Beneath Our Faults (20 page)

Huh?

Cora crossed her arms, giving him a stiff stare. "I honestly have no idea what the hell you and your drunkass are talking about," she snapped. Lane looked from his girlfriend to Keegan, wrinkling his nose while I waited for someone to tell me what I was missing.

"Oh silly Cora, you wanted to make sure Lane was a good little boy during your little break up you two had, didn't you? Come on, that was obvious," Keegan snorted.

"It's your turn, asshole," Cora snarled, sliding the tequila bottle over to him harshly.

Keegan's turn never happened because Volcano Lane erupted. "You really think I would do that fucking shit, Cora?" he sprung to his feet, stumbling and showing us how drunk he actually was. "How many times have I told you that Piper is a stupid, lying whore that I would never touch?" His eyes were blazing fire staring down at her while she stiffened in the chair next to me.

"Baby," she said, suddenly, closing her eyes and taking a calming breath. "We were playing a game and I was calling Keegan out," she assured, her smile tight in an attempt to calm him down.

Lane grabbed the tequila bottle, bringing it to his lips and taking a giant swig. Wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his sweatshirt, he brought his arm back and heaved the bottle across the room. A loud crash and the sound of glass breaking vibrated through the room. "I've told you a million fucking times I never did shit with that fucking slut! A million! How many more times do I need to go over this same bullshit with you before you get it through that thick headed skull of yours, Cora? Huh? Do we need to break up again for you to realize that I would never do anything to hurt you!"

Okay, someone needed to calm monster Lane down. I looked at Cora then Keegan, both of them sitting there like lumps on a log. I kicked Keegan under the table and his eyes snapped my way. "Do something," I mouthed. He shook his head, looking away and ignoring my request. Asshole.

Lane's chest heaved in and out as sweat began to glisten around his hairline. The chair next to me slid against the marble floor and Cora stood next to him.

"Hey" she whispered gently, grabbing his shaking hands. "Stop." I waited for her to say more, but that was it. She just stood there looking at him. Wow, don't ever let Cora attempt to talk someone off the ledge.

"Fuck it.” Pulling her hands away from him like they were toxic, he broke away from her and stormed out of the room. Well, this trip had just done a complete one eighty. The room was restrained until a loud bang of the door slamming echoed from up the stairs.

"What the hell," Cora groaned. “I'm going to go check on him and make sure his drunk-ass doesn't do anything stupid.” She gave a quick wave over her shoulder and darted up the stairs.

"Why didn't you do anything?" I snapped, when Cora made it to Lane's bedroom and out of earshot.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Not my circus, not my monkeys." He walked into the kitchen and opened a cabinet.

"Vodka?" He asked, lifting his eyebrows and strolling back to the table. He screwed off the cap, filled his glass to the rim with liquor and smiled at me from across the table.

The insides of my stomach flip-flopped at the mention of the word, like it remembered the last time I was in its presence. Fully aware I was going to regret it later, I grabbed the cold shot glass in front of me and drained the rest of the tequila. My eyes never left his face as understanding dawned and he gulped down his own shot.

"Lane gets crazy when it comes to Cora," he said, pointing out the obvious and filling his shot glass again. "When they had their little break or whatever the fuck they called it, Piper spread a shit ton of rumors acting like a pissed off child because he blew her off. One of them had something to do with some bullshit rumor that he had a threesome with her and some cheerleader skank. Complete bullshit. Everyone knows that shit isn't true, including Cora. She's just drunk and letting the alcohol get to her head." His arm reached across the table and grabbed my glass. "That girl is his fucking Achilles heel."

"Do you think they are going to be okay?" I asked, holding my arm out to grab the shot glass he filled back up. He sat down in Cora's abandoned chair.

My inebriated head began to spin lightly at our close proximity. When I took the shot glass from him, the touch of our hands caused my body heat to rise.

"They are going to be okay," he said, finally letting go of the glass so I could have it. "Those two shits are going to get married and have their two point five little hellions running around, causing chaos everywhere they go. It's scary to think I will be related to Cora someday," he shuddered.

"It's scarier to think there will be little Lanes someday," I added. I swiftly took the shot glass and leaned across the table for the bottle.

"Whoa there," Keegan chuckled, stopping me before my fun sized arms got to the bottle. "I think that might just be enough for you. I know from experience you don't handle alcohol that well. Plus, you don't want to feel like shit tomorrow."

“Awe man," I whined, setting my head down on the table. "When did you become so concerned with the well-beings of the female population?"

He frowned.

"I am so so sorry!" said, before he was the next person to throw a bottle across the room. "I didn't mean it like that."

"It's cool," he said. "You're right. I don't give two shits about the majority of the chicks I hook up with but I do care about a few.” He leaned in closer to my chair, brushing his hand against my cheek. "I care about my aunt and Cora," he told me gently, sweeping the bangs that were covering my eyes. "And I do care about you."

His mouth twitched into a smile, shooting tingles through my entire body. "Okay," he said, drawing out the word slowly and breaking us from our staring game. "Hot tub or scary movie?"

Hot tub! The words were on the tip of my tongue but they didn't pass go. Deep down, I knew it was a bad idea. A real bad idea. We were both clearly on our way to being drunk. Add being half-naked in steaming water in the mountains, and swim suits would be getting lost. Bad idea.

He took my hand and nearly dragged me out of my seat, causing me to stumble straight into his hard chest. My fingers ached with the need to run over his soft skin again. He backed away slowly. Still keeping our hands interlaced, we walked into the giant living room.

