But then Easton just has to open his mouth and insert his foot. “Our type is available. Is yours?” He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands with obvious glee at pricking me where it hurts. His eyes light up. “When’s the last time you got laid, Hunt?”
My eyes immediately narrow. “I’ve been busy.”
He barks out a laugh, slapping his leg. “Yeah. Busy, all right. Busy mentally chasing that unobtainable pussy. Don’t think we haven’t noticed where your eyes go every single time we go to class. Or the fact when you meet up with us in the quad, your gaze sweeps over everyone, hoping you’ll get a sight of your little firecracker. Her pussy must be made of gold for you to ditch your man card this fast.”
“Talk about her like that again, and you’ll be eating my fist instead of plastic tasting cunt,” I grit between my teeth.
I’m not even going to lie and say Easton isn’t one hundred percent correct. I don’t like it, but I’m not going to deny it.
Ever since Harloe and I had our talk, I’ve had a lot of time to think. I still won’t answer Owen’s relentless phone calls because I need to work through this shit. Harloe looked so distraught and devastated that I’d believe something as outrageous as her sleeping with Owen. I can get that. Now that I’ve actually allowed myself to think about it, I can see how incredibly ignorant of me it was to believe it.
When Harloe said she and Owen hated each other, she wasn’t lying. They loathed the ground the other walked on. He couldn’t be in the room when she walked into the same room, and vice versa. I still don’t know what happened there, but I never asked. It didn’t seem important at the time, but maybe … maybe I should’ve looked into it?
Easton jumps off the stool near our kitchen island, punching my arm. “So, why not just go after her?”
I chuckle like I’ve never thought of that before. “That’s easier said than done, I’m afraid.”
“Why?”
I see Leo grimace from his end of the island as he caps his Gatorade. He knows the gist of what happened in our sophomore year, and it’s going to be hard, but these are my guys. Maybe I should tell them just to get the shit off my chest. The whole truth. Not some watered-down version I fed everyone who asked me where Harloe went after she left Golden Oaks.
“You don’t want to go down that road,” Leo says. “It has a lot of fucking booby traps.”
“It’s fine,” I say around a groan, running my fingers through my hair as I slouch back into the half-moon stool at the island. “I did some shit that you can’t really come back from.”
“Spill.” Easton eagerly leans against the counter like a cat begging for cream.
“Let’s just say … false information was given, I unknowingly cheated on her, and then all but called her a gold-digging piece of trash. Oh, and basically ran her out of town and said she doesn’t belong here. That was just in high school. That’s not counting what’s happened here before I got her side of the story that I still need to corroborate.”
The smile on Easton’s face slowly withers away to nothing, and he glances around the kitchen at both Zeke, who’s stiff and unmoving, and Leo, who’s surprisingly showing his aggression at the situation for once than toward me. Easton’s shoulders sag, and he slowly rises to his full height. “Brutal. Remind me to never piss you off.”
“That’s exactly why I can’t just go after her, East. I fucked up. Bad. There’s no forgiveness after what I’ve done.”
Easton takes me off guard by coming around the island. Like some female, he grabs my bicep, looks at me intently, and says, “The only thing in life that is set in stone is birth and death. The life you live? It’s what you fucking make of it, not what it forces you to bend over and take.”
I sense a deeper meaning behind his words, but I’m too stuck in my head to care. He’s also right. As much as I hate to admit it, Easton actually got something right for once. Maybe I will talk to her. She probably doesn’t want to see me, especially after the way she rebuffed my question a few days ago when that bastard of a teacher interrupted us, but nowhere is it set in stone that I can’t try again.
As fast as Easton turns into a philosophical genius, he turns back into an asshat with a questionable IQ, trying to see if he can balance on the edge of the island like a gymnast, with his beer between his feet, so he can drink from it.
Rolling my eyes, I shove away from the island and get up. “I’ll see you fuckers later.” I scratch the side of my head, nervous. “I guess I’m going to bite the bullet and go talk to her.”
If I can be honest right now, I haven’t been this nervous since the first time Harloe and I kissed under that weeping willow tree in my backyard. My hands were sweaty like they are now. I had butterflies flapping all in my stomach, and it felt like I was going to puke.
Damn, no wonder people don’t do this shit. Admitting you’re at fault for something is akin to tucking your tail between your legs like a scolded dog. It sucks. But I know this is what I should do. Harloe deserves it.
Oh, trust and believe, when I get past the anger at possibly finding out my brother made this shit up, I’m going to beat his ass until he can’t fucking speak, and then I’ll make him write down why. Why would he risk ruining my future?
Blood is supposed to be thicker than water. At least, that’s what my dad has always taught us. He may be a hard man, but Landon Prince is also a fair man. He believes that you reap what you sow. Mostly, that’s what I’m trying to shy away from. I did a lot of sowing, and it’s going to come back to bite me in the ass. I just know it.
Leo sighs, and it’s like one of those fatherly sighs that lets you know he approves of your idea. Not that I need his approval. Dick.
However, that doesn’t mean I don’t like having my friends behind me in whatever I decide. At least I know they’ll be there, backing me up, even if I’m being a stupid little shit.
Sometimes, these bastards get on my nerves. They’re rowdy, too stupid for their own good, but amazingly, we all ground each other. Each quad of Golden Crew who’s ever graduated from Golden Oaks high has this connection, but not like us. We’re tight as fuck, and nothing can get between us.
Gathering my keys off the counter, I’m nearly to the door when I see our roommate prancing down the stairs looking his best. My mood instantly sours.
“Where are you going all spiffed up, Lockridge?” I ask, trying but failing to keep the menace out of my tone. Like I care.
This dick knew who Harloe was the first time he approached her. I explicitly told all the fuckers in this house to give her a wide berth. But this asshole, he thinks he’s playing games encroaching on my territory.
Plus, I know how big of a douche he is. He thinks I haven’t heard about this little bet he has going with his friend on the lacrosse team, but he’s a fool to think I don’t know everything that goes on here at GOU. And I’ll be damned if he targets Harloe.
That’s the reason I was such a condescending asshole toward her when I saw both of them talking outside of the Meece Building. He was trying to accost her, thinking she’d give it up to him so he could add her to his list.