greatest photo—a little blurry, kind of dark. But there’s absolutely no mistaking what their mouths are doing.
It’s tagged: #gotmarked #stairwaytohell
I stare at it for so long that it has to be burned straight into my retinas. I know the second I look away from it without finding any clue it’s a fake, this brittle thing currently invading my chest will shatter.
There are no clues.
Slowly, I look up. All the girls are silently staring back, and the looks on their faces—full of stricken pity for me—tells me they all know. They’re not stupid. I’m stupid.
Fuck, I’m so, so stupid.
I completely lose my breath to whatever’s happening inside my chest, the crash and crumble of it. Too full of hurt to cave in, and too empty to expand, I remain suspended in the ugliness of it. It’s violent and excruciating and unutterably real, and for a long moment, I don’t know what to do. I just stand there with this atomic bomb going off in my lungs. Unmoving, unblinking.
Somehow, I lock eyes with Sebastian, who’s been watching me. He instantly slides off his hood, spine going straight. “What’s wrong?”
Reyn whips around when he hears it, those green eyes examining me.
It takes me so long to speak that the rest of the guys are turning us, too. Worried. Curious. When I find it, my voice sounds frail and unfamiliar. “Take me home,” I ask Sebastian. “Please.”
He pushes off the car. “Why?”
“Hey, what’s going on?” Reyn asks, reaching out to me as I pass. I flinch away, feel wan and weak-kneed.
Refusing to turn around, I wrap my arm around my stomach, right over the scar, like I could hold my guts in if I just applied enough pressure. “Bass, I need to go home.”
His eyes dart behind me, obviously at Reyn. With casual ease, he turns and opens the passenger door of his car. “Sure. Hop in.”
I’m halfway in the car when I hear, “The fuck is going on?”
“I don’t know.” Sebastian sounds just as confused as Reyn. “Guess I’m driving her home.”
Reyn leans into the open door, brow furrowed with worry. “Come on, talk to me.”
I can’t. The words are caught like dust in my throat. With a shaky hand, I hold up my phone.
Sebastian lets out a low, “Shit.”
The silence from Reyn is deafening.
I don’t look at him, because if I do, I’ll break. “It was her perfume, wasn’t it.” My voice emerges like gravel. “The plans you have tonight are with her.”
His voice comes out in an urgent rush. “Vandy, listen to me. That fucking picture isn’t what it looks like.”
“How is this not what it looks like? You’re kissing her.” I refuse to cry. “It’s not even the first time, is it?”
“What?” I’ll give him this, the guy’s got acting chops. He actually manages to sound confused. “No fucking way. I’ve never kissed her before!”
“Just this time then?” My tone, dripping in sarcasm, comes out stronger than I feel. “Are you telling me you didn’t drive her home? Go in her hot tub?”
“Yeah, I drove her home. You knew that. She needed a ride, but—” He keeps leaning in closer and closer. “I never fucking went into her hot tub!”
Like an idiot, I do it.
I look at him.
Just like I knew would happen, my eyes instantly start swimming. “You promised me.”
“I did,” he says, and his voice is a stark contrast to my own. Where mine is weak, his is strong, pushed forward by the anger I see sparking in his eyes. “And if you’d take a second and actually listen to me, you’d see that I never fucking broke it. This is her, V. You fucking know it is.”
“Okay, that’s it,” Sebastian says, stepping between the car and Reyn. His demeanor shifts, instantly turning intimidating. “You need to chill out and stop cursing at her.”
I swallow against the rising tide of bile in the back of my throat. “I thought this was Sydney being Sydney, just making shit up. But look,” I shove the phone at him again. “That’s you. Kissing her. Tonight. Right before you kissed me.”
“Because that’s how she wanted it to look!”
Movement shifts behind Reyn and I see Emory coming our way. His expression is steeled in anger, hands balled into tight fists.
“Sebastian,” I say, turning away. “Please. Please get me out of here.”
“You’ve got it.” He slams the passenger door and I press down the lock. Reyn is caught between trying to get to me and the barreling force of my brother. Emory told him