Chapter 28
SUTTON
Has your best friend ever walked in to see you naked with a good job sticker on your dick, and his little sister untying you from the bed? I do not recommend it. Praying it’s a nightmare and that I’ll wake up doesn’t work.
Amos stands in the doorway, a horrified look on his face. The chaos of the earlier party is nothing compared to the next thirty seconds. Lila frees my ankle and I sit up. Dusty bounds into the room and dives on me as Amos shouts, “You’re fucking dead!”
Lila leaps in front of him while I escape Dusty and get to my feet. “What are you doing here?” Lila demands, shoving him.
“I live here! You’re fucking him!”
At least she’s fully dressed. “You don’t live here! You left. And what I do is none of your business.”
Amos lunges for me as I use a t-shirt to wipe off my stomach. “I’m going to kick your ass!” Dusty starts barking at all the yelling and tramples over my bed.
I could easily knock Amos out but I don’t want to hurt him. “Calm down and let me explain.”
“Explain? Your dick is still out!” He glances at the bed where the restraints are attached. The stroker lies on the sheet and a big bottle of lube sits on my nightstand. Disgust wars with anger on his face, and his eyes widen when he sees the giant butt plug Lila tossed aside.
“No! We didn’t use that!”
I yank on my underwear as Lila shoves him back toward the door. “Get out! Let him get dressed and we’ll talk about this like adults.”
Dusty notices the plug, snatches it off the floor, and runs into the hall. What is it about that dog and butt plugs?
Lila manages to back Amos out the door and pulls it shut behind her. I can hear them arguing in the living room while I get dressed.
“I can’t believe you would get with him! What’s wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me?” The rage in her voice makes me pause. She might be the one who ends up throwing punches if I don’t hurry. “You don’t get to judge me for anything. You ran away. You abandoned your pregnant girlfriend to sell weed in Florida!”
“How do you even know—”
“Your idiot friend told Sutton.”
“Great, I don’t have any friends I can trust.”
“Oh, boo-hoo, poor you. I don’t want to hear that shit. I’ve always had your back. Always helped you when you needed it. And what do you do? Lie for weeks about having a job. Fake going to work like some kind of psycho. Blow up your life and Mandy’s then run away! Why did you even come back?”
“I just needed a break! Why is most of the furniture gone and your room cleaned out? Are you moving in with him?”
I take a deep breath and join them in the living room as she answers. “Not that it would be any of your business, but no. I’m moving into my apartment and he’s moving into his house.”
A glare is thrown my way before he asks, “And where am I supposed to get furniture on such short notice?”
Lila’s mouth opens and closes like a goldfish. If I saw smoke coming out of her ears like a cartoon, I wouldn’t be surprised. “You aren’t staying here! You don’t have a job and they’ve already rented it out.”
“I signed the lease though.”
Lila stares at him like he’s insane. “Then you bailed.”
“Well where am I supposed to go? I’m not staying with that son of a bitch.”
“No,” I sigh. “You aren’t.” Lila isn’t the only one who’s fed up. “Look, man, this isn’t how I wanted you to find out. I was going to talk to you before you left.”
He shakes his head. “So, you were sneaking around while I was still staying here?”
A glance at Lila shows me she’s picturing the same things I am. Hiding in the closet while he had sex with Mandy, and my late night, naked jump out the window to visit the neighbor. “Yes.”
My simple response infuriates him but Lila elaborates.
“I know you’re pissed that we didn’t tell you.
You seemed to be doing well and I didn’t want to throw you off track.
But that wasn’t even true. So I’m not sorry, Amos.
I’m happy with Sutton and I’m not sorry.
You’re just going to have to get over it.
You don’t get to choose who I’m involved with and I don’t give one shit about your bro code nonsense. ”
This whole scene is wild because I’ve never heard Lila be so severe with him. She tends to baby him like her mother does. And no wonder when she’s basically been a second parent to him.
