CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Colton — 16 years old (Junior year)
The girl on my lap shoves her tits in my face. They are practically spilling out of her dress. I grip her ass in one hand and watch as her friend straddles Maddox’s lap. They are both sophomores, while Maddox and I are juniors now.
She hands me a joint and I clamp it between my teeth. She lights it for me and I inhale, before blowing a puff of smoke into her face. Miss-I-can’t-remember-her-name giggles, almost drunkenly, and then steals the joint from me.
The bonfire is lit tonight, crowded with Berkshire students who are all here to celebrate our win against Leighton High.
“Where’s Cole?” Maddox asks, raising an eyebrow questioningly.
I huff in response. “He’s never in the mood to party nowadays.”
“Maybe if he joins us every now and then, he won’t always be in such a depressive mood.” He grips the girl’s ass, smirking at her. “Pussy and weed, best combination to cure depression.”
I know he is only half-serious. Granted Maddox and I have always been closer, but he still had a good friendship with Cole. I know it also bothers him that my brother has turned into a lone wolf.
The girl on my lap hands me back my joint. I take another hit, inhaling before puffing out another cloud of smoke. Her hand slides down my chest to my abdomen and then she cups my dick over my jeans. My stomach revolts and I fight the urge to kick her off my lap. “How about we take this somewhere else?” she purrs in my ear.
My brain is hazy from the weed. I allow her to drag me away from the others, deeper into the trees, until we are perfectly camouflaged. I lean back against a tree, and then she’s all over me. “What do you have in mind?” she asks, her skin flushed. Behind us, I hear a giggle and then a manly grunt. Yeah, there are other people fucking.
“I’m bored,” I drawl lazily before pushing down on her shoulders and forcing her to her knees. She kneels, a coy smirk on her lips. “Find a way to keep me entertained, Julie.”
Julie frowns. “That’s not my name.”
Oh, huh? Whoops, my bad.
I could blame it on the alcohol and weed. Tell her my brain is fuzzy and apologize as any gentleman would. But I don’t see a point in lying. I really don’t remember her name and neither do I care. I’m definitely not feeling very gentlemanly. “Does it matter?”
“It’s Emma.” She flips her hair back, haughtily.
“Emma,” I say, testing her name on my tongue. Yeah, it sounds all wrong. “Well, Emily … shut up and suck my dick.”
“Do you have to be such an asshole about it?”
I roll my eyes. “It’s part of the charm.”
She twists her lips in a pout and then lets out the fakest giggle I’ve ever heard. Jesus Christ, my ears are going to bleed if I have to hear her laugh one more time. “They’ve told me you’re an asshole, but I wanted to see for myself.”
Yeah, it’s the same story. Girls flock to me, wanting to get a piece of Colton Bennett, so they can go back and gossip with their friends. Sometimes, I like to indulge them. But only because I don’t want anyone shitting on my reputation.
Emily unbuttons and unzips my jeans, before taking my dick out of its confinement. I lean back and clamp my joint between my teeth, sucking on it and watching the amber flickering right under my nose. I find the color of amber fascinating and somehow my mind chooses to focus on that, instead of the girl on her knees for me.
She lets out a moan, which sounds straight out of a porn video. But to be honest, I’ve seen better acted porn. Emily is sloppy and inexperienced, and her dick sucking abilities are subpar. Well fuck, tonight’s been unfortunate.
Somehow I find my release and she fights back a gag. I puff on my joint and stare up at the night sky, as she gets to her feed, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. I stay quiet, thinking she’ll eventually figure out I’m no longer interested, and she’ll leave.
But Emily here doesn't catch a clue.
She pushes her tits against my chest and I wrinkle my nose at the strong perfume. When I don’t make a move to touch her, she frowns. Emily reaches under her mini dress, and then I feel her wiggling, trying to take off her panties.
“Alright,” I drawl, trying to keep my tone light. But my mouth is dry and my lungs seem to cave inside the walls of my rib cage. “Thanks, see you around.”
She pauses, her eyes widening. “Excuse me? I thought we were going to—"
Well, you thought wrong.
I don’t do sex, but then again, no one knows this truth. Not even Maddox.
I hate being touched, though I try to act like it doesn’t bother me. My reputation is in jeopardy, and I can’t have my teammates knowing the truth behind why …I hate being touched .
There’s an image to uphold and girls to appease.
The only time I can allow some random chick near me… to actually touch me, is when I’m either shit-drunk or high enough not to feel them. Like right now.
I think…in some way, Sienna has broken something inside me. It’s not that she controls my pleasure — it’s more like she has the power to control my mind.
And that pisses me off.
I hate her…and I hate what she has turned me into.
I cup Emily ’s chin. “You’ll go back out there and tell your friends just how much fun you had. And I’ll tell my buddies just how good your dick sucking abilities are, yeah?”
Her blush deepens and she nods readily. Yup, easy peasy. Just praise them a little and they are putty in your hands. Emily sashays away and I exhale a shuddering breath.
