Chapter 23
Ali
I was left in peace for a total of three seconds before Caprice moved in.
Impatient for this shit to be over, I took a step back from her.
Caprice liked to goad me, see how far she could push until I broke and did something she could use against me.
Usually, she could go off and cry to her mom about something I said in the heat of the moment.
Once, she’d told me she’d kissed Sixx, and I’d grabbed her by the hair. I’d been grounded for a month for it.
She hadn’t. In my gut, I’d known she hadn’t kissed him.
I’d acknowledged that even as she was gloating and gushing in my face.
Sixx could barely tolerate her “accidentally” brushing against him.
No way he would be able to handle her getting close enough to put her mouth on him.
That knowledge hadn’t stopped me from reacting, though, which was exactly what she’d been hoping for.
Caprice crossed a line, and I made sure she understood the consequences.
Smile petty and vicious, she stepped closer. “I give it another six months, a year if you’re lucky.”
“What are you talking about now?” I asked, bored and annoyed already. With her, I could never tell if she was talking to me or having a conversation with herself.
“You and Sixx,” she said, her gaze going to where Sixx and his mom were now standing with the growing crowd gathering around to watch who caught the bouquet of white roses. “Everything might seem okay at the moment, but he’ll eventually realize what a slut you really are.”
It wasn’t the first time she’d spouted random shit like that. “You’re delusional.”
“You played the victim really well, by the way. Oscar-worthy, truly. I mean, fucking around with your teacher. Big props for that. I met Gaviria a few times at some of Evan’s after parties. He’s hot. And damn, but he is incredibly talented with his tongue.”
Bile rose into the back of my throat.
Had Caprice hooked up with that disgusting bastard?
From the way her eyes glittered, her unhinged jealousy mixed with shades of smugness that turned my stomach, I realized that, yes, she most likely had.
Even with how much I disliked my cousin—hated her at times—I didn’t want to think that Gaviria had put his hands on her.
She was older than me, had only recently turned seventeen.
Given that Gaviria had only been twenty-two, it wasn’t a gross age gap.
Hell, Aunt Lucy had dated Uncle Harris when she was seventeen, and they had practically the same age gap as Caprice and Gaviria.
Ah fuck, had Evan known about them? Everything began to click into place.
She’d just mentioned parties, and Evan had admitted to Bentley and me that Gaviria would attend the ones with the basketball team.
A quick replay of Bentley confronting Evan about it flashed through my mind.
His silence when Bentley had asked about Gaviria having sex with girls at those parties had answered him loud and clear.
Now I was wondering how much of his silence had been to protect Caprice.
A dizzying wave of rage and hurt slammed into me. So Evan could protect Caprice from her brother, but he couldn’t protect me from Gaviria. That hit harder than I thought was possible. After everything else, I’d thought I was indifferent where my ex-friend was concerned.
Really, it was just numbness so I could hide away from the festering fury and pain that still lived deep inside me.
At my silence, Caprice smirked, probably thinking she had me backed into a corner.
“But if I’d been in your shoes, I never would have looked twice at Gaviria.
How could you do that, Ali? You have an amazing boyfriend, and you actually cheated on him for months.
And then when you finally got caught, you pretended that nothing had happened. Pathetic.”
All the air froze in my lungs, my blood turning to ice. “Who told you I cheated?”
“It may have worked for now, but I promise you, I’ll convince Sixx that you cheated,” she said instead of answering me, her smugness growing. “I’m going to prove to him what a dirty whore you really are.”
I grabbed her arm and pulled her in closer. “Evan told you I cheated with Gaviria?”
“You’re not even trying to deny it. Just wait. I’ll make Sixx see the real you. Little Miss Perfect spread her legs for her teacher—”
“You don’t know anything!” I hissed, any concern I’d had for her only moments before evaporating. Her body, her choice, regardless of anything else. “Whatever story you’ve made up in your head never happened.”
“So Evan didn’t catch you in the girls’ locker room with your teacher?” My head snapped back as if she’d physically struck me.
