Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
ariana
“Get in the car.”
I cross my arms in front of my chest and glare up at my brother.
The world is spinning and he has four eyes, but his head is still giant enough for me to focus on.
I blame the bride for this. She was ordering tequila shots like there was about to be a shortage, and she and Avery kept the eighties rock music coming, which made us all want to drink like those old rock stars used to.
I’m drunk.
“I’m not leaving you here.”
Carter sighs, dragging his hand over his face. “We’re getting you girls home first. I’ll meet you at the condo, alright?”
“Your friends left.” He thinks I didn’t notice, but as he was ordering the ride, and as we walked outside, I counted.
There were five girls left after Declan had to bring Penny home when she pulled her neck.
Avery decided to stay later with Tiffany and Lauren, promising Seth she’d get back safe.
There isn’t enough room for my brother in this car, and I don’t leave him behind. Ever.
“We can wait for another,” Tiffany suggests from inside the car.
“No,” Carter and I say at the same time, and I offer a gentle smile to her as I turn back to my brother. “I’ll wait here with you.”
“I can wait with him,” Arden volunteers, bracing her hands on the headrest of the passenger’s seat.
“Stay in the car,” Carter orders, holding out his hand before she can climb out. He looks back at me. “My god, Ari. I’m a big boy. Get in.”
“I don’t want to leave y—”
“I’ll get him home. Don’t worry.”
I whirl around, knowing that voice by memory, despite spending very little time with it. Boston nods as he approaches, his eyes sliding from me to my brother.
“Saltzy’s swinging back around to grab us. We have a ride. You guys take this one.”
I narrow my eyes. “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you, Boston Black?”
Boston smirks. I quite like that expression on his face. “Wouldn’t dare.”
“Because that’s not a good foot to start a relationship on,” I add, risking a step toward him.
His smile widens, but I’m forbidden from getting as close as I’d like to.
Carter’s hand is around my arm in seconds, hauling me back toward the car and away from my future husband.
I swat at my brother’s hands as Boston pops his bubblegum. “God, you’re such a cock block.”
Carter’s eyes darken. He’s sick of my shit. My drunk shit is even worse than my sober shit.
He leans down until we’re eye level. “I love you to death, Ari, but if you don’t cut this shit out, I’ll literally send you back home to Mom and Dad in a straitjacket. Stop making my teammates uncomfortable.”
Teammate. Singular. Thank you.
“Fine,” I murmur. I glance over my shoulder to meet Boston’s awaiting stare, surprised to find him calm, cool, and collected. He’s unshakeable, this one. I hate it. He cocks a brow the longer I stare at him. “Get him home safe, Boston Black, or you’ll deal with me.”
Boston laughs, deep and hearty. “You got it, Ari. Cross my heart.”
“Don’t hope to die, though,” I say, crawling into the last seat of the rideshare next to Arden. I meet his green eyes, a smile pulling on my mouth when his face remains completely indifferent. “You’re far too pretty to die so soo—”
Carter slams the door in my face before I finish my sentence. He runs his hand over his face again, refusing to even glance back inside the vehicle at me.
So dramatic.
A little flirting has never hurt anyone, and he should know that. He flirts with the entire female population without meaning to.
Arden is chuckling at my antics, leaning against me to hide her face so that my brother doesn’t see how amusing she finds me. Carter never glances back, but when I peer out of the window as we pull from the curb, Boston does.
And when our eyes meet, he smiles.
When we get home, Arden orders a shit ton of chicken nuggets, and we down bottles of water before Carter finally enters his condo in one piece.
Both of us relax, knowing he’s out of trouble and safe.
It’s one of the many stressors that come with loving my brother.
The worry. You never know what you’re going to get with him, and sometimes, it’s a call to let you know that he’s been arrested. Again.
He saunters into the kitchen, takes one look at the island full of nuggets, and breathes a little laugh.
Arden smiles innocently, sliding one of the boxes toward him like a bribe. He says nothing, just scoops one up, dips it in her ketchup, and glances at me as he tosses it into his mouth.
“We going to talk about it?”
Nope.
I take a sip of water and dip a nugget into my packet of plum sauce. “Talk about what?”
He lets out a breath, pulling a stool around to the other side of the island.
