Chapter 15 #2
“We need to talk about where EvanAnn’s been sleeping.” Adam tries to bring it back around to that. I’d love to avoid talking about that for as long as possible. Maybe we could not talk about that at all.
“I know you’re probably hurting from your breakup with Chase,” Mom begins. “And it’s common for girls to seek... comfort in the arms of someone else...”
Oh god. I look at the floor, trying to disappear. Maybe combust into flames. Anything would be better than my mom justifying me sleeping with Damon.
Mom falters and looks to Adam for help, but Adam looks just as uncomfortable. It’s not like I’m his daughter. And it’s made even more awkward because it’s his son I’m apparently seeking comfort from.
I manage not to roll my eyes. Thankfully, we’re past the just using each other to get off portion of our relationship. But I’m not going to let her assume this has anything to do with Chase.
“It’s not like that,” I say. Though it’s kind of hard to deny we’re fucking when his dad saw me naked sprawled over Damon.
I really can’t get over that. I’m just lucky Cam and Hawk weren’t able to stay or I would be bursting into flames right now.
Though it would have been amusing watching Mom and Adam flounder their way through that one.
Though Mom might have been more determined to move us out if she found me in bed with three guys.
I don’t know how I would have told her next week, but maybe I would have eased her into it. Start with one guy and then maybe add on another after a week, see how that goes and then add the third.
“Chase was your first boyfriend.” Mom tries again. “It’s always hard when relationships end. Almost everyone goes through a rebound, and I’m sure Damon is a very nice boy.”
Damon scoffs. Adam winces, and I resist rolling my eyes again. No one would call him a nice boy, let alone a very nice boy. My mom has blinders when it comes to Damon Storm. Or she just doesn’t know him at all. Which is probably closer to the truth.
She plows on. “But rebounds usually don’t work out. It’s still possible you and Chase could get back together. You seemed so happy at the party, and that was just last week.”
“What exactly did you tell your mom about your breakup, Evan?” Damon turns to me, and I want to shrink into myself.
Fuck, yeah, he probably thought I told her everything. Honestly, I want to climb onto his lap and hide, but that’s definitely not going to happen. I’m already exposed, and he wants to push me into the spotlight harder.
It’s not like my mom needs to know the truth about Chase. I meet his eyes stubbornly and keep my mouth closed.
“She said they broke up.” Mom straightens, clearly trying to defend me. “I hope you aren’t taking advantage of her when she’s sad from the breakup.”
“Evan,” Damon scolds me. Yeah, I didn’t figure I’d get away with silence. Fine.
“I told her we broke up. That’s all she needed to know.
” I didn’t tell her about everything else.
Like how Damon blackmailed me into sleeping with him and his friends or that I’m in a relationship with three guys now.
Or that I found out about my boyfriend cheating on me right before Damon gave me my first orgasm not from masturbation.
Or how I didn’t really resist falling into bed with three guys and let them do whatever they wanted to me.
In fact, I enjoy every minute of it.
Damon’s sharp blue eyes meet mine. “So she didn’t tell you he cheated on her their entire relationship?”
I narrow my eyes on him. He didn’t have to tell her that.
“What? No. That’s awful.” Mom covers her mouth. “I’m so sorry, honey. No wonder you weren’t crying. Guys can be very immature at this age.”
Fuck it. I turn to look at my mom, watching her struggle to try to rationalize everything. There’s nothing to rationalize.
“I’m not torn up about breaking up with Chase,” I say. “He was just using me to make his father think he had a good girlfriend with excellent grades and a promising future.”
“It’s still hard after ending a relationship,” Mom says, uncertain now.
Not when you have the attention of three hotter and much better guys. But I don’t think she wants to hear that right now.
“Is this new?” Adam asks and gestures between the two of us.
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I don’t think I can get any redder. At this point, I’m just going to burst into flames, which would be preferable. The thorns were less uncomfortable than this conversation. At least then I knew the pain would end.
“Is it, Evan?” Damon asks like he’s not sure what the answer is in my reality. Fuck, why does he have to push me? This isn’t going to help anything.
I’d snatch my hand back, but I don’t want to let go. “Not exactly,” I bite out.
“But you just broke up with Chase?” Mom asks.
“Not exactly.” I close my eyes. Maybe this is just a horrible nightmare and I can wake up. Why does Damon have to make this worse? I hadn’t planned to lead our conversation next week with Damon and I are having sex. I would have said we’re together. Boyfriend and girlfriend.
If our parents inferred we were having sex that would be on them. I really didn’t plan to lead with I’m fucking your son’s brains out and his best friends too, but it’s okay because we love each other. Not at first, but definitely now.
