CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
DEMI
“THAT MOTHERFUCKER DESERVED more than a broken nose.”
I sit on the couch next to Austin sipping on a new bottle of wine when we hear Deke’s voice.
“Then let’s go pay him a visit tonight,” Cole offers.
“I should go,” I say. Standing, I grab my phone to get an Uber. I wasn’t thinking about how I was gonna get home after I finished my second glass. I’ve been here for over three hours. I colored some pictures with Lilly before Austin put her to bed, and then we sat down to talk, and time just got away from us.
“You can go if you want, but this is my house too, and you’re more than welcome here,” she states before walking out of the living room. “What the hell happened?” I hear Austin gasp.
I make my way into the kitchen to see Cole standing at the fridge and Deke in front of an open drawer.
“Some guys were talking shit about Demi,” Deke answers. “Me and Cole broke some shit.”
“What?” I ask, taking a step into the kitchen.
Everyone turns to face me. Deke’s jaw sharpens, and Cole runs a hand through his hair. Deke looks at Austin as though he expects her to explain my presence. As if I’m not welcome here. She doesn’t.
“What?” I ask again. “Who was talking about me?”
Deke ignores me as he reaches into the open drawer and pulls out a pack of cigarettes. Slamming it shut, he stomps out of the kitchen.
“Cole?” Austin demands.
He arches a brow. “Oh, now you’re talking to me?” He realizes his fuckup the moment the words are out of his mouth and looks away from her.
“Fuck you, Cole,” she growls and goes to leave as well, but he grabs her by the upper arm, preventing her escape.
“A guy on the swim team was talking about him and another fucking Demi.” He looks at me. “At the same time.”
I frown. Who the hell at the University of Texas would know me? “Do I know them?” Maybe they meant another Demi.
He lets go of her and shrugs. “They didn’t seem to know you very well. One mentioned that you were over at his house last night with Seth.”
“Ahh,” I say, remembering that Seth did tell me that when he introduced us last night. I didn’t pay much attention. “Seth knows him through his sister. Last night was my first time to meet him.”
“Well, I wouldn’t go back there if I was you,” he warns.
“Noted.” I nod.
“Did you get suspended?” Austin asks through gritted teeth.
He snorts. “Hell no. Coach yelled at us and then told us to go home. He can’t afford to lose us.” He looks at me after answering her. “You need to figure out whatever the fuck you and Deke have going on.”
“It’s nothing.” I just needed to use him one time.
“I’ve known Deke all of my life, and he wouldn’t have jeopardized his scholarship for a girl he didn’t give two fucks about.” Then he looks down at his future wife. I can see the regret flash across his face for just a short second before it disappears. “May I talk to you?” When she doesn’t answer, he adds, “Upstairs.” Then he too exits the kitchen, not waiting for a response or giving her any room to protest, leaving me and Austin alone.
“I’m gonna go—”
“No,” she interrupts me and turns to the fridge. Opening the door, she pulls out a half-full bottle of wine. We finished off the first one earlier. “Here.” She holds it out to me. “Cole is right. You and Deke need to talk this out. And you are more than welcome to spend the night in the spare bedroom.”
I arch a brow. “And you and Cole?”
She sighs heavily. “I’m going to go upstairs and talk it out too.”
I walk out of the sliding glass door to find him sitting in a lounge chair. His head back, eyes closed, and a cigarette between his lips. He lifts his right hand and removes it before letting out a puff of smoke. My eyes catch sight of his busted knuckles. There’s dried blood on them.
“Gonna tell me why you hit a guy because of me?” I ask.
His eyes spring open and meet mine. He doesn’t say anything, but I choose to stay instead of letting him intimidate me. I walk around his chair and fall into the one beside him. His eyes follow my movements before landing on the pool.
I remove the cork and take a big sip of the wine, trying to fight the shiver that runs through me. It’s cold out here.
We sit in silence, and I wrap my arms around my chest. “Austin thinks I love you,” I say, trying to get some kind of response out of him. Maybe shock him. I wanna see that Deke I saw that night at Silence. Confused and hot as fuck.
He just laughs and takes another drag. “Austin doesn’t know you.”
I smile at myself.
“Not like I do,” he adds like the smartass he is.
The smile drops off my face. “What does that mean?”
He looks over at me. “You don’t love anyone but yourself.”
His words feel like a knife to my chest. He couldn’t be more wrong. I take another drink from the bottle and say the one thing I’ve never said out loud. Not even to the boy I wanted. “I loved Eli.”
DEKE
I laugh, shaking my head in disbelief. Of course, she did. “And you’re pissed off because he didn’t love you back.”
“You know nothing.” She growls.
“He was my best friend. I know enough.”
“You didn’t know he was fucking your girlfriend.”
My entire body stiffens, and I look over at her. She has a smug smile on her face. A look of total satisfaction. Becky wasn’t my girlfriend at the time. She was my secret. She was not only fucking me, but also David and Eli. I knew she got around, but I didn’t know she was that big of a whore. How could I have? It’s not like I followed her around everywhere or went through her phone. I believed her when she said she loved me and that I was the one she wanted to be with, but it was complicated, and we needed to wait. I hate that I believed her, but more importantly, I hate that everyone seemed to know but me.
“Guess he still picked her over you in the end,” I say to hurt her, not really knowing what she and Eli had. It obviously wasn’t sexual. I knew he liked Demi because I always saw him looking at her and secretly talking to her, but being the girl Becky is, she won.
She jumps to her feet and comes to stand before me. I look up at her and take a drag from my cigarette. She knocks it out of my mouth and to the ground before stepping on it. Then she leans forward, placing her face in front of mine.
“And if he wouldn’t have died, she would have picked him over you,” she states. “You were second best, Deke. To David. To Eli. To every other guy she’s ever spread her legs for. How does that feel?”
I want to throw her into the pool in front of me and drown her mouthy fucking ass. But what will that solve? I’m with Cole. I’m tired of having to hide bodies. I left Collins to forget the terrors and run from my demons. I backed his need for revenge one hundred percent because Eli was my friend too, and he and his dead sister deserved revenge, but look where it left me. I lost Becky. The girl I thought I was gonna spend the rest of my life with. I lost a friendship I thought could never be broken. And I hate it that Eli’s dead. I want to call him up. Scream at him. Punch him. And then tell him he can have her. If that’s what he wanted, I wouldn’t have fought him. You don’t fight your friends over trash.