Chapter 22
Ella
“I asked him to give me a tour of the house,” I say to Parker, hoping he’ll believe it.
I don’t want Parker and Finn finding out about Briggs and me, not that there’s anything to find out.
We were just... I don’t know what we were doing, but I still don’t want Parker and Finn knowing about it.
Briggs better not tell them. If he does, I’ll kill him.
I’m still trying to believe it happened. I let Briggs kiss me and touch me in a way only one other guy has ever done.
When it comes to guys, I’m a little inexperienced, or some would say more than a little.
I have even less experience than Charlotte, which you would never guess because she’s so shy around guys.
But last summer she went to music camp and hooked up with a trumpet player.
She showed me his photo. He wasn’t my type, but he was okay looking.
Charlotte said he was a gentle lover — her words, not mine — and that he was just what she wanted for her first time.
I never imagined what I wanted for my first time.
I assumed it wouldn’t happen until college, which I’m sure it won’t since I hate all the guys at my school.
The guy I was referring to — the only other guy who got to third base with me — was Jax, the gym rat with the great body.
We were making out in his room and I let things get farther than I’d planned because I was tired of being so innocent.
I was even prepared to have sex with him that night, but seconds after his hand went up my skirt, I quickly changed my mind.
The way he touched me was so bad. He poked and prodded and had no idea what he was doing.
I decided then that sex could wait until college, where hopefully guys would have learned some things.
But Briggs just proved that some guys have already learned — and perfected — these skills while still in high school.
I wasn’t going to let Briggs get even close to that part of my body, but when his hand landed on my thigh, I was flooded with feelings that were too good to stop.
So I let him keep going, and when his fingers slipped under my panties, I almost came.
If I had, he’d know how inexperienced I am, which would’ve given him just another thing to make fun of me for.
Wanting to avoid that, I was about to pull away, but then he slid his fingers inside me, and I couldn’t do it.
I wanted more. I could feel it building and didn’t think I could stop it until I heard Parker yelling from downstairs.
If only he’d waited a few seconds, I would’ve had my first orgasm, at least one brought on by a guy. I’ve had plenty I’ve given myself, but that’s different. This one would’ve been better. It didn’t even happen, but I could tell.
“You gave her a tour of your room?” Parker says to Briggs. “With the door closed?”
Parker knows something was going on, and he seems angry. Why would he care? Because of Aubrey? Shit, I wasn’t even thinking about her. Briggs keeps saying he’s breaking up with her, but as far as I know, he’s still dating her.
“I was showing her the house,” Briggs says in an angry tone. “Now get your ass downstairs so we can get this over with.”
Parker looks at me a moment before going back down the hall.
I meet Briggs at the door. “He knows.”
“He doesn’t know shit.” Briggs’ phone dings and he looks down at it. He mutters something, then shoves his phone in his pocket.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Let’s go.”
We go out in the hall, and he shuts the door, then leans down to my ear and says in a low voice, “Stay here after they leave. We need to talk.”
I’m wondering if he really wants to talk or if he’s hoping to continue what we started in his bedroom. I can’t do that if he’s still with Aubrey. Even if he was single, I shouldn’t be doing anything with him, so why do I want to? Why am I already craving to feel his hands on me again?
“Finn, get your ass out here!” Briggs yells at Parker, and I take a seat on the couch.
“Where’s your dad’s scotch?” Finn yells back.
“You’re not drinking! Now get your ass in the living room! We’re all waiting.”
Moments later, Finn appears, a bottle of water in his hand.
“Give me that!” Briggs yanks the bottle from him.
“It’s just water, asshole.” Finn plops down in the middle of the long couch. Parker and I are on the ends.
Briggs smells whatever’s in the bottle, then takes a drink before handing it back to Finn.
“Like I want it now,” Finn says, setting it on the table.
“Let’s start with an update,” Briggs says, remaining standing as he looks at the three of us. “Anyone have anything?”
“The guy’s still in ICU,” Parker says. “I heard it on the radio on the way here.”
“Did they say anything else?” Briggs asks.
“They still don’t know who he is. I’m guessing he’s some homeless guy. He was probably drunk or high and got confused and ended up on that road.”
Briggs eyes go to me. “What about you? Any updates?”
“Just what I told you about what I saw when I went to get my truck.”
Parker turns to me. “What’d you see?”
“Flowers and a sign were left where it happened.”
“What’d the sign say?” Parker asks.
“Something about repenting your sins. It was a bible verse. I can’t remember exactly what it said.”
“You should’ve taken a picture,” Finn says.
“I couldn’t. My dad was with me.”
“That sign was for us.” Parker shakes his head. “People think we left him there to die.”
“They don’t know it was us,” Briggs says. “And we didn’t leave him there to die. We called for help.”
