11. Xed
Chapter eleven
A hard slap on my ass jolts me awake, bright light stabbing at my eyes as the curtains are yanked open.
“Fuck, what the hell, man?” I groan, squinting up at the two blurry shapes towering above me. My lashes feel crusty, and when I blink, there’s a strange tightness around my eyes—like I’ve been crying. That can’t be right.
Taylor’s voice cuts through the room like a jackhammer to my pounding head. “Well, this is a side of Devon I never wanted to see.”
Hissing at the ache in my limbs, I push myself up slowly, every muscle protesting like I just ran a marathon. The hotel room wavers into focus, revealing a scene that makes me want to groan louder. My mouth tastes like something died in it, and my breath probably smells worse.
I shiver as the AC hits my bare legs, realizing I’m in nothing but boxer briefs and a long-sleeve shirt. Blinking again, I take in Taylor and Matty, standing at the foot of the bed with their arms crossed. Tay smirks in amusement, but Matty’s face is a storm of emotions—disgust? Anger? Annoyance? It’s impossible to tell with the room spinning every time I move .
“Which one of you smacked my ass?” I rasp, my throat raw like I’ve been screaming all night.
Devon grumbles to my right. “It’s too fuckin’ early for this shit.”
He’s sprawled out beside me, completely fucking naked, with an inked arm thrown over my lap.
Ah. So that’s why my throat hurts.
Glancing up at Matty, the strained look on his face only grows, and I can’t deny the sick sense of satisfaction that it brings me.
This could have been you, asshole.
“Uh, what the hell is that?” Taylor asks, eyes bugging out as he points to Dev’s butt, and I groan as I lean over to see what the fuck he’s talking about. Everything hurts.
Despite that, a choked laugh escapes my throat when I spot the words inked onto Devon’s supple ass cheek.
Xed Was Here.
“Duuuude.” I give him a shove, making him grunt. “My name is tattooed on your ass. What the fuck happened last night?”
“Huh?” He leans up, blinking slowly over his shoulder before flopping back down with a shrug like it’s no big deal. “Don’t remember.”
Fuck . Me, either.
“Oh?” Matty drawls, an edge to his tone that has my attention snapping to those flashing blue eyes. “You mean you don’t remember getting shit-faced, opening a tab for everyone at the strip club under my name, and then climbing onstage to dance with the girls? Or getting us kicked out after starting a fight with the bouncers? You don’t remember that?”
I flinch at the way his voice steadily rises, as does Taylor, but Devon just rolls onto his back and stretches, giving everyone a view of his junk .
“Nope,” he yawns, “doesn’t ring a bell.”
I jab him with my elbow before dropping my head into my hands. Okay, I may have taken things too far. I hadn’t meant to completely wreck Matty’s bachelor party, just...ruin it a little.
In all honesty, I don’t remember most of that. There are flashes here and there of Arya giving Devon a lap dance. A giant pair of tits in my face—which, what the fuck? The quarterback, Tyson, getting into it with me for some reason. How hard I avoided Matty the entire night.
The rest is blissfully blank.
“Xed, can I talk to you for a minute?” Matt flicks a glance at Dev’s naked form before settling his gaze on me, jaw feathering at the corners. “Alone?”
A snort leaves my nostrils before I can stop it, and I lean back against the headboard. “No.”
Taylor’s brows jump into his hairline, a grimace pulling at his full lips as he runs an inked hand through his hair. “Huck and I showed up for the end of it, man. You both were out of control. And that’s saying a lot, coming from me—"
Matty cuts him off, “What the hell got into you last night? You were acting like a total douchebag.”
“My bad,” Devon pipes up, and I try to cover his mouth with my hand because I already know what he’s going to say. “That was probably the line he snorted off my dick in the bathroom.”
God fucking dammit . Just kill me now.
Seriously, God, smite me down because why the hell would he say that out loud?
Matty and Taylor are shocked into silence, a heavy tension settling over us that Devon does not give two shits about as he keeps flapping his gums. Still naked .