“When did he tell you?” I asked between clenched teeth.
“The day he had his own blinders ripped off about you. He finally saw the version of you I’ve always been aware of,” she sneered. “One less fanboy chasing after you. Now I just need to get Sixx to understand that you’ve been manipulating him.”
Before I could say another word, Hayat joined the group. Putting herself between us, she placed one arm around me and stiff-armed Caprice.
A ringing started in my ears, drowning out everything else around me. I’d truly thought Evan couldn’t possibly hurt me more than he had. We hadn’t spoken during the past week.
No, that was wrong. He’d tried to talk to me, and I’d ignored him.
All his texts, his calls, went unanswered.
Every morning, I would leave for school early, walking instead of riding with him like normal, then asking Moira or Kyla for a ride home after.
I’d zoned him out whenever we were in the same room.
He’d sat at the same cafeteria table that we always occupied with our friends.
Hell, he’d been right beside me at the rehearsal dinner the night before, and I hadn’t said a single word to him.
Fucking Evan.
Had he really told Caprice that I was sleeping with Gaviria?
I wanted to say no, but the truth was, I believed my cousin this time.
How else would she know anything regarding my teacher and me?
Bentley wouldn’t have said a word to his sister about what happened.
He’d promised me he would never speak about it to anyone, and I trusted him with my life.
“One. Two. Three!” Abi yelled. Realizing she was throwing the bouquet, I didn’t have time to react, but Hayat had the reflexes of a cat. With a yelp, she ducked, taking me with her.
As we shifted out of the way, all I saw were legs.
Grier and Love Bug dancing around, then Emerson.
All I could see was the lower half of their bodies as they tripped Caprice, who whined in that annoying, high-pitched way of hers, stumbling over the younger girls.
My cousin landed on her ass with a loud thump, her signature pout in place as she screeched loud enough to break glass.
With delighted giggles, Emerson skipped off with Grier and Love Bug. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. A full belly, tear-inducing laugh that allowed me to forget about Evan and Gaviria—gag. Caprice shrieked again, causing Hayat to put more distance between us and her.
As soon as Hayat released me, all my amusement at Caprice falling on her ass evaporated, and I was moving. It wasn’t hard to find Evan in the crowd. He was the tallest person in the room, his curls pushed back from his face with a zigzag headband, dressed in a simple black suit.
Seething, I stormed toward him, unleashing the anger that had been rotting inside me since that day in the locker room. Rage was so much easier to stomach than the utter devastation of betrayal.
“Oh shit,” I heard a deep voice say as I neared my target. Damien and Mason Stevenson stood on either side of Evan. Seeing me coming, they smartly took several steps back. “That can’t be good.”
If I could have reached Evan’s handsome face, I would have punched him. Lucky for him, he was over a foot taller than me. Grabbing a fistful of his shirt, I didn’t pause as I stomped out of the ballroom, dragging Evan with me.
“Ali, what—”
“Don’t speak,” I snarled, pushing a door open and stepping out into a vacant corridor.
Showing he had a few working brain cells, he shut his mouth while I looked for a private place.
Security was everywhere, primarily to keep Vaughn’s dad from wandering off, but if the media found out about my sister’s wedding, they would try to sneak into the reception to take pictures.
No way was I going to risk someone overhearing this conversation, not either of our parents or a member of the paparazzi trying to cash in on a juicy story. I was pissed off, not stupid.
Finally, I found a small conference room with a long table taking up most of the space and office chairs surrounding it. Dragging Evan inside, I waited for the click of the door, using that time to generate a small semblance of calm so I didn’t kill my ex-friend with my bare hands.
“You told Caprice.” It was a statement made between my teeth, not a question, because I knew before regret flashed over his face that he had. “You told Caprice that I had sex with a teacher.”
His throat bobbed. “In my defense—”
“There is no defense!” I shouted. “You have none, Evan. There is no excuse.”
“I was still processing,” he continued, his voice taking on a higher-than-normal tone in his panic. “It was before I even talked to Sixx about it. I’d gotten off the phone with Bentley, and I needed to vent.”
