Rich Prick – Tijan Page 0,35
sure.”
Then he relaxed, one muscle at a time, until he was lying down, his hand back on my stomach. After a bit, he started running it in a circle again. “Jesus.” His lips found my shoulder, and he kissed me there. “I’m starting to realize how much of a mess I am. I am truly fucked up. I tried to fight my brother, and I don’t even have a relationship with him. I called my guys to back me up in case I tried to fight my non-bio dad. I needed them to keep him away from me.”
I frowned. “What happened?”
He snorted, a sound of disgust. “What always fucking happens with me. I mouthed off and kept going, purposefully pushing him until he wanted to flatten me. When we first came here, I thought I had everything handled. Then I found out about the dad situation, and now I’m just a walking asshole. The shit I said to Cross…” He shook his head, nipping my skin lightly before he sat up. “I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t bring this shit to you. You and me, we’re moving too fast. I’m sorry.”
He started to get off the bed.
My heart spiked in panic.
He was going. He truly was going to leave.
He paused, his hand on the doorknob, and looked back. “We shouldn’t be friends even. I’ll just fuck up your life.”
“Stop!”
My heart splintered.
My stomach dropped to my feet.
That was enough. My voice unscrambled my head, and I darted off the bed. But I didn’t go to him. He wanted to leave, and I wasn’t going to physically stop him. That was beneath me, but when I saw he was waiting, I opened my mouth.
I didn’t know what I was going to say until it all came spilling out.
“I need you. Okay?” Oh my God. Did I actually say that?
I blinked. I had. And there was more.
My chest ached. I didn’t like to think about this stuff, but here it was. I balled my hands into fists. I’d never said any of this out loud.
“I barely know my brother. He’s been so mad at our parents that he mostly stays away. He’s almost a stranger, so then it was just Owen and me until…”
I couldn’t.
I heard the car screeching. The red lights flashing.
The taste of blood.
Then nothing.
It was the feeling after the nothing that gave me nightmares, when I let myself remember.
I wasn’t letting myself remember.
“Hey.” Blaise stepped in front of me. “Hey.” He wrapped me in his arms. “I get it,” he whispered. “You don’t have to say anything more. Trust me. I get it.” He pulled back, looking down.
I wasn’t at the edge anymore. He’d pulled me back.
“I am fucked up, and I’m guessing I’m contagious—making you think you’re all messed up, but you aren’t. You’re good. You know that, right?” He said that like he was trying to convince me the sky was up and not down, and I was the moron for not believing him. Then he grinned. “You got a television screen in this house? Let’s watch a movie.” He looked around and made a tsking sound. “This massive place and no television in your room? So low-brow of you, Aspen. I’m disappointed.”
“Shut up.” I tugged him to the door and led him to the movie room. I was a little embarrassed. “There’s a bigger one in the basement, but this one is just for me. They put it in on the off chance I might have friends who wanted to hang out.”
My neck was hot. I knew my face was red, and I didn’t know why. Blaise came from wealth too.
I motioned to the speakers. “We can turn it super loud and no one will hear us.”
He looked around the room. The large screen encompassed an entire wall. There were couches spread out over the rest of the room.
He shook his head. “Man, no snack room? No attendant to walk the lane, check our tickets? Make sure we didn’t sneak in? You’re so poor.”
“Stop it.” I hit him with a pillow and nodded to the back. “The snack room is there, and before you make any more jokes, I actually talked my parents out of doing more than they did.” This was embarrassing enough.
Blaise sighed as he grinned down at me. “Looks like we’ll just have to hole up here in case there’s a zombie outbreak. What? You don’t have two pizza toasters? Just one? Talk about budget cuts. I can really see it in here.”
I grinned,