Jaded (8 page)

Bryce pulled his car beside my mom’s Chrysler. Mine was still parked outside.

“Sheldon.”

We were startled when a figure spoke up from the driveway’s darkened edge, but she stepped forward and the light shone over Mena’s strained face.

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Bryce swore.

I let out a breath I’d been holding when I murmured, “Mena. What are you doing here?”

It was almost midnight.

“My brother came and talked to you, didn’t he?” she asked, anxious.

“Uh…yeah.” We moved inside and into the kitchen. Mena followed and perched

on the stool she’d earlier occupied. She hugged herself.

“I knew he would.” She shook her head. “He’s just being an overprotective

brother, but he doesn’t understand anything.”

Bryce frowned at me. He nodded towards the kitchen table, but I shook my head.

He went to the fridge and grabbed a beer before he disappeared upstairs.

“Wow,” Mena breathed out.

“What?”

“Bryce Scout. Wow.”

“Are you serious? Your brother is Denton Steele.”

“And my brother is my brother,” she replied, dryly. “Believe me. I don’t see the allure.”

Let’s hope not.

“Uh…” I shifted uncomfortably. “I’ve had a really long night, so…”

“Right. Cut to the chase.” Mena nodded. “I can do that.”

I

relaxed

slightly.

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“Here’s the thing…my brother thinks I’m this innocent little girl. He doesn’t want me to be as worldly as you. That’s a load of crap. Denton just wants to shelter me from all the bad stuff in this world and he thinks that you’ve seen more than your fair share.”

Um… This was nearing a ‘near emotion’ event.

Mena proceeded, unaware, “I am a little sheltered. I’ll own up to that, but he thinks that I haven’t even had sex. That’s not true. I’ve had sex with lots of guys, he just doesn’t know about any of them.”

“He seemed pretty sure that you hadn’t had sex with your boyfriend.”

“Because I hadn’t,” Mena said bluntly. “Justin was Denton’s errand boy. He told him everything. Justin and I never went further than kissing on the lips.”

Ewe. I cringed and asked, “He asked your boyfriend if you guys…?”

“Yeah. He was like Denton’s spy. I figured it out pretty quick and realized that Justin was the perfect cover for me to live my life
my
way.”

I sucked in my breath. This talk was
really
becoming too uncomfortable.

“Listen, I uh…” I glanced towards the stairs and gestured upstairs. “I’ve got…”

“Okay.” Mena grinned widely and nodded, “I get it. You have more important

things to do than listen to me complain. I’ll see you at school tomorrow?”

“I doubt I’ll be there.”

“Oh. Oh yeah because of…that thing that happened, right?” She watched me

intently, but I smiled.

“Okay.” Mena laughed again and moved to the front door. When she left, I locked the door, hit the garage button, and reset the security system. I stopped in the bathroom before I moved towards the light that shone out of my bedroom.

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Bryce leaned against my headboard, shirtless, with an empty beer beside him.

ESPN was on my flat-screen.

I shut off the lights and shimmied out of my jeans and sweatshirt. I crawled underneath the covers and felt Bryce pull me into his arms. I could smell my mint toothpaste on his breath.

“Who was that girl?” he asked.

“That was Steele’s little sister. She started at our school today and asked to be my friend.” I still felt weird about the whole thing.

“That’s the girl that Corrigan wants to bag?”

“Yeah, but I don’t think he knows how protective Denton is of his little sister.” I turned over and grinned up at Bryce as he looked at me.

“It’s kinda freaky,” he frowned.

“What is?” I slid a leg up and nestled it between his.

“That dude was here before and she showed up tonight. That’s what’s freaky.”

“They’re just…I don’t know. Messed up or something. He cares about his sister and she’s trying to have a life. I can relate.”

“You

can?”

“No. Not really, but I think it’s sweet.”

“Because you haven’t had that,” Bryce bit out.

I slid my hand around his neck, but we both swore when his phone rang.