Running my fingers through my hair, I look up at the dark sky. Fuck.
***
I stumble along the hallway, trying to make it to my bedroom before passing out. But a noise from my brother’s room has me pausing. I hear a crash and then a frustrated snarl. Taking a tentative step toward his bedroom, I listen closely. There’s another crash and I lurch forward in panic. His door is half-closed and I push it open.
My breathing stalls when I see the disastrous state of his room and find him pacing back and forth. He’s turned the place upside down. Confused, I watch as he rummages through his drawers, before banging them closed and then going back to them again.
“Cole?” I question, taking a step toward him.
At the sound of my voice, he jerks back and swivels around to face me. His eyes are blood-shot and the expression on his face is painful. “Cole, what’s going on? What’s wrong?”
“You took them away,” he accuses sharply, his eyes narrowing on me. “My fucking pills, you took them away!”
My brows furrow. “We agreed to this, didn’t we? I hide your pills and you can ask me if you really need them. You can’t just keep taking those painkillers carelessly.”
“It hurts,” he roars. “You don’t understand!”
He’s talking about his leg. “It’s not supposed to hurt anymore, Cole.” I sigh, rubbing a hand over my face. Damn it, I’m tired. “The doctors—"
“They don’t know shit.” His whole body quakes. “I can still feel the pain, Colton. I can’t fucking walk! And I can’t sleep without the painkillers.”
He slumps against his bed and buries his face into his hands, making a choked sound in the back of his throat. “I just want to sleep, for one fucking night. Without feeling like my leg is being ripped from my body.”
I take a step toward him. “Cole—
“I know,” he says, his voice quieter. I hear sniffles. “I know the truth, Colton.”
My body freezes, my heart dropping to the pit of my stomach. “W-what are you talking about?”
“I know what she’s doing to you.”
My breathing stutters and blood rushes between my ears with a loud roar. The floor disappears under my feet and the weight of me crashes down into the dark, never-ending abyss. I’m falling…and I don’t stop. The world spins and cold sweat covers every inch of my clammy body.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
“I hear her go to your room,” he chokes out. “And then I hear her leave after a while. She didn’t lock the door once… I saw her and you.”
He knows…
Cole knows the truth.
His words may have possibly killed me, and I stand there before him — with my lies and my truth between us. I clench my fists. “You saw…us?”
Breathe, Colton. Fucking breathe.
Cole slowly nods, without lifting his face from his hands. “You’re trying to protect me, I know that too.”
My nostrils flare as I close my eyes and try to suck in deep breaths.
“This can’t keep happening, Colton. I won’t allow it anymore. I’ll tell Dad the truth—"
“No!” I snap quickly.
His body jerks back at my loud voice, and he lifts his head, staring at me with red eyes and a tear-stained face. “Sienna is using you!” Cole hisses, getting to his feet. “She’s an abuser, who is taking advantage of you and our situation.”
“No,” I tell him again, this time having more control over my tone. But I’m still shaking from the inside. “You won’t tell Dad anything. He won’t believe you and he won’t hold Sienna responsible for her actions either. He. Does. Not. Care.”
In fact, I think my father already knows what Sienna has been up to. I wouldn’t put it past him. His wife is sleeping with his son, under his own roof, and he’s not aware of it?
No, I don’t believe that. Henry Bennett is not that stupid. He is fully aware of everything that’s happening under his roof. He has eyes and ears everywhere. I’m sure even the walls whisper their secrets to him.
My father knows…
And he doesn’t care.
“Then what are we supposed to do?” Cole bellows. He grips his hair, pulling on it. “Do I just sit here in my room, knowing what’s happening in yours?”
I march forward, standing before Cole until we’re toe to toe. Cupping the back of his neck, I tug him toward me. “Listen to me, Cole.” Our foreheads touch and I exhale a shaky breath. “We have less than two years left before we can leave. You’ll be going to Yale and I will be going to Harvard, just like we planned. We will be in different states, far away from our father and Sienna.”
“Two years is too long.” Cole shakes his head. “I refuse to continue watching her do this to you. To know that is what’s happening behind closed doors and to willingly turn a blind eye to it. That destroys me, Colton. You are my brother .”
My heart hiccups in my chest. “Less than two years.”
“Sienna—
“She’ll eventually grow bored of me and find someone else.”
Cole frowns, looking reluctant to believe me. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because I was merely an entertainment for her,” I confess to my twin. “I can already sense her getting bored.”
It’s true.
Sienna doesn’t visit me at night as much as she used to before. She stays out longer and comes home much later into the night. She has her own life, apart from being Henry’s wife. Just like my father has his own set of mistresses.
They are both aware of each other’s infidelity and they don’t care.
It’s purely a contract marriage between Sienna and Henry Bennett.
“Less than two years,” I tell him again, as if saying the words out loud will give me the strength to convince my brother that we can survive in this shithole. “We can do this, Cole.”
Because that’s what we do.
We survive.