“What’s for breakfast anyway? I’m hungover as shit.”
With a heavy sigh, I scrub a hand down my face before looking up at Taylor. “He’s worse than you were before you got sober.”
Tay’s lip curls back, clearly offended, and he opens his mouth to respond—only to be cut off by a piercing scream that tears through the air.
We all freeze, glancing at each other in confusion.
Then Salem’s frantic voice from the other room shatters the silence.
“Fix it, Logan! You fucking fix it !”
The four of us are out the door and into the next room in a heartbeat.
She’s standing by the bed, her face red with fury, pointing down at where her ex-boyfriend sits slumped over, groaning into his hands. Both of them are half-naked, hair disheveled, sheets tangled around their legs. The air reeks of alcohol, sweat, and…
“Holy fucking shit,” Taylor blurts out, clapping a hand over his mouth. “Oh my God. You two fucked.”
If looks could kill, he’d be six feet under from the venom Salem shoots his way, her red-rimmed eyes blazing. Logan’s bloodshot gaze peeks out from between his fingers, and that’s when I notice it—a silver band glinting on his ring finger in the morning light.
Hold the fuck up.
“Is that what I think it is?” I ask, pointing to the ring as Salem quickly hides a hand behind her back.
“All of you, get out !" she screams, but Taylor lets out a giddy laugh and launches onto the bed beside Logan.
“Dude, she finally took your V card! Now she owns both of ours. Up top!” He raises a hand for a high five, but Logan just stares at him like he’s lost his damn mind. The fucker just shrugs, unfazed, and whips out his phone.
“We gotta FaceTime Huck at the gym and tell him his best friend just lost his virginity.”
“I think you’re missing the point,” I cut in, pointing between them. “Look at their fingers, Tay. Use your fucking eyes.”
“Why, what do you—" Taylor freezes mid-sentence as he grabs both hands and holds them up to his face. His jaw drops. “What the fuck are those?! Are those wedding rings ?”
Well, shit. I’ll be damned.
Salem pounces on him, trying to wrestle her hand away, but Taylor flips around, pinning her beneath him. She wrenches her hand back, glaring at Logan, who’s staring down at the band like he’s not sure it’s real. “We…it was a mistake. An accident. And Logan’s going to fix it!”
Devon yawns loudly, drawing everyone’s attention to his position—still completely naked, leaning against the doorway.
“I guess congrats are in order?” He smirks, eyes narrowed, and Matty scoffs angrily.
“Seriously? Put on some clothes, man. Have some respect. I doubt Salem wants to see your dick.”
Dev simply shrugs, unfazed. “Considering she was riding it three days ago, I don’t think it matters.”
The silence is deafening as we all stare at him, stunned. I can’t believe he just said that shit. Inviting him along might have been a massive mistake.
Logan’s face turns crimson, his lips tightening into a thin line as he glares at Salem.
“You fucked my uncle ? ”
Taylor slowly climbs off Salem, who lifts her chin defiantly. “Yeah, so what? I fucked Taylor and Christian, too, before we got together.”
Logan’s expression twists into something I’ve never seen before—pure rage. “But neither of them is my fucking uncle !”
His voice ricochets through the room, making all of us flinch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this angry in all the years I’ve known him.
He rips the sheets off, jumps to his feet, and storms toward the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. We all stand there quietly for a moment, glancing at each other with wide eyes.
Then I notice Salem’s jaw quiver. She lets out a slight, shaky sniffle before grabbing her bag off the floor. As she strides toward the door, she smacks Devon clean across the face without so much as a word.
The slap cracks like a gunshot. Devon’s head snaps to the side, brown hair falling over the reddening mark on his cheek. His jaw tightens as he watches her leave, and for a moment, I think I see shame flicker in his honey-gold eyes.
But it’s gone in an instant as he scoffs. “I’ll go talk to my nephew.”