He stopped us when we made it to the black leather couch and I took that as my cue to sit down. He patted my leg, walking around the couch and opening up a large trunk to grab a furry blanket.

"Here," he said, throwing the blanket over my crouched body. "I usually don't complain about this but you might want to snuggle up with more clothes next time we come here."
Next time we come here?

"Thanks," I mumbled, shivering and wrapping myself into a cocoon of warmth. He moved around the room, his plaid pajama pants hanging loosely around his waist, adding firewood to the fireplace. Colorful flames shot up when he threw the lit match in after them.

"Alright babe, you've got a few options," he announced, opening up a cabinet. "
Scream
or
Nightmare on Elm Street?"

"
Scream
," I answered, rubbing my hands together.

"It looks like we have just about every
Scream
in here that has ever been made," he revealed, skimming through the vast collection of DVDs stacked in the cabinet.

"I choose the series," I explained, picking at the blanket. "Now you pick the movie."

"How about we start with numero uno and see how many we can make it through before we go comatose?"

"Sounds good to me.” My dad and I used to do that together but I could never make it past the third one of any series before falling asleep.

"Be right back," he threw over his shoulder, disappearing back into the kitchen and coming back with an armful of food and water. "I have popcorn, candy and water so we won't be hung over slobs playing out in the snow tomorrow and drown."

I chuckled. "Drown in the snow? You know you only drown if your lungs are filled up with water, right?

"I never pay attention in health class," he shrugged, setting down the food on the table in front of us. "I'm always too distracted."

I jerked my head back looking at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're in my health class, how can I pay attention?" The movie started before I had a chance to answer him. Only ten minutes had passed before I began to feel the nausea rumbling into my stomach. Shit! I couldn't puke. Reaching for the water bottle on the table, I chugged its entire contents.
Don’t puke. Don't puke.

"You've really had a threesome?" I asked, finally gaining the nerve to ask him the question that had been bugging me.

"I have," he answered. "Does that bother you?" Hell yeah it bothered me. Should it bother me? Hell no.

"It just seems a little…um advanced for someone in high school," I replied, leaning up to tuck my knees underneath me.

"Baby, there's a lot of shit that happens that some would say is too advanced for high school." I wasn't exactly sure what he meant but the way he said it made me feel like what I had just said sounded childish.

"I've only been with one person," I blurted, without thinking. Thank you alcohol for bringing out the honest and open Daisy. "So I really wouldn't know too much about being advanced," I told him, explaining my lack of experience.

He eyed me warily. "And is that supposed to be a bad thing?"

No," I drawled out. "I swear everyone, except for Gabby and I, are crazy sex fiends around our school."

"You don't like sex?" He asked, his question catching me off guard.

"I-I never said that," I stuttered, blinking.

"So you do like sex.”

"Ugh," I groaned, face diving into the blanket to hide the blush creeping up my cheeks. "We are not having this conversation."

"Sure looks like we are, sweetheart.”

"Pay attention to the movie, this conversation is over.”

"Oh babe, this conversation is just getting started," he argued, ignoring what I had just said. "I'm guessing it's the ex-boyfriend?”

I nodded.

"Was it just once?"

My eyebrows drew together. "Why?"

"I'm just curious on why you are so embarrassed talking about sex. It's a natural thing, ya know?" He smirked, leaning over and tapping his finger on my forehead.

I was only eighteen; my sex life was just learning to crawl. "I'm not embarrassed about sex," I argued back. "I just don't do it with everyone like you do."

"I don't have sex with everyone."

"How many girls have you have sex with then?" I questioned.

"You want the truth?" He asked, snagging a popcorn kernel and throwing it in his mouth.

"No, I want you to lie," I snorted. "Duh, I want the truth."

"Then your answer is fuck if I know," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I'm not sure where "fuck if I know" is at on the numerical scale, but that's a pretty sad answer," I remarked. "I also think it further proves my point."

"It's not like I keep a little black book of all the girls I've hooked up with.”

"Maybe you should." I knew girls at school who had lists of all the guys they had hooked up with so they could keep count.

"Eh no, I don't kiss and tell," he explained. "What happens between the girl and I is our business.”

"Rumor has it you've never even had a girlfriend before.”

"Rumor is correct for once."

"Out of all the ‘fuck if I know’ girls you've been with, you haven't wanted more with them?" I asked, playing with a strand of my hair. "Not even one?"

"I didn't exactly believe in relationships?"

"You didn't or you don't?"

"I didn't. After careful consideration lately, I've been thinking you can't knock something before you try it."

"So you changed your mind?” I asked, prying. "Why?"

He exhaled a deep breath. "I've always thought love was some bullshit term people used to make themselves and other people feel better. I've lost count of how many times I had to pick my crying, drunken mom off the floor wailing about how some guy promised he loved her, but still left her. The funny part was that the next night, she would have a new guy in her bed. Love is both a weakness and a strength to people. When you tell someone you love them, you have created a weakness for yourself because that person knows how strongly you feel about them. When someone tells you they love you, you've just gained yourself strength because you now own those people. Just like all those men did with my mom."

"That's just one situation. You can't base the whole concept of love on one person's experience with it."

He scoffed. "Oh baby, I've seen more than one experience. If only you could be a fly on the wall in the locker room or at porn shoot. There are so many people who claim to be happily married there, actors, directors or even crew, yet they cheat on their "loved ones" all the damn time. I mean, look at you, obviously you've loved before and look how unhappy you are now."

"My situation is different.”