1. Aurora #2
“Come on, Ro, let’s see if you’ve still got it,” Griffin taunts, chalking his cue across the table from me, while letting his stare drink me in, and I have no choice but to do the same.
Griffin Blake is gorgeous, he always has been, but right now he isn’t just gorgeous, he’s dangerous too, just like he enjoys.
He’s standing there in his loose-fitting white shirt and blue jeans that are effortlessly styled, yet still look perfect, as if he knows he’s owned my heart for fucking years and doesn’t care who knows it.
“We both know I have,” I toss back, offering Harden one last weak and empty smile, before I move to grab a cue and join Griffin at the table.
He breaks first, potting two balls one after the other, but when he lines up his next shot, I step into his sight and he falters, sending the ball wide. I pot four balls in a row after that, before my luck runs out, finishing off the bottle of vodka in my hand and feeling bolder for it.
“Fuck sake, I forgot how good you are,” Griff grumbles, as we play back and forth, soon gathering a bit of an audience, one that includes his fan girls from upstairs earlier, until I eventually win, and he moves to set up another game.
Best of three, just like always.
“I always was good at playing your games, Griff, I guess you forgot.” I ensure my smile is completely sardonic, and he watches me with a weighted stare, as if he wants to say something, but as usual his loyalty to my brother wins out.
As if my mind conjured him, Everest appears at the top of the stairs, like a king hoarding over his court, and suddenly I’m grateful for the alcohol now coursing through my veins.
His shirt is open, revealing his muscular and newly-tattooed torso, and his pants are still unbuckled, as he stumbles into the basement with a joint hanging from his mouth.
He doesn’t notice me, not at first, which given there are still two scantily dressed girls hanging off him, I can’t say I’m surprised.
Griffin hollers his name, pulling his attention toward us, and Harden silently moves to take up space directly behind me, as the third of their trio finally notices me.
Everest’s glossy, ocean eyes widen in surprise as he takes me in, inhaling deeply on his joint, before pulling it from his mouth, as his surprise turns to anger.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he spits, and I almost smile at the familiarity of his hostility, it’s all I know these days after all, but instead I line up to break the balls of the new game Griff set for us.
“Playing with your boys, what does it look like?” I reply sweetly with a shrug, as one of the balls lands in the corner pocket, and I swear I can feel his jaw grinding from here, as I ignore the anger rolling off him, and move to line up for my next shot.
Just like I knew he would, he storms toward me and rips me away from the table by my arm, spinning me so I am forced to look at him.
“I’m serious, you shouldn’t fucking be here,” he spits beneath his breath, his touch both painful and branding, and I can feel both Harden and Griffin watching our every move.
“Yeah, well, you stopped answering my calls,” I fire back, and watch as his stare softens, and just for a second he’s my Everest again, the one who chased away my nightmares and cleaned up my bloody knees, but then just as fast as he appeared, he’s gone again.
“I’m your brother, Aurora, not your boyfriend, I don’t have to return every fucking text or call,” he curses, releasing me as if I’ve burned him, and my eyes can’t help but track down his half naked torso, as the two girls he was clearly fucking start moving in closer to us.
“Please, like you know what it requires to be someone’s fucking boyfriend,” I toss back, clinging to some of my alcohol-fueled bravado and pretending I don’t feel one of the girls glaring at me in contempt.
“Oh yeah? Because I was managing pretty fine upstairs,” he exclaims, and I swallow thickly at the thought of him with anyone, let alone the two beautiful girls who have almost reached us.
“Fine? Is that what we’re calling thirty-seconds of fun with Monroe the hoe these days?” I question, and the meaner looking one of the girls stomps between us.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” she screeches, and I sigh, more than used to petty female drama between both my brothers over the years.
“It’s fine, Holly, it’s just my sister,” Everest replies without even looking her way, and the words sting more than they should.
Just my sister. Just.
“Yeah, well, sister or not, watch your fucking mouth,” she warns, and I almost laugh, especially when she curls her arm around him, but he pushes her off with a shove.
“Get the fuck off me and get out of my house,” he fires back, and I shake my head at his fucking bullshit.
Of course, he can talk to me like shit, but no one else can.
Well, fuck him and his double standards.
I move to push past them, as the girl begins to argue with him, but he ignores her completely and follows me to the other side of the table where Griffin is, with Harden trailing not too far behind me.
“What the fuck do you want, Rora? Why are you here?” he asks, as I pot another ball, and when I rise back to my full height, which is still inches smaller than his six foot three inch frame, I find him desperately searching my stare in annoyance, and something else I can’t quite place.
I take a step toward him, knowing the other two can hear me too, and say what I have been waiting to say for fucking months now.
“I want to know what happened,” I state blandly, watching him carefully for any of his tells, but he doesn’t even flinch.
“With what?” he questions boredly, but I can tell from the tense set of his shoulders that he knows exactly why I’m here.
“With you, with them, with us,” I reply, gesturing between him and his best friends.
“Why don’t you answer when I call? Why don’t you come home?
Why have you been acting like I don’t fucking exist?
” I rush my words out, swallowing the cry that threatens to rip from my throat, but I know he still hears the emotion in my voice, they all do.
Silence lingers at my questions, and for a second I almost think I may have gotten through to him, but then he pulls back and sneers, “Why do you even care? It’s not like we’re even real siblings,” he shrugs, and his words hit me like a fucking sledgehammer.
Not once have I ever thought of him as any less than a real brother, and I know that’s fucked up given my feelings, but hearing him say it like that threatens to shatter my heart.
My hand slaps his cheek so hard it forces his head to the side, and when he moves back to meet my stare, I see surprise in his, so much so that I don’t care that he sees the tears now shining in mine.
“Fuck you, Everest. Fuck. You.” My heart is now pounding in my chest, but he doesn’t respond, just lifts his stare over my shoulder.
“Take her home, Griff,” he commands, and like the fucking lapdog he is, Griffin grips my elbow gently, attempting to guide me away.
“Maybe it is best to leave now, Ro, you’ve had a lot to drink,” he starts, and I spin around and shove him away from me again.
“Fuck you too, Griffin,” I laugh humorlessly, shaking my head in disappointment, and then I storm from the basement leaving them all behind.
It isn’t long before Harden catches up to me in the dark, as I stumble back across campus to my dorm, and just as I expected, he doesn’t say a word.
The silence between us now is bitter, not like it used to be, and it makes me hate him almost as much as I love him.
We don’t say anything, not as he follows me back to my room and not as he pushes inside it before I can close the door, and I want to scream at him.
Beg for him to say something, anything, but what’s the point.
His invisible scars run deep and even I can’t change that, no matter how hard I try.
Kicking off my shoes, I struggle with the back of my dress before giving up and dropping onto my bed with a sad sigh, ignoring him completely.
The last thing I remember before I fall asleep is warm, rough hands sliding down my zipper.