He pulls on a pair of Logan’s jeans from the floor before heading to the bathroom, and I sigh heavily.
“I’ll go talk to Salem.”
She’s in the shower when I head back into our room, the bathroom door slightly cracked. I tug off my shirt, ready to join her but freeze when I realize I’m not alone.
Matty followed me in.
He stands there, rooted to the spot, his gaze dropping to my crotch before slowly dragging up my body. His eyes linger on my arms, on the freshly fading burns, and I instinctively fold them to hide myself. He’s seen the scars plenty of times, but that was… before. Back when things between us weren’t so complicated.
Who am I kidding? They were always complicated.
“Are you fucking her too?” he asks, his voice uneven, rough like gravel, and the words hit me like a sucker punch. My chest pinches so hard I can barely breathe.
“No offense, Matthew,” I reply coldly, “but who I fuck isn’t any of your business. Not anymore.”
His sunny blue eyes snap to mine, wide with surprise, but I can’t hold his gaze. I’m already moving, slipping into the bathroom and closing the door behind me.
The sight of him—the way he looks at me, the ghost of what we used to be—makes me ache. I can’t do this. I can hardly stand being in the same room with him, knowing everything we had and everything I lost.
The sound of soft sobs rises above the hiss of running water, and my chest clenches harder as I slide the shower door open to step inside.
Salem sits on the floor, knees pulled up to her chest, as the water pours down over her, soaking her tangled red hair. She looks a mess.
Grabbing the tiny bottle of hotel shampoo, I scoot in behind her, encasing her thighs with my own as I press my chest to her back.
“Wanna talk about it?” Pulling wet strands out of her face, I lather up my hands and wash her hair, starting from the ends.
She shrugs a shoulder, wiping her nose on the back of her arm. “What is there to say? I…I fucked up.” A sob makes her pause. “I don’t even remember it. Any of it. ”
“Maybe that’s not such a bad thing,” I mutter bitterly, massaging her scalp and fighting my own memories. How I wish I had the blissfulness of ignorance.
She sniffles, her voice trembling. “I’d always dreamed about what our first time would be like. I wanted to make it special for him. God, I’m so stupid.”
“You’re not stupid. Gross and romantic, but not stupid.”
“It was just different with him, you know?” She huffs a wet laugh. “Every guy I’ve ever been with is a manwhore. Logan was…he was supposed to be mine .”
Finishing with the shampoo, I gently push her forward to rinse it out. “But you broke up with him, though?”
Salem sighs deeply. “He only proposed to me because his parents were gonna cut him off and disapproved. They’re super religious. Guess I just wanted him to fight for me. For us. Be a fucking man and stand up to them for once, Jesus Christ. We spent two years of our relationship hiding it from them.”
Yeah, I remember. Taylor hadn’t been happy about it, and he was the one who’d ultimately let the cat out of the bag—the interfering asshole.
We’re both quiet momentarily as I twist her wet strands into a braid. “I wish I could give you some solid advice, but my own love life is a mess right now. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Turning her head, she hits me with another glare. “You brought Dev here to ruin the wedding, didn’t you?”
My forehead hits her damp shoulder as I let out a groan. “Honestly, it was a mistake, and I didn’t know he’d bring Logan. I just…wanted to make Matty mad.”
“I think all you’ve done is make him realize that he probably made the right choice in leaving. ”
“What the fuck?” Raising my gaze, I rear back incredulously. “Why the hell would you say that?”
She rests a cheek on her knees. “Think about it, Xed. He decided to make it work with Val because she got clean, and Hannah needed her mother. And you’ve been drunk, high, or both since the moment he told us all he got drafted.”
“That’s…” Well, that’s different. Yeah, I’ve always been a weed connoisseur, but I didn’t even start all the drinking and snorting until after he left. “I was good to Hannah. I loved her. She had everything she needed.”
“I know she did.” A sad, tired smile pulls at Salem’s lips. “But sometimes…sometimes, love isn’t enough.”