Depraved Favors (Immoral Starts)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Peyton

Winter Break

I watch as his fingers brush her elbow before he moves behind her and rests his hand on the back of her chair. She bites down on her lip and glances at him under her eyelashes, then laughs before turning back to her tray of food.

The longer I analyze the actions between them, the faster my stomach turns. My eyes lift to meet Caroline’s over his shoulder. She holds up her soda in a salute with a pitying smile and shrug. She’s the one who warned me about them, after seeing my best friend and boyfriend being extra chummy in the library.

I turn back to the two most important people in my life. Any other day, I would find their closeness endearing. I’d think I was lucky that they’re such good friends. Now I’m trying to remember all the times Jacob would choose to sit next to or near her over me.

I never cared before, never thought twice about it. We were a close-knit unit. Brit has been my best friend since middle school, and Jacob and I have been dating since freshman year of college. That’s nearly four years together, of our entire existence being entwined. I’ve attended all his fraternity events, all his football games. I gave him my virginity, which I didn’t really care about, but I feel like it means something that he’s the only man who has touched my body.

My chest aches as I stand abruptly from the table, my hip catching on the corner of the tray before slamming back down. They both grow quiet as I grab my backpack and storm out of the cafeteria without a word. I wipe furiously at the tears that escape, and I’m almost to the bathroom when I’m tugged back. Jacob’s face twists in confusion, and I shudder at his firm grip on my arm.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, pulling me into his chest and wrapping his arms around me.

Usually the familiar scent of him is comforting, but right now it feels like he’s suffocating me. I push him off of me, crossing my arms so he can’t try to grab me again.

“I’m gonna leave for the day. Gonna check on my mom.”

I don’t miss the flare of annoyance in his eyes, and he runs a hand through his hair as he sighs. “Can’t you call your dad? It’s just this is the first day in a while that I don’t have practice and you’re not too busy.”

Guilt stabs me in the heart, and I know I’ve been spending a lot of time with my mom for the past year and a half. But I feel it’s understandable considering she’s fighting cancer. Her latest scans have come back promising, and they’re going to slow her treatment, but she’s not in remission just yet.

“I know. I just?—”

“Hey. What’s going on?” Brit walks up to us, and an agonizing fury roars back in my chest when her hand slides across my boyfriend’s back before she stands next to me. “You okay?” The touch is too familiar, something a girlfriend would do. I’d never touch someone else that way.

It sickens me. My throat aches and my mouth waters with the threat of vomiting right then and there. I feel foolish and na?ve that I didn’t catch the obvious signs before someone else pointed them out. I step farther away from Jacob.

“I’m going home. I’ll catch you guys later.”

“So you’re going to come back to Jacob’s apartment later?” she asks, her eyes watching me with concern. Now I suspect that concern is only about getting caught.

I shake my head. “Nope, you two have fun.”

Jacob sighs, and Brit lets out a nervous laugh. “Yeah, right? If you’re not going, then I’ll probably just do some last-minute shopping before I leave.”

My boyfriend stares at me, not objecting to either of our plans, and I stare back. I don’t know what he sees, but his eyebrows dip down and he frowns.

“Text me when you get home, then,” Jacob finally says. He moves to kiss my forehead again and I stand still, my heart hammering away with anger or despair. I can’t tell anymore.

I nod and turn away from them before they can say anything else. The walk to my car through the college campus is a blur, and I barely remember driving home.

My father looks up from his newspaper as I hurry through the door. His eyebrow tics as I throw my backpack onto the floor, rushing to the stairs. I pause on the bottom step. “Is she awake?”

He nods, and I smile before stalking upstairs.

“Hey!” he calls after me and I stop, glancing over my shoulder. His glasses have fallen to the middle of his nose, staring at me from above the rim. “It’s a little early to be home from school.”

I twist my mouth to the side. “I just really needed my mom.”

His eyes soften, and he waves at me to continue before heading back to the kitchen. I knock on their bedroom door before opening it without waiting for a response. My mom looks up from her book and smiles.

“My sweetheart, what are you doing here?”

I collapse onto the bed next to her, inhaling the soft scent of her. I didn’t know how much I would miss it till her room smelled like a hospital room. Plain sheets to combat the constant vomiting and other things that couldn’t be helped from her chemo treatment. Though I never told her, the stripping of her colorful blankets and mismatched pillows made it feel like her room was dying with her.

“I think Jacob is cheating on me.”

She gasps, setting down the book to scoot closer and lie next to me. “What! Why? What happened?”

“Someone warned me about it. And I just—the signs are all there, Mom. I don’t know what to do.”

“What do you want to do?”

That’s where I’m conflicted because while I’m enraged and hurt at the thought of him cheating, it hurts more because of who he cheated with. If Jacob is my boyfriend, then she’s my soulmate. Someone I thought would be by my side for the rest of my life.

“I just want to disappear,” I tell my mom.

Her fingers dip to my forehead, trying to smooth the wrinkles caused by my sullen expression. “Where would you go?”

“The forest. Maybe a vampire will find me and tell me my blood sings for him and he loves me.”

She chuckles. “And what happens if some European vampire family comes and tries to kill you?”

My lips curl. “It won’t happen because we won’t make the mistake of having little hybrid vampire babies.”

My mom gasps, then pouts. “There goes my hopes of being grammie to those cute hybrid babies.”

Groaning, I roll into her chest, and she holds me, stroking my hair. “I just feel stupid.”

“You’re not stupid. No one should ever suspect their partner is cheating on them. That’s on them, sweetheart. It’s never on you.”

“I’ve barely spent time with him this year.”

She clicks her tongue. “Respectfully, Peyton, if he cheated because you were spending time with me, then fuck him. Like fuck him in the highest form of wishing someone the worst. He’s not worthy of you.”

I giggle, then swallow and tilt my head to look at her. “They said it’s with Brit.”

My mom can’t withhold her flinch, and her attention strays to something over my head. She sighs, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

“I don’t know who I am more hurt from, but I think it’s Brit. I don’t even want to go on the trip anymore.”

“I think you should, if for no other reason than to go through her phone,” my mom suggests.

I sit up, and my mom follows me up so we lean against her headboard. “Go through her phone?”

She nods. “You guys will be spending a week together, wait till she falls asleep and go through it. Get the confirmation you need.”

“I can’t believe my mom is telling me to break into someone’s phone.”

“Hey, I’ve spent some time on this earth, and I thought it was going to be cut short. And I’ve learned one thing,” she says with a laugh.

“What?”

“Do the petty thing. There’s times I look back and wish I had spoken my mind because withholding my opinions or thoughts resolved nothing in the end, but it could have made me feel better.”

I scrunch my nose at her. “So go through her phone and confront her with the truth?”

My mom shrugs. “Or just get what you need and do whatever you want with the information.”