peering up at me. “You two getting married, I mean. Like… why not just live together for a while first? What was the reason to rush getting married?”
Needling shit. He was always doing stuff like this. As if to add insult to the injury of Derek showing up unexpectedly at my door, he’d brought Mike with him. He and Derek had been tight since the early days of middle school. I blamed a lot of Derek’s issues on Mike’s bad influence but would my parents ever listen and intervene? Never.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mike, are you upset that I’m no longer available? How was I to know you’ve been carrying a torch for me all these years?” That vague reference to the time he’d had the nerve to ask me out. He’d been gross enough to act entitled to dating me, given all the time he’d spent hanging out with my family. I was just sixteen and of course I’d never even come close to thinking of Mike that way. And predictably, his treatment had gotten even worse after I’d shot him down.
Mike laughed. “Wow, kitty’s got some sharp claws. Hopefully you only use those to scratch down your hubby’s back.”
I ignored him, went to the closet, pulled out a few pillows and instead of dumping them on the pile of bedding, I pelted them at Mike instead. Aimed right for his stupid meat head. He snarled a cunt at me under his breath when one hit him square in the face and I smiled widely, pleased with myself.
“Leave her alone, man, jeez.” Derek finally looked up from his phone to snap at his friend. Thanks for stepping up for me, big bro. I gritted my teeth.
“Yeah, so tomorrow morning Lucas and I are out of here by half past seven to go to work. I’m going to need you to vacate the house. You can go do all your touristy things. Not gonna lie, though, it’s spendy to be a tourist here. A one-day ticket to Disneyland alone costs half your soul. And with the exchange rate, it’s even more in Canadian dollars. Just sayin’.”
I gave Derek side eye, strongly suspecting that Mum and Dad had bankrolled this trip on top of everything else. Great. Aiding and abetting someone to leave the country with their money. Jumping parole to do so. So typical of them. All of them.
Derek smiled. “Well you know I hate early mornings but we’ll deal. Too bad you can’t come with us to Disneyland. Mum gave me money to buy you two tickets. You can’t get time off anytime soon?” I just shook my head. I probably could but I didn’t want to. In response, he shrugged. “Well I’ll leave the money so maybe you two can go on your own sometime.”
I shook my head. “Thanks but it’s okay. I doubt we’ll be able to make it there anytime soon.”
His gaze dropped, and he nodded. “That’s too bad. You should definitely take some time to enjoy life once in a while. Good night, sis. Sleep well.”
I turned to the door. Mike spoke up then, talking to Derek but clearly meaning for me to overhear. “Maybe we can hit a weed dispensary tomorrow. We’ll need it after a night sleeping on the floor. That is if the lovebirds don’t keep us up all night with their loud screwing.”
I didn’t turn around or make any other indication that I’d heard him. Nothing that might give him even the teeniest iota of satisfaction. It was tough because I wanted to kick the tool in the face. His ugly mug was right at runner-height, after all. He’d always been such a pain in my ass, perpetually egging Derek on in some new plot to terrorize me.
I quickly stopped into my guest room and grabbed my nightie and my clothes for the next day. Using the key Lucas had given me, I locked the room so they wouldn’t end up snooping in there and asking questions. Then I removed all the toiletries from the nearby washroom to put in Lucas’s.
When I got to the master bedroom, Lucas’s door was ajar, but the room was empty except for Max who lazily gazed up at me from his night bed. I slipped in quietly and obliged him with a few belly scratches. Noticing the washroom door was shut, laid my stuff on the bed. Then I patiently waited for my turn, but he seemed to be taking half an eon in there. He