Save Me From Myself (30 page)

As I’m looking across the dance floor, I see Anna waving frantically at me from across the room. When our eyes meet, I can tell even from across the room that hers are huge, and she’s waving at me to come meet her. It takes more than a couple of minutes to cut through the insane amount of people grinding on the dance floor, and I’ve been groped at least a dozen times by the time I reach her.
 

The red, blue and purple flashing lights make her face look even more terrified than it already does, and I know before she even says the words, “David is out there with Jeremy and SarahBeth.” When I just continue to look at her, she nods, and I squeeze my eyes shut. Fuck. He knows what’s been going on. This night has just gone straight to hell.

***

After leaving Lyric on the dance floor, I head to the bar for drinks. There are so many people around though, I decide to hit the bathroom first. There’s been a large amount of drinking tonight, and even though I’ve only been drinking water, I’ve drank a shitload of it. When I come out of the bathroom, I see SarahBeth’s easy to recognize pink streaked hair following someone who looks a hell of a lot like my best friend leaving the club through a side door. Thinking that it’s probably a smoking area, but wondering why they’d be going out there when neither of them smoke, I turn to follow.

I’m not a fucking moron. I know there’s some weird shit going on between the two of them and Lyric, I’m just not completely sure what it is. At first, I thought there was something going on between Jeremy and SarahBeth, but when things between them and Lyric got hostile, I dismissed it. After all, why would my best friend and sister messing around cause trouble with my girl? Lyric would tell me if she’d seen something, I know she would. She knows how I feel about people keeping things from me, no matter what the reason.

When I step outside, I don’t see them at first. Or, maybe it’s just that I didn’t want to see them. When I turn back from shutting the door, I see them down at the end of the wall, almost around the corner, and I follow quietly. They’ve got a few minutes head start on me, and I’m going to take advantage of it. They move quickly, while I lag behind just a little. I reach the end of the building, and can hear them before I even turn the corner.
 

Jeremy is sitting on the ground, back up against the wall with his knees bent. My fucking baby sister is straddling him. His hands are gripping her waist, and thank God they’re still clothed or I’d fucking kill the son of a bitch. Before I can get to them, Lyric shouts my name from somewhere behind me, and I turn to see her standing just outside the door we all came out of with a wild look in her eyes. Suddenly, everything becomes clear. Holy. Mother. Fucking.
Shit
. She knew. That’s why they’ve all been acting that way. She knew, and they didn’t trust her to keep the secret.
 

Turning back to the fucking friend that stabbed me in the back and my lying little sister, they’ve disentangled themselves from each other, so at least I don’t have to see that image any longer. Jeremy moves SarahBeth so that she’s behind him, but she fights to stay in front of him. If I wasn’t so mother fucking pissed, the fact that they’re trying to protect each other would be amusing. As it is though, I don’t know whether to kick his ass or beat hers for being so stupid.

As soon as Jeremy gets SarahBeth behind him, I lunge forward and punch the bastard right in his mouth. He stumbles back into SarahBeth and she starts to fall. Spinning around, he catches her before turning back to face me. “Okay, I probably deserved that one.”

Probably?
Probably
? That makes me want to fucking deck him again. When I go to follow through on the feeling, someone grabs my arm, and turning I see Lyric with her hand on my arm. Narrowing my eyes at her, I growl, “Get the
fuck
off me.” The last thing I want right now is her trying to calm me down. She should have told me as soon as she knew what was going on. This ridiculous bullshit has been going on for the past two god damn weeks, and I’ve been kept in the dark. I watch her eyes widen with surprise and pain but ignore the twinge of remorse I feel. She doesn’t deserve to be upset, she’s not the one who’s been being played for a fool.

Anna’s standing behind her bristling, but when I give her one hard look, she looks away. Interesting, I think she might actually be on my side in this whole thing. Good to know. Turning back to Jeremy, I only have one more question I need answered. “How long?”

Jeremy runs a hand through his hair and at least has the sense to look ashamed. Bastard should be ashamed. He’s been fucking around with my little sister behind my back. The same girl he’s known from the time she was a baby. The girl who he moved back to Nashville to help me take care of when she was a teenager. How the fuck does this shit happen? When he doesn’t say anything, I ask again, “Damn it Jeremy,
how long
have you been fucking around with my sister?”

His back goes ramrod stiff and he gets right up in my face. “I haven’t been
fucking around
with her at all. We’ve been seeing each other for about three weeks.”

“Seeing each other? Is that what you call it now? What the fuck Jer! We’ve been friends our entire lives, and you’re going to fuck me over like this? Do you get how messed up that is?” We’re shouting at each other now, almost nose to nose, and it’s all I can do not to break his fucking neck.

