Chapter 21
***Cass***
Iwoke up the next morning with two black eyes and a throbbing headache.
After storming out of the party the night before, and far away from the Ford brothers, I’d gone to an all-night clinic and gotten checked out.
It miraculously wasn’t broken but the nurse who’d checked me out said I was going to hurt for a week or two. Even my teeth hurt from the hit.
Looking at myself in the mirror just made the fury boiling up inside me boil over.
I’d been too focused on just getting away from the men who were ruining my life that I hadn’t said or done anything about the state of my face.
Too bad for them, too bad for Weston, that I was done with that part of my rage.
I wanted to confront them. I wanted to force them to look at my face while I told them that I never fucking wanted to see them again.
Aunt Jolene gasped and slid off the end of that high heel chaise. She was screaming by the time she got back to her feet. “Who did that? Who the hell put their hands on my baby?! I’ll string ‘em up and gut ‘em!”
I clutched my head and winced as my head pulsed angrily. “No, Aunt Jolene. It was an accident.”
“Fine. You don’t want the blood and guts way? We can kill them without getting messy. I know a guy. He impersonates George W. Bush on the weekends but he’d clear up his schedule for me. I let him touch my tits back in the day when not a lot of people liked his whole thing.”
“I’m serious. It was an accident. Weston elbowed me while trying to punch someone else.
That doesn’t mean I’m not going over there right now to tell them all where to shove their bullshit.
Don’t slow me down. I want to get there while I’m still worked up.
” I hurried past her and grabbed my keys.
“Please don’t hire a hitman who looks like George W. Bush while I’m gone.”
I listened to heavy metal on the way over to their house, screaming random sounds along with the artists because I knew none of the words. I might’ve scared an old lady at a red light but I didn’t care. That much. I just wanted to get to them and scream at them instead of the radio.
It was still early when I pulled in behind Weston’s truck and turned my car off. Had he driven himself home? The idea that he’d gotten behind the wheel the night before made me even angrier. By the time I was at their door, banging on it, I was seething.
Hayes opened the door and immediately started to swear. “Look at your fucking face—”
“Did Weston drive home last night?! Did you let him drive home?” I stomped past him and jabbed my finger towards the stairs. “Is he up there? I’m going up there to tear him apart.”
I didn’t wait for him to respond and I wouldn’t have heard what he said anyway. I could only hear the blood rushing past my ears. I charged up to the third floor and shoved Weston’s door open so hard that it crashed into the wall behind it with an ear-splitting bang.
Weston shot out of his bed, bleary-eyed and naked. He looked around wildly before settling his gaze on me. I watched him struggle to recognize me and when he did, I had the pleasure of watching him turn green as he sank onto the side of his bed.
“You!” I stomped across the room and shoved my face closer to his.
“Look at what you did to me last night. Do you understand how much this shit hurts? It hurts to fucking breathe, asshole! I should tie you down and let a rabid raccoon bite your dick off. I should run you over with your stupid truck! Did you drive your truck home last night? Did you drive drunk? You stupid, stupid asshole. I thought you were a piece of shit before but last night really sealed the deal. You’re a drunk.
You stink. You look like shit. And if my future didn’t depend on me tying myself to you, I’d be gone so fast.”
“He didn’t drive. Everything else you said is true. Just that part, the driving, isn’t. I drove us home.” Cash appeared behind Hayes and inched his way into the room. “But please, go on.”
I twisted around to glare at him, too. “What is going on here? Why the fuck are you two allowing him to get like that? You’re so worried about what a little sex will do to your rep but meanwhile your brother is stumbling around campus, trying to fight people and elbowing girls in the face.
I swear to god, I want to pretend like none of this ever happened.
I wish I could turn back time and go to fucking ASU or something. ”
Weston managed to pull himself up again and he swayed towards me. “I’m…so-”
“Shut up!” I waved my hand in front of my face as the smell of sweat and liquor wafted from him.
“I’m stuck with the three of you but if you don’t clean up your act I’m done.
I’ll blow everything up if it means not wasting a second more of my life with you while you’re like this.
I have no plans on sticking around and watching you drink yourself half to death.
It’s not exactly a secret, either. You don’t think people talk around campus?
You keep living like this and it’s only a matter of time before people forget about you fucking the whore from USC and only talk about your drinking problem and when you’ll be forced into rehab. ”
“Fuck. I-”
I cut him off again. “Look at my face, Weston. You did it. I’m going to look like this for a couple of weeks so I hope you don’t have a weak stomach. Asshole.”
I shoved my way through Cash and Hayes and raced down the stairs and back out of the house. My hands were shaking and all my anger was spent which was just leaving me with pain and a sinking feeling of despair.
The last few years of my dad’s life had been spent nursing a bottle.
He’d been a good dad until he just wasn’t one morning.
I didn’t find out what changed to make him forget that he normally stopped drinking after two beers until he was dead.
For whatever reason he let a cancer diagnosis end his life long before he died.
Maybe it was the fact that he’d seen my mom die from her own cancer battle.
Maybe he couldn’t face leaving me alone while sober. I would never know.
What I did know was what it was like to carry my dad to bed while he was so wasted that he didn’t know who I was.
I knew what it was like to watch a grown man piss himself and then cry about it before begging me to help him get cleaned up.
I knew what it was like to lose someone to a bottle and have them scream in your face for more.
I didn’t like Weston. I felt like I could hate him.
No matter what I felt for him, though, I couldn’t handle the idea of watching him throw his life away drink by drink.
I’d heard rumors about his wild partying but I hadn’t seen it so I hadn’t let it bother me.
Seeing him the night before had made things clear, that level of intoxication scared the hell out of me.
I leaned against the side of my car and closed my eyes as a wave of pain hit me. I gave myself a minute to get myself together before I left. I wanted to get home and see what it felt like to have an aunt fuss over me.