“And you decided that the girl who hates my guts was the perfect person to do that to? Why, because you needed to have validation?” His gaze lowered to the floor, his shoulders hunching inward. “You’re a fucking prick.”
“I’m sorry.”
Over the past week, I’d felt so much better.
I was eating, sleeping, not getting that pit in my stomach every time my phone sounded with an alert.
I had no lingering fear of what could happen if my parents ever found out about the whole Gaviria/warehouse thing.
Despite how busy I’d been getting ready for my Bio I final, along with all my other classes, I’d been more relaxed than usual with the end of school year activities.
Yet there had been a small niggle of something that had tried to creep in. And as I stood there looking up at the boy I once considered my brother, I realized it was grief. Our friendship had died.
“You’re not who I thought you were, Evan. God, when did you turn into this unrecognizable person? At what point did the sweet boy I always thought would have my back morph into such a piece of shit?” He flinched. “Answer me!”
“I don’t know,” he whispered.
“Gaviria could have raped me, and you still would have said I wanted it, right?”
“No!” he shouted, practically strangling on his emotions. Face flushing, he took a step toward me, but I lifted my hands, silently commanding him not to come closer. “No, Ali. No. If nothing else, please believe me.”
“You accused me of sneaking around with him. Of hooking up with my teacher. After hearing what Gaviria said to me, you thought I was cheating on Sixx.” Tears blinded me, the memory flooding back in.
“I was on my knees, in a puddle of my own puke, crying for help, and your first thought was that I was fucking him.”
“Ali…” A few tears rolled down his face.
“And you couldn’t wait to tell Sixx. Even though I begged you not to, you were itching to condemn me to him.”
“I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“Bullshit! You knew Gaviria. Fuck, you were even aware that he was associated with the PCC, and you still rushed to condemn me. God damn it, Evan. He went to high school parties and hooked up with underage girls. And you thought that was okay.” That didn’t matter to me any longer, not if what I suspected happened at those parties was true.
Evan had been covering for Caprice. Right or wrong, he could figure that out on his own.
Scrubbing angrily at my own tears, I whispered the one question I needed answered. “Why didn’t you help me?”
“I can give you a dozen different excuses, Ali, but the truth is, I don’t know.
I made really shitty decisions that day.
God, I wish I could hit rewind and change—” Breaking off, he swallowed hard.
“A lot of things. But I can’t. No matter what I say or how hard I try to atone for the mistakes I made, you’re never going to forgive me. Are you?”
A lump filled my throat, choking off my ability to breathe for a moment, because he was right. “No.”
He flinched but nodded. “I deserve that.”
“It’s not about what you deserve. I’ve made really bad choices lately too. We both messed up abysmally. It’s about trust and respect, and I have neither left for you.”
“Ali.” He gulped. His hands fisted at his sides, and I watched the emotions play over his face. Panic turned into acceptance, then came the grief that matched my own. He wanted to say more and even opened his mouth to speak, but he snapped it closed when the words wouldn’t come.
Watching him struggle, I admitted to myself that if there were a rewind button we could push, I’d make many changes too.
But a different past made for a different future, and as much as I hurt right then, I was also happier than I’d been in a long time.
And before the whole Gaviria situation had started, I’d been pretty damn happy.
Which proved to me what I’d known all along.
I didn’t need Evan in any shape or form.
Not as a friend, not as a brother, not even as an acquaintance.
Did I still love him like family? Yes. Need him to survive?
No. Ending our friendship was for my own mental health—and his, too, if he was honest with himself about it.
I would hold a grudge about the locker-room incident and all the other information I’d discovered about him since then.
It would make me not only petty, but toxic.
Resentment would fester and infect us both, which could end in any number of disasters. Perhaps not today or tomorrow or even next year. But it would grow until one of us snapped, and the destruction would be messy for everyone around us.
“I am so sorry, Ali,” he said with sincerity.
“Me too.” I echoed his regret.