“But you didn’t say anything until Sunday?” Now Mom sounds hurt. Great. I’m a disappointment, and I hurt her feelings.
I don’t want to be having this conversation, so I take a sip of coffee. Unfortunately, they’re all still waiting for me to spill the truth. And this torture won’t end until I do. Fuck.
“Yes, I finally told you because Chase used the fact I hid our breakup and my relationship with Damon from you to make me pretend to still be his girlfriend. And since he didn’t want to lose his new reputation with his parents, he didn’t tell them we were broken up either.
” I don’t want to spill the whole truth, but there is that.
Apparently Damon has no issue with telling them everything about my relationship.
But hopefully, he’ll keep his mouth shut.
Because if Mom finds out he watched me and blackmailed me, I don’t know that Adam will be able to convince her to stay. Don’t worry, Mom, he likes to watch me, and I get off on it, so it’s all good. Fuck my life.
“Is this why you got in a fight with Chase?” Adam asks Damon.
Mom covers her mouth like that thought is horrifying. I put my hand over my eyes.
“I punched Chase because he left Evan out in the middle of the woods. At night. Alone. Because she wouldn’t put out.” Damon squeezes my hand. “And then he came back to the party without her to get laid.”
My mouth opens and closes, and I narrow my eyes on him. They didn’t need to know that.
“That wasn’t the only reason you punched him,” I add snarkily. He doesn’t get to air all my dirty laundry and get away scot-free.
He glares at me, like he’s going to push me harder. “Evan hasn’t slept in her own bed since the first night she moved in.”
My heart pounds. What is he doing?
“What?” Mom squeaks out.
“She sleeps in my bed with me. What did you expect to happen?” Damon turns to my mother. “You left her alone. You always leave her alone. It’s no wonder monsters like Chase found her. Like I found her.”
I snatch my hand from Damon. I can’t believe he told my mom that. My heart is racing. There’s no way to undo what he just did. I want to put my hand over his mouth and make him be quiet, but this isn’t the time I get my way.
“Maybe if you paid more attention to your daughter than your boyfriend of the moment—”
Fuck this. I stand up. “Chase is the one who hit Damon this summer. Chase was cheating on me at the time.”
Damon glares at me. But I’m done. If he wants it all out there, everything should be out there.
“Stop using me to try to punish my mother or your father or whatever warped thing you’re doing right now.
” I throw my hands up. “Yes, Damon and I are together and have been for a while. We’re both eighteen, and there’s nothing wrong with it.
Maybe we started at the wrong place, but we’re good now.
Chase is a lying, manipulative bastard who used me and hurt Damon.
He deserves any wrong coming his way. But neither of you gets a say in our relationship.
That’s between me and Damon. If we even have a relationship after this. ”
My heart squeezes and aches because his eyes have grown colder with each word out of my mouth.
“This would have all come out eventually.” I sink back onto the couch with a little space between us.
“It has nothing to do with your relationship, Mom. This isn’t a way for the kids to get back at their parents.
I’m never getting back with Chase. I don’t even think I really liked him.
He’s just the only one who paid attention to me, and it was nice to have a boyfriend. ”
It hurts to think about how it’s almost the same with Damon. He might never have paid attention to me if it hadn’t been for Chase. If we hadn’t moved in here.
I’m so tired. I just want to crawl back into bed and forget any of this ever happened. But I don’t really have my own bed here. Tears choke my throat, but I swallow them down.
“You might want to tell the whole truth, Evan.”
I lift my gaze to Damon’s. His eyes are still cold, but I can see the hurt in them. I touch the ring on my finger and wonder if he’ll want it back. If all this is out in the open for nothing. Because he won’t want me anymore after this.
Fine, he wants everything out there.
“No more secrets?” I take a deep breath and turn to Mom. “I’m also dating Hawk and Cam.”
“What?” Mom says. She looks like her head is spinning. Maybe I should have been honest from the beginning, but I was protecting her just as much as I was protecting myself.
I turn to meet her owl-like eyes. “I’m dating Damon, Cam, and Hawk. All of them. At the same time.”
“Damon,” Adam says, looking like he’s chewing on glass. “Is that true? About Chase? He was the driver of your hit and run?”
The muscle tenses in Damon’s jaw. “Yes.”
“What do we do about this?” Mom turns to Adam.
For a moment, no one speaks. It’s too early in the morning for any of this. There’s this pit inside my stomach that pulses because I don’t know if Damon’s still mine. If I’ve lost them all because I gave away his secret, because he was giving mine away.
“Nothing. Damon leaves today for Crowne Mawr. It seems like you two could use the time away from each other.” Adam stands and reaches his hand out to my mom. “We’ll deal with it when he gets back.”