She threw her head back and laughed at somethingFinleysaid, right before he ran with his hands on her hips, pushing her around on his skateboard. Who skateboarded anymore? What a chump.
I clenched my jaw and ripped a smoke from my pocket, lighting it up and not giving a single fuck if a teacher saw it. I’d like to see them stop me.
Lauren scrunched up her nose as I lit the cigarette, as did her friends. Stuck up bitches. “I thought you said you were going to stop?”
“I never fucking said that.” I sucked on the cigarette, garnering every ounce of self-control I had left, which was close to none at this point. I stood up and went to my sister’s table, leaving Lauren behind with her jaw slack, in shock that I didn’t want to be in her cloud of perfume any longer. Couldn’t fucking care less at the moment.
“How’s the girlfriend?” Gemma asked with a smirk when I sat at her table. Theo and Noah were sitting with her too, because they couldn’t stand to be around Lauren and her friends either. Theo made a gagging sound to express his disdain, and Noah sneered at the term.
“Fuck off,” I gritted, sucking down my cigarette. I’d finally broken the news to Gemma that Dad was making me “date” Lauren. She was relieved but, like her cohort, didn’t agree with it at all. She thought I should tell Dad to fuck off. If only it was that easy.
My eyes–damn traitors that they were–foundheragain. She was riding the skateboard–on her own this time–along the sidewalk. Once she got near the parking lot, she jumped off and Finley ran after the board, both of them laughing as he grabbed it before it rolled under a car. They high fived when he brought it back for her to try again.
“Finn seems cool,” Gemma observed, earning a raised eyebrow from me and a scoff from Noah. “What?”
“He’s a fucking burnout,” I sneered.
“We’re all fucking burnouts,” Theo grinned. “You’re just jealous that another guy’s got his hands on your girl.”
Gemma choked on her juice. “Um, am I missing something here?”
“Kane and Dani fucked,” Theo added proudly. Little fucker was gonna get his ass beat.
“What?!” Gemma yelled. “You’re joking. They hate each other.”
“Sometimes hate sex is the best sex,” he shrugged.
“Dude, stop talking about sex around my sister. And yeah, we fucked.” I took another cigarette from my pocket and lit it up.
“Wait, what?! She didn’t even tell me,” Gemma swallowed thickly. I could cut off Theo’s balls for dropping that bomb on her so nonchalantly. Dani would definitely have his ass for that.
She didn’t want anyone to know. It was our dirty little secret.
Except I let it slip to Theo, Noah, Dominic, and Xavier, so it was only a matter of time before Gemma found out. Kinda surprised Dani wasn’t the one to tell her.
“It’s nothing. It was just sex,” I said.
“Is that why you’re always staring at her? Pissed whenever another guy looks her way? Which is pretty much all the fucking time,” Noah said.
“I thought you were on my side. Now I have to kick your ass right after I’m done with Theo.”
“It’s not about aside. It’s the fact that you either think we’re blind, oryou’reblind.”
My eyes darted over to the girl in question. She was smiling at Finley, then she spun around to come to the table. When she saw me, she stopped for less than a second. A hesitation. I stared at her as she lifted her chin and walked back to our table.
She grabbed her backpack that was on the ground near Gemma and flung it over her shoulder. “I gotta get to my locker before class.” She paused for a moment, noticing Gemma’s glassy eyes. “Hey, you okay?”
Gemma nodded and plastered a fake smile on her face. “Yeah, I’ll see you in PE.”
Dani eyed the guys suspiciously–bypassing me,of fucking course–and went inside the school.
I patted Gemma’s hand on the table. “Don’t be pissed at her for not telling you. It just…happened. It wasn’t planned or anything. Actually it was my fault. She didn’t want to tell anyone and I’ve been running my fucking mouth about it to these pricks.”
Gemma nodded tightly. “She usually tells me everything.”
No she fucking doesn’t, but I don’t say that because then my sister’s world would be shattered. Learning the ins and outs of what her best friend does, what her brother does, would crush her. Gemma was a delicate soul. She didn’t need to know the gritty details of our world.
I loosened my red tie–the thing felt more like a noose most days. “Don’t take it out on her. If you were mad at her, she wouldn’t know what to fucking do with herself.”