Every Little Piece - By Kate Ashton Page 0,9
“He’s leaving.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” Her voice broke. “I’m truly sorry.”
I shrugged. “Nothing you could do about it.”
She waited as if I was supposed to say something. “Do you know all that’s going on?”
I felt like a dumb-ass. “Not really.”
“Are you blind?” Her words crackled with anger. “Your mom and my dad?”
I must be blind because I didn’t see. I didn’t see at all. Waves crashed against the shore. It was no longer calming.
“They’ve been having a thing now for a couple years. I found out working in the office last summer.”
My fingers curled into a fist, and my heart raced. I needed to punch something. She made a blind accusation, and called my mom a slut. After all the seduction games she’d played with me the past few years. The flirting. The sly smiles. The suggestive comments. I glared at her, the fury building at her accusations. “So you learned your slutty ways from your dad and not your mom?”
She backed away, her eyes filled with hurt.
But I didn’t stop. The word vomit kept coming, and I had no control. “Wow. You’re a real bitch. You can’t have me so you pull this card out of desperation? Pathetic. I’m with Haley.”
She gasped. “That’s not fair.”
“What did you want? My sympathy? A shoulder to cry on?” I stood, towering over her.
She stood and got right in my face. “No! I thought you might want to know. I thought you deserved the truth.”
“Why should I believe you?” I spit out. “This could just be one of your games.” Inwardly I cringed at every hurtful word.
She tensed, her arms stiff at her sides. “I wouldn’t play games with this kind of thing. I can’t believe you don’t know. Let me clue you in. Late work nights at the office? Weekend business trips?”
She didn’t need to connect the dots. Her words rang true, but why would I have thought my mom was cheating? Lots of parents work late and go on business trips.
“You’re a big fake. And right now, I feel bad for Haley. Being with a boyfriend who’s lying to himself and can’t face the truth like a big boy. You probably haven’t even told her, have you?”
I exploded in anger. “I just found out tonight!” The words kept spilling out, aimed at Carly because she was close and the one digging into the wound. “And if my mom’s cheating, I blame your dad. Completely and one hundred percent. He brings new meaning to the word man-whore.”
She bit her lips, tears caught in her eyelashes. “That’s just mean. If I ever thought I was in love with you then obviously I had you confused with someone else.” She poked her fingers into my chest. “I guess this brings out your true colors.”
She stormed back to the parking lot before I could do any more damage. I didn’t follow her, and the anger whooshed through me, leaving my body trembling.
Jamie and Carter ran up to me. “What was that all about, man?” Carter asked.
“Nothing.” I added a slight edge to my tone of voice, and flashed him a dark look and he knew not to press it. But I had the sudden desire to see Haley, to prove Carly wrong, that I was the good guy. And then the words I yelled at Carly came back. I was horrified at what I said. I pushed that away. “I’ve got a great idea.”
“What’s that?” Jamie asked.
“Let’s just say that Haley has shared some of their get-ready rituals with me and I know exactly how to sabotage them.”
They nodded at my evil plan. As they ran up the beach ahead of me, I allowed the guilt about what I said to Carly weigh me down, then I pushed it back and jogged after them.
Tonight was about celebration and I wouldn’t let anything ruin that.
The hot tub was heated and bubbling, waiting for us. We slipped into the burning water inches at a time, with sighs of relief.
Brin relaxed with her arms lying across the sides of the tub and her legs floating to the middle. “Just what I need.”
The jets shot water into the muscles along my spine and lower back. Steam coated my face. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. Another moment of perfection. I wanted to freeze it. I wanted to never forget and never lose what I had here, right now.
That was when I heard it. The whispering. The arm punches. The cursing. I glanced to the side of the