Bryce reached over me to grab it and cursed swiftly before he flipped it open. He sat up and murmured, “Yeah, mom?” He yawned a replied, “No. No. I’m at Corrigan’s house. We were watching the game. It’s still on.”

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A second later he closed his phone and placed it on my bedside table.

Since he was up there, I shifted smoothly underneath him and wrapped my legs around his waist.

Startled, Bryce shifted more comfortably, but bent and kissed my chin, then my cheek, lips.

He finished under my ear and I moaned.

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I woke and instantly knew Bryce wasn’t beside me. I knew that without feeling for him or opening my eyes. He rarely was. Whenever he did sleep over, he was the first up and he rarely woke me for a morning round.

It was just something weird about us. We didn’t do the morning quickie.

What he had done, though, was left my bedroom door open.

That was another thing about Bryce. He liked to leave my bedroom open. He

told me once that it was because my room got unbearably stuffy, but I didn’t mind.

When I got up to close the door, I was surprised when I saw Bryce walk back in and pull his shirt over his head. I sat back and watched as he tugged it down to cover his chest.

I whistled appreciatively.

Bryce ignored me and shuffled some things underneath my bed until he emerged with a pair of men’s sandals.

“What are those doing under there?” I asked as I fell onto the bed.

Bryce fitted a belt around his waist and replied, distracted, “I dropped them down there awhile ago. It’s going to be seriously hot today.”

“I thought you were home.”

“I’m going, but these are my favorite pair and since I remembered they were

down there…” He looked up and raked his eyes up and down my figure.

My sweatshirt had ridden up and a wide amount of skin showed.

I didn’t move to cover up.

“So what are you thinking about Corrigan’s new girl from last night?” Bryce turned away and leaned against the wall.

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What’d I say? No morning quickies for us. Someday I might ask why that was,

but not today.

I grinned slyly and sat up. I removed my sweatshirt and scooted up in bed,

knowing that my pajama bottoms would get caught against my bedcovers. My movement would pull them down further. And they did.

Bryce noticed too.

“I think it’s pathetic,” I said flatly, but I grinned slyly as I watched Bryce watch me.

“She’s cute. What are you pissed about?” His eyes lingered at my hipbone where my thong peeked out.

“I’m not. I’m a little tired of watching Corrigan roll over those girls, though. They let him do anything to them.”

Bryce swallowed slowly. He watched as I wiggled further up and my pants

wiggled further down.

“You let me do anything to you,” he said huskily. “And you haven’t even met

her.”

“I don’t have to meet her to know she’s just like all the others,” I said evenly.

“And I don’t pant after you and I don’t pin my heart on my sleeve.” Here we go, a conversation about the two of us was now on the table. The game was over.

His eyes whipped to mine and stayed there.

I sighed and stood. I moved to the closet and grabbed some clothes.

“What’s your problem?” Bryce asked as he moved to the doorframe. He watched

me strip down and step into the shower.

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Over the water, I said, “Nothing. I’m just kinda tired of having to be nice to those girls. They’re around for, like, two minutes and then he’s got another girl over.” If he wasn’t going to say anything about ‘us’, then two could play at that.

“Are you serious? You’re actually mad that Corrigan plays these girls?”

“No,” I said tightly and finished rinsing my hair. I held Bryce’s eyes and knew we thought the same thing. Bryce played the same games, but he played them when I wasn’t around. And I did my own thing.

Bryce sighed and moved from the doorway. When I dressed in my bedroom, I

heard the front door slam shut.

I wasn’t planning on going to school, but I’d already gotten dressed so I figured…

Outside, just as I climbed into my car, I braked suddenly. Mena stood on her house’s patio with a blank stare on her face. That was odd. I frowned, but reversed and drove to school. I wasn’t about to put much thought into Mena’s life when I barely thought about my own.

When I walked into school, I saw a group of guys surrounding Bryce at his

locker. He was turned with his head bent as he listened to whatever Chet was saying.

Corrigan stood on the outskirts with a girl with dark brown hair that fell to her waist. She was short, but had exotic eyes. They glowed when she looked at Corrigan, but she still looked awkward.