“Back off D,” Jeremy warns, but I’m past the point of caring. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“Yeah? And why’s that
friend
? Why don’t I know what I’m talking about? Oh yeah, that’s right! Because you chose to keep this shit a secret. Did you think you were just going to be able to fuck my sister like you do every other girl you take to dinner?” SarahBeth pales next to Jeremy at my words, lifting one hand to her mouth and staring at Jeremy with a “please don’t let that be what this is” expression. The look on her face pisses me off more, but it also causes an ache in my chest because I know I’m the one that put that look there.

“I said
back off
David! I’m not going to tell you again.” Jeremy’s fists are clenched at his sides and he’s so pissed he’s vibrating. I’ve seen Jeremy like this before, but never because I’ve been the cause of it.

Feeling reckless, I continue to taunt him, “I won’t back off you sorry ass bastard. You’re going to break her mother fucking heart and for what? So you can get a piece of ass? That’s low Jeremy, fucking low, even for you.” As soon as the words shoot out of my mouth, I realize that that’s it. Jeremy’s had enough and he lunges forward to retaliate with his fists.

***

The guys attack each other, each throwing punches and trying to literally beat each other to a pulp. SarahBeth’s sobbing, and after exchanging a look with me, Anna dodges around the guys, giving them a wide berth. When she reaches SarahBeth, she draws her into her arms, murmuring soothing words to her in an attempt to soothe her tears. That leaves me to try to separate the two guys, which is NOT something I want to do. While I’m trying to figure out what the hell to do to get them apart, Anna gets SarahBeth’s phone and punches out a message on it. Within a few minutes, Olivia comes outside with her brother Chris and David’s friend Tyler. I don’t see any sign of her boyfriend, but at least she’s brought some reinforcements.

Chris and Tyler start trying to separate David and Jeremy, but don’t have much luck at first. They’re mostly trying to avoid getting hit themselves. I’ve never seen anyone fight like this. They are both fighting like the loser will be put to death, and I’m terrified. I’m more scared about what will happen if they don’t stop fighting than I am about David’s reaction when he figures out that I’ve known all this time. Of course, that’s if he hasn’t already figured it out. Based on his reaction when I touched him before, I’d say the chances are pretty good that he has.

A couple more guys from our party tonight show up as reinforcements for Chris and Tyler, after being contacted by Olivia I’m assuming, and between the six of them, they are finally able to separate David and Jeremy and keep them apart. Both are spitting out mouthfuls of blood and giving each other “eat shit and die” glares.

“What in the mother fucking hell is going on?” Tyler asks throwing his hands up in the air to bring their attention to him instead of each other. Even with everything going on right now, I can’t not appreciate his slight British accent.

David wipes his bloody mouth with the back of his hand, “Ask that asshole what the fuck is going on. I’ll bet you’ll be just as thrilled as I am.” He’s studiously avoiding looking at Jeremy, his sister, and me right now. I’m hoping he’ll at least give me the chance to explain. I should probably wait until he calms down though.

Tyler raises an eyebrow at David’s tone, but finally shrugs and looks over at Jeremy, “Well, mate, do you want to tell me what’s going on? Or are we just going to go back and forth all night?”

Jeremy aims a glare at Tyler before spitting out, “He’s pissed because I’m seeing his sister.”

David interrupts quickly to say, “No, I’m
pissed
because you’re fucking my sister!”

They start shouting expletives and insults back and forth until Tyler looks like a ping pong ball going back and forth between them. He gets fed up quickly, finally yelling, “Shut the fuck up you arseholes!” They both turn to glare at him, but they do stop shouting. “Right,” Tyler says, “you both need a breather. Jeremy, you can sleep on my couch tonight and the two of you can pick this up tomorrow.”

“You can take Jeremy back to yours, but he’s not coming back tomorrow unless it’s to pick up his shit. I’ll make sure it’s in the mother fucking yard and he can drive by for it.”

“David…” Chris starts, but David cuts him off.

“No, fuck that Chris. What if it was Olivia? Would you want to be around him if you found out he was fucking
your
sister?” Chris shuts his mouth at David’s words, obviously seeing his point. David turns to Jeremy one more time, saying, “Don’t fucking call me and don’t come to the bar. Just stay the fuck away from me and my sister. Got it?”

Jeremy looks like he’s going to argue, but after looking at SarahBeth who’s still sobbing in Anna’s arms, he just nods his head. Looking over at Anna, David tells her he’ll take me home and she nods silently before giving me a sad smile. She knows just as well as I do that tonight is definitely not going to end well. All I can do is hope that David forgives me, that he doesn’t leave me. Otherwise, keeping the secret in the first place to avoid SarahBeth’s wrath was pointless.