“Why not? She belongs here. With you.”
My lips part to respond but I’m too thrown by her last two words to form any of my own.
“You know…”
“Yeah, don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.”
“Shush, or it’s not going to be secret that needs keeping.”
Threading my fingers through hers, I pull her from the room in the hope of finding somewhere quieter to have this conversation.
Dragging her into the dining room, I kick the door closed behind us before twisting the cap off the bottle of vodka and swallowing a generous mouthful. The alcohol burns my throat but it’s exactly what I need.
“What do you know?” I turn on Ruby.
“Share and I might tell you.”
Rolling my eyes at her, I hand the bottle over and watch her as she takes a shot.
“So?”
“I know you’ve been banging her. I know you’ve been sneaking around. And, I know that Harley has no idea.” She smiles wickedly at me. “Oh, I also know something else…” She taps her index finger to her lips teasingly. “Oh yeah, that’s it. She fucking loves it!”
“Jesus. You need to stop,” I snap, snatching the bottle from her when she goes to have more.
“What happened, Ruby? You used to be the sweet one then suddenly…” I wave my hand at her. “You’re a mess.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what happens when bad boys sweep in and shatter our innocent little hearts.” My chin drops at her words. I assumed it was something to do with a guy, but I didn’t know for sure. “What? You don’t think you’re going to do the same to Poppy? Bad boys never change, Zayn. They might pretend to for a while. But they always screw you over eventually.”
“Who was it?”
“Ah, ah, ah,” she says, pushing from the wall and stalking toward me. “It’s too late to defend my honor now, Hunter. You had your chance with me. Now you’re fucking my friend so you, my friend,” she says, tapping my nose. “Are off-limits. To both my body and my secrets. Now…” She takes my hand and pulls me toward the door, or attempts to, seeing as she doesn’t weigh much more than a feather, she doesn’t get very far. “Let’s go dance, knowing that we won’t end up in bed together tonight. Although,” she stops, running her eyes down the length of my body. It wasn’t so long ago that I might have been affected by her heated stare, but now, after everything with Poppy, my cock just isn’t interested. “I have it on good authority that you’ve got skills.”
“Yeah, no more drinks for you.”
I give into her and allow her to pull me back down to the study and when she spins into my arms, I comply, because what she just said is true, nothing will happen between us.
Twisting my head to the side, I take another drink of my vodka as she grinds against me, but at no point do I offer her anymore. She needs to sober the fuck up before some other asshole decides they want to take advantage of her.
“Hey, I wondered when you were going to show,” a sickly-sweet voice says as a warm hand brushes across my back before stopping on my bicep.
Ripping my eyes from Ruby, I find Laurie smiling at me seductively.
“Sorry, he’s taken,” Ruby slurs at her. “Go find yourself another player for the night.”
“It didn’t stop you from sharing before.”
Regret fills me from that night. I shouldn’t have touched Ruby, but I’m starting to learn that I don’t have all that much restraint when it comes to my sister’s friends, but I really shouldn’t have gone near Laurie. She’s a stage five clinger.
Laurie physically pushes herself between me and Ruby.
“Oh look, he’s dancing with me now.”
“Fucking hell,” I mutter, finishing off my bottle in just a couple of huge swallows.
Laurie starts moving, her talons digging into the skin of my shoulders and her overbearing perfume filling my nose.
Groaning, I roll over onto my back but find my arm is trapped under something… fuck.
I sit bolt upright, rolling the person who was like a dead weight pinning me to the bed straight off the other side.
“Ow, what the fuck?” a croaky voice barks before a familiar head pokes above the side of the mattress.
“Ruby?” I ask, rubbing my eyes, trying to get them to focus while I attempt to remember anything about getting home last night.
Glancing down at myself, I relax a little when I find I’m fully dressed.
“Well, that wasn’t exactly the thank you I was expecting for getting you home in one piece and away from Laurie’s grasp.”
“Uh… what… um…”
“Oh, calm down,” she says, climbing back onto the bed. “Nothing happened.”
“Okay, so… why are you here exactly?”
“I took your advice and sobered up, while you got shit-faced. Then before you did something really fucking stupid like suck Laurie’s face off, or worse, I made you leave.”
“Okay, that’s… g-good. But still, why are you here?”
“I wasn’t intending to stay, I had a car outside waiting to take me home but you dragged me down with you, tucked me into your side told me how much you missed me and other similar soppy shit—I assumed you thought I was Poppy, whatever.” She waves it off like it’s nothing before continuing. “You passed out and I couldn’t get out, so I thought fuck it and went to sleep while you were still muttering crap.”
“Right,” I say, rubbing my hand down my face. “Jesus, this is a mess.”
“Nothing happened, Zayn. Poppy is my best friend, I’d never.”
“I know. I know. I didn’t mean that.” Scooting back, I rest my back against the headboard and rest my arms over my knees as the incessant pounding at my temples continues.
“You need to talk to her,” she says, copying my position.
“Yeah, well… she’d need to answer her cell for that to happen.”
“Jake knows where she is. Go to her.”
“Her world’s just been turned upside down, Rubes. The last thing she needs is me storming in and making it worse.”
“Who says you’d make it worse? She might be waiting for you.” She turns to look at me and raises a brow.
“Why is this so hard?”
“Nothing to do with relationships is meant to be easy, Zayn. That’s why they’re so much fun.” She smiles but it doesn’t meet her eyes.
“You want to talk about it?” I offer, seeing as she’s been my sounding board this morning.
“Nah. Unlike you two, it’s hopeless even thinking about it.”
“Okay, well. The offer stands should you need it.”
“I appreciate it.” She scoots to the edge of the bed. “You mind if I…” She gestures to the bathroom.
“Fill your boots. You want me to call you an Uber to get home?” I call before she closes the door.
“That would be awesome, thanks.”
Ignoring all my social media apps, I pull up the Uber one and call for a car. I don’t have the energy to deal with high school gossip and drama right now, not when I’ve got enough of my own going on.