“So, you’re chucking me out on the street to fuck around with my friend.”
“No, those things are unrelated. I’m not throwing you anywhere. You did that. I’m moving. I’m focusing on my life and what I want to do with it, the same as Sutton has been. I suggest you take a lesson from both of us and grow the hell up.”
Amos crosses his arms and a quick smirk flashes on his face. I know what he’s going to do. Fuck, I should’ve told her. When he opens his mouth, I interrupt him. “Amos.”
“I don’t want to hear anything from you!” he shouts. “You’ve been fucking my sister!”
“I’m not fucking her. I’m in love with her!” That came out louder than I intended. The room falls silent and Lila whips her head around to look at me.
She stares me in the eye for a long moment before replying in a soft, halting voice. “You’re in love with me?”
I nod, trying to gauge how she feels about that. “I love you. You don’t have to be so shocked.”
A tentative smile begins on her face but it’s interrupted by Amos. “Don’t buy into his bullshit, Liles. You think he’s so perfect, that I should take a lesson from him?”
Damn it all. I should’ve told her but after she accused me of being a bad influence, I just couldn’t make myself do it.
“Ask him what happened the night I got arrested when I was seventeen.”
Lila looks at me, then back at Amos, puzzled. “When you stole that car?”
I’m not going to give him a chance to say it first. I can do that much at least. “He didn’t steal it. I did. He took the fall for me because I was already eighteen and he’d get a slap on the wrist compared to real prison time.”
Lila looks over at Amos, stunned, and he nods. “He picked me up in it and we switched seats when we got pulled over.” He looks up at me. “I went to juvenile detention for three months for you and you fucked my sister.”
“I’m sorry that I let you take the blame, but I’ve done everything I could to make it up to you. I’ve paid your rent and bills for years because I owed you. But I’m not giving her up. I can’t.”
The heaviest silence settles over the room as none of us seems to know what to say next. Dusty chooses that moment to trot in and drop the butt plug on Amos’s foot.
“Gross! Dusty, no. Get it away from me.” He kicks it and Dusty chases it down the hall, bringing it back. What a time for him to finally understand how to fetch.
The sight of tears in Lila’s eyes rips a piece from my heart. “Were you ever going to tell me?”
The truth is the only option now. “I don’t know. I wanted to. I hoped it wouldn’t matter, but you already disliked me for things I did as a teenager. I didn’t expect this to happen between us. I didn’t expect to fall for you.”
Amos starts arguing again and she holds up her hand. “Enough.”
She stalks back to my bedroom and returns with her bag and Dusty’s leash. “Don’t leave,” I plead. “Let me explain.” I seem to be saying that a lot lately.
“I’m going to stay at my place. Alone.” Her red eyes land on Amos. “If you wanted to come back and ruin everything, congratulations, you did it.”
“It’s not my fault that he—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” she says, cutting him off.
I catch her wrist. “Lila, we need to talk about this, please.” She pauses and takes a deep breath, but won’t look at me. “Not right now. I need to think. Make sure you get the last of your stuff moved and put the keys in the drop box.”
She shakes my hand off when I try to take hers. “No, I’m too pissed off. You need to give me some space tonight. I don’t want to say anything I don’t mean.”
“Kind of late for that,” Amos scoffs.
He steps back at the blazing look she gives him. “I meant every word. You aren’t my responsibility. You aren’t even a decent person. No decent person abandons their kid. Run back to tell Mom or whatever, I don’t care. I’m done.”
She walks out, taking Dusty with her. Every ounce of me wants to chase after her. To tell her what my circumstances were back then and hope she understands. But I don’t. She told me what she needs right now and it’s space to think. All I can do is hope she’ll talk to me when she’s ready.
Amos doesn’t say a word as he picks up his bag and leaves. I don’t know where he’s going and I couldn’t give a fuck. It feels like he’s cost me the most important thing in the world.