My guess, this was the girl from last night. And I smirked when I saw that Becky Lew stood on his other side, just behind him. Becky chatted with her friends while New Girl glanced self-consciously around. She hugged her books to her chest and averted her eyes when they trailed and met mine.

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Holster nudged Corrigan and nodded in my direction. Corrigan immediately left the group and fell in line beside me. He threw an arm around my shoulder and said, cockily, “So what do you think?”

“I generally try not to think.”

Corrigan laughed and tightened his hold around my shoulders.

“No, about Logan. What do you think about her?”

“Are you serious?” So that was her name.

“Yeah.

Why?”

I kicked my locker open.

“Because,” I murmured as I reached inside, “you just ignored the girl.”

“Well, yeah, but…it’s the first morning. You know how it is.”

“The school hierarchy, you mean. If you’re all into her, everyone might think you have a girlfriend and they can’t think that.”

“Yeah.” He said like it made perfect sense.

“Sometimes,” I started and leaned against my locker, “being the arrogant

womanizer that you are might bite you in the rear.”

“What do you mean?” He shifted on his feet, but listened intently.

I shrugged.

“Corrigan, someday you’re going to meet a girl that’s going to know her place with you and not be alright with that.”

“Huh?” he questioned.

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“Look, you know me. I don’t care about these girls as long as you don’t ask me to be nice, but one day one girl that you’re going to actually want won’t be okay with your chain of command.”

“Not

following.”

Bryce walked to us just then and punched Corrigan in the arm.

Corrigan ignored him and asked me, “Seriously. What do you mean?”

Bryce glanced between the two of us.

I saw Becky Lew pass behind us. She skimmed her eyes over all three of us and her mouth tightened.

“Do you really want a girl that’s okay with all the other girls you got going on?” I continued.

Bryce went still beside me.

I ignored him and waited for Corrigan’s answer.

He shrugged.

“Not really thinking about that right now, you know,” he responded thoughtfully.

The moment vanished when the first bell rang and self-assured Corrigan fell back into place.

He threw an arm around my shoulder and walked beside me.

Bryce disappeared in the opposite direction.

“Seriously,” Corrigan asked, “should I take Logan, Mena, or Becky to Harris’

party?”

“Since when do you take girls to the party? You usually just show up and pick.”

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“That’s right.” He laughed. “That’s why we’re friends. Sure you don’t want a ride with me?”

“A ride?” I teased, my eyes darkened. “Or a
ride
?”

Amusement leapt to Corrigan’s eyes and he smiled slowly.

“You know which one.” He nudged me with his shoulder and patted my ass as he left for his own class.

I stayed in place and watched as he passed his first period classroom.

Corrigan didn’t go to classes. That was a universal law. And someday, sometime, that law would come back to bite him in the butt.

Leisha smiled warmly as she approached the classroom and asked, “No Corrigan this morning?”

“Nope,” I murmured and walked to our table.

We both sat down and I asked, “Why can’t we have coffee in our classes?”

“No doubt,” Leisha huffed and yawned dramatically.

Leisha was pretty cool. She wore the most outrageous outfits. She had on a taffeta shirt with ruffles on her neckline that spread past her shoulders.

Outrageous.

We had grown used to each other since we were assigned table-mates in the

beginning of the year. I hadn’t known who Leisha was before our first day in Calculus, but she had informed me that she’d always known who I was. At first she’d been on guard around me, but when she figured out that I wasn’t going to screw with her, she started to relax. Now we almost seemed friendly to each other.

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Just then Mr. Aldross entered the room and said, “Miss Jeneve, you are wanted in the counselor’s office.”

I stiffened and asked, tensely, “Why? What for?”

He started to write on the chalkboard and responded, “That is none of my

business, Miss Jeneve. I would not know that information.”

I stayed in my seat.

Leisha watched me. So did the rest of the class.

Mr. Aldross wrote the daily set of questions from our assigned homework.

“Okay, class…” He turned back around and saw I had remained. His lips