WHEN I GOT BACK to my brother’s apartment, he was still passed out face down on his couch. I was wound so tight from having to sit across from a girl I used to want to give the world to that I could barely focus on putting one foot in front of the other.
I hit him in the back of the head. “Wake the fuck up.”
He mumbled into the cushion. So, I shoved his legs off the couch and sat next to him.
He glared over at me through groggy, sunken eyes. “What the hell, man?”
“I just did your chores and studied with Aubrey. You owe me.”
He shot up off the couch. “You what? What time is it?”
I let him work through it.
He paced toward the clock in the kitchen, squinted, and paced back. “It’s noon? I told your ass to wake me up at eight!” he yelled. He stomped into the kitchen and back again. “You saw her? Is she pissed?”
I chuckled while he swore under his breath.
When he started to search for his cell, I said, “Calm down. She’s taken care of. I helped her with her class like I said.”
“You helped her?” He eyed me. “You helped her? Ha!”
He went back to shuffling through the cushions looking for his phone. I wondered whether or not that had to do with him not trusting me with her. “You act like I can’t be cordial to your high-and-mighty princess.”
“Damn right you can’t be cordial. She can barely stand to be in the same room as you!” He threw his hands in the air. “Where the fuck is my phone?”
I pointed to the table in the dining room. Jay couldn’t compose himself for the life of him. Made him a great actor, able to display every emotion, but a terrible businessman.
Before he dialed her number, I walked over and leaned on the table. “We talked, Jay. We can stand to be in the same room, all right?”
He studied me for a beat and then said, “You apologized?”
I glanced toward the ceiling. I knew that’s what everyone wanted. My family had said their piece more than once regarding Aubrey. “The past is the past. She doesn’t need apologies. I’m going to help her through the rest of the class.”
He started to say something.
I held up a hand to cut him off. “Thank me for it later. You’re off the hook, and this will give Aubrey and me a chance to put the past behind us.”
He tapped his finger on the dark wood of the table. “That’s impossible, man. You don’t know what you—”
“We’re adults, Jay. What we had when we were kids is irrelevant.”
“Irrelevant?” he spit back at me, taking a step toward me.
“You want to do this now?”
His eyes narrowed. “No better time for it.”
I sighed, knowing the look in his eye. The tabloids used to say my brothers and I looked exactly alike. Sure, there was a resemblance but not the way they described it. There were times like these though when I saw it all too clearly. This look was the exact look I had when my anger boiled over and I couldn’t control a damn move I made.
I cracked my neck, trying to release the tension and stay calm. “She’s fine, and we’re fine. She doesn’t need anyone to coddle her.”
“How the hell would you know?”
“Because I was there that night, and no one’s coddling me.” I crossed my arms.