He falls onto it and leans forward, crossing his arms on top of the counter.
When I finally meet his eyes again, biting into my chicken, my brother looks wholly unimpressed and thoroughly exhausted after only enduring a few short hours in my presence.
“What happened, Ari?”
Arden stays quiet, drenching her nugget in a disgusting amount of ketchup.
“Can we just…not discuss it tonight?” I ask quietly, bringing my knee to my chest.
“Nope,” he counters, snatching a fry off Arden’s plate and popping it into his mouth. “Are you in trouble?”
“No,” I confirm, and I’m not. Not in the way he thinks, anyway. I know what he expects in these situations. It’s always about the shitty guys I date. Never about my job or school. My career is the one thing I don’t fuck with. “But I did get fired.”
He nods slowly, because he already knows that. My mother is a stinky, squeaking rat. “What happened?”
“It’s nothing,” I mutter, but that one is a lie.
It was something. It was awful, and it hurt, but I know my brother and I know how angry he gets.
I don’t want to keep bringing stress into his life.
I don’t want to be the reason he keeps getting in trouble.
He worries about me enough. “I’ll survive. ”
“What are you going to do?” he asks.
“I’m going to visit my brother,” I tell him, wrapping my arms around my knee. I meet his eyes, the colour of them identical to my own. “Is that okay with you?”
He swallows and leans back, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He stares at me, considering what I’ve offered him. It’s not much. That’s what’s pissing him off. I’m holding back. I’m lying.
Those eyes, my eyes, stare right into my head and through to my heart. He reads me easily and I hate it. All of these pretty facades I put on, the energy I exude to protect the worst parts of myself, he can see the construction tape and hot glue I used to put them there.
“You can stay as long as you want,” he says. “You know that.”
“Don’t you need to discuss it with your live-in girlfriend before you make such a bold statement?”
Arden opens her mouth, but Carter speaks before she gets a chance. “I don’t need to. I know the woman I fell in love with. You okay with it, Red?”
He glances at her, but her dark eyes are locked on me.
“As long as you want,” she says, reciting his declaration from moments ago. “You know that.”
Carter smiles, reaching over to slap his hand onto her thigh and shake her gently. She agrees, in case I don’t believe her, but of course I do. My brother would never choose a girlfriend who would leave me out to dry. I have to be important to her, too. That’s always been a thing with him.
I rest my chin on my knee. I’m grateful for them.
For him, because he’s always been the other half of my soul.
Since the moment I was born, he’s been the only person on this planet who has taken the time to understand me.
He sees me for who I am, not who I pretend to be.
And her? For loving him as much as he deserves to be loved.
I don’t know how long I’ll be here, but I know I have no interest in going back home right now.
I’m the laughing stock in my field. At my firm.
I went through all that schooling, worked from the worst positions to the best, only to become a joke in a matter of months.
Nothing has ever hurt my pride worse. Nothing has ever shaken me the way this has.
I lost everything before I ever really got to enjoy it.
I can’t go back to California. I’m not even sure if I can go back to interior design. I’m embarrassed of my name, of what now stains my reputation. While Carter’s legacy is legendary, mine has taken a turn for the worse. It’s my nightmare, coming true.
All I’ve ever wanted was to be someone.
“Ari.”
I look up from the island to my brother’s face. His jaw pulses, hand still draped over Arden’s leg.
“You would tell me if you were in trouble, right?”
I swallow, but force a smile. One that he’ll probably see right through, anyway. I’m not in trouble, I’m just in turmoil. There’s a difference between those two things.
“Of course, I would.”
He doesn’t believe me. I can tell. But I don’t care.
I’ve given him enough. I want him to be proud of me.
He is already disappointed in all the men I date, in how I bring home the worst of the worst with a smile, demanding that he treat them nicely.
The one thing I have always been is successful, and he’s always been proud of that.
He kept my college graduation pamphlet tacked to his fridge for years, only removing it when I started my Master’s. It’s in my room upstairs now, in a frame. He lives to be my biggest cheerleader. Tells everyone I’m the smart one. That I’m the toughest Forkerro.
Now, I’m none of those things.
I reach for a nugget, dunking it in plum sauce, and go back to avoiding his eyes.
Because my brother always sees me, and for once, I don’t want him to.