“Aright,” he says, walking backward. His eyes travel up and down my body and my skin instantly burns from his gaze. He winks and everything melts within me. “I’ll see you later.”
With that, he spins on his heel and takes off at a jog, knowing damn well that he’s going to be late for training. I laugh at his retreating figure and knowing just how much homework I have to get through, I start heading for the exit.
I walk home, hating this whole not having a car thing but I can’t deny that the alone time isn’t so bad. I used to avoid being alone. I hated the idea of wild thoughts entering my mind because I always knew where those thoughts would take me, but now, I don’t hate it quite so much. Hell, I even kind of like it. It’s soothing, relaxing, and has me feeling somewhat at ease.
I get home to an empty house, but I’m not surprised. It’s always like this after school. Blake trains nearly every afternoon, Ben works a nine to five job and never gets home until late afternoon, and Shay has been stopping by the gym on her way home from work as I kind of took over her home gym.
I head into my room and get started on my homework but find myself glancing at my art project. I really need to get that done and despite how badly my fingers are twitching to pick up my pencils, I force myself to get everything else done first. If I start on my art, I’ll lose track of time and before I know it, it’ll be the middle of the night and nothing else would have gotten done.
I pull everything out and thankfully get through it all within an hour and a half, leaving me plenty of time to get into this art project.
Just as I had thought, my pencil glides across the paper and the next thing I know, I hear Blake pushing through the door but when high-pitched laughter follows his grumbling, I find myself pushing out of my desk chair.
I hate the way things are with Blake right now. We’ve never had days on end where we haven’t spoken, but then, we also haven’t had a time where he’s told the whole fucking school that I was raped.
I let out a sigh. I know this has been killing him but I’m tired of holding onto the bad. Deep down, I know he was doing what he thought was best at the time. He was trying to protect me and had he not been drunk because I told everyone about our fucked-up past, then it wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
I make my way up the hall, groaning as I hear some random girl welcoming herself into my home. Coming out into the living room, I find Blake dropping down on the couch and Kathleen Harris attempting to straddle him.
For fuck’s sake. I should have known it would be her. What is it with this kid and this girl?
She pulls her shirt up over her head and leans in to kiss Blake as his hands drop to her ass. So, I do what any responsible big sister would do and grab a cushion off the end of the opposite couch and launch it at the skank’s head.
I watch with bated breath as it travels across the sky in a perfect arc that Slade would be proud of and comes crashing down, right in the back of Kathleen’s head. “Fuck, yeah,” I cheer, pumping my fist into the sky as I find Blake’s eyes on me. “Did you see that aim. Fucking perfect. I should join your team I’m that fucking good.”
Kathleen’s head whips around and she narrows her eyes as a ferocious snarl comes tearing out of her. “What’s your fucking problem, bitch?”
I go to respond but Blake’s carefree sigh cuts me off. “How is it possible that you catch me every fucking time I’m about to get my rocks off?”
“It must be a sixth sense,” I tell him. “I seem to be able to tell when some cheap whore is trying to screw you over. I don’t know,” I add. “It must be the desperation I can smell in the air.”
Kathleen clambers off Blake’s lap and he groans, stealing the discarded cushion and slamming it down over his groin, covering his bits so I’m not scarred by seeing what he’s working with.
“Are you kidding me? You’re the desperate whore around here. We all know you’ve been fucking Slade Cruz.” She glares down at my brother. “Are you just going to let her talk about me like that?”
Blake shrugs his shoulders, really not giving a shit about this girl. “I mean, this is her home too. She can do whatever the fuck she wants in it, but you…you can’t, and calling my sister a whore, after knowing what you already know about her, is fucking wrong. And for the record, she’s not just fucking Slade, they’re together, so really, she’s not a whore at all. You’re the one giving it away for free.”