“Can we hurry this up?” Finn says, swiping through his phone. “I have shit to do. I don’t want to sit here all night.”
Parker shoves his shoulder. “You don’t have anything to do. You just want to go home and smoke weed.”
Finn smiles. “And drink.”
“You do that and you’re gonna fuck up the call with the insurance guy,” Briggs says.
“You need to lay off the booze and the weed until you’re done talking to him.
One screwup and the insurance company will start investigating what really happened.
Then they’ll tell the police and the four of us will become suspects. ”
We all look at Finn, who’s messing with his phone.
“Yeah, whatever, I’ll stay off it, but it’s not gonna make a difference. Just tell me what to say so I can get out of here.”
“I think you should stick with the original story,” Parker says. “They can’t prove it’s not true.”
“They can if they look at the cameras,” I say. “Most parking garages have cameras. The insurance could ask to see the recording from that night.”
“Which will prove that Finn lied,” Briggs says. “I wasn’t even thinking about that. We never should’ve used that story.”
Finn leans back on the couch, looking bored. “So what do I tell him?”
“Just tell him you were looking at your phone and hit a light pole,” Briggs says. “Tell him you don’t remember where it was because you didn’t pull over. You didn’t think it did any damage.”
“What about the rest of you?” Finn says. “I hit a pole and none of you told me to stop?”
“You told him we were with you when this happened?” Briggs asks.
“Yeah. Why?”
Briggs lets out a sigh and rubs his jaw, clearly frustrated and wanting to scream at Finn for screwing up. We all want to scream at him, but it wouldn’t do any good. The damage is done.
“Great,” Parker says, sounding annoyed. “Now we’re all part of this.”
I turn to Finn. “Why’d you tell him we were with you?”
“Because you were.” Finn rolls his eyes. “Duh. Why would I lie about that? The cop saw us together.”
“But he doesn’t know we were with you when you damaged the car,” Briggs explains. “Nobody needed to know that. The whole story was made-up. You could’ve lied and said you were alone.”
“Oh, so it’s okay if I get arrested while the rest of you get to go on with your lives?” Finn stands up. “This is bullshit. I’m leaving.”
Briggs grabs him as he goes past and yanks him in front of him.
“The fewer of us who are involved, the better. When you include us, there’s a chance they’ll question us, and if just one of us misses a detail or says something that goes against what the other person said, we’re all screwed.
” He lets go of Finn. “That’s why we’re pissed you said we were with you.
It’s not because we want you to take the blame. ”
“Even though you should since you were driving,” Parker mutters.
Finn races up to Parker. “Shut the fuck up! You were sitting right next to me. You could’ve told me a guy was standing in the road.” He lunges at Parker, but Briggs grabs him, holding him back.
“This was a waste of time,” Briggs says. “All we’re doing is fighting. Finn, just go home. We’ll talk later.”
Finn glares at Parker, who’s ignoring him as he swipes through his phone.
Briggs lets go of Finn. “Everyone out. Meeting’s over.”
Finn storms out of the room while Parker and I get up from the couch.
“That was an epic failure,” Parker says, going up to Briggs and patting his shoulder. “Great job, man. Can’t wait for the next one.”
“Fuck off,” Briggs says. “You want to be the one to deal with Finn? Be my guest. You can beat each other up until you come to a decision.”
Parker ignores him and turns back to me. “You coming? I’ll walk out with you.”
“Um, thanks, but I have to talk to Briggs about our assignment.”
He smirks. “Yeah, I’m sure you do. You know he’s still with Aubrey, right?” He glances at Briggs. “You might want to call her. Otherwise you might end up single like me.”
We wait for him to leave, and when I hear the door close, I walk up to Briggs. “He broke up with Scarlett?”
“She cheated on him. I think she’s done it before but I didn’t tell him because he’d never believe me.”
“But you’re still with Aubrey,” I say, just to confirm it.
“For now, but I don’t know if it’ll last. I’d like to just end it.”
“Then why don’t you?”
“Because I don’t want her to suspect anything. After the accident, I stopped taking her out and I really haven’t talked to her much. She knows something’s going on and she’ll be even more suspicious if I suddenly break up with her.”
He’s staying with her, which means I definitely shouldn’t have been fooling around with him. Why did I do that? How could I be so stupid?
“Okay, well, I’ll see you on Monday.” I go past him, walking fast toward the door, wanting to get out of here.
“Ella, wait!” I hear him behind me, then feel his hand on my arm. “Don’t go.”
I turn to him. “We shouldn’t have done it. You have a girlfriend. You should be with her right now, not me.”
“And yet she’s not the person I want to be with.”
My heart’s pounding, wanting to continue what we were doing upstairs, my body screaming for me to do it, but my head won’t let me.
“I don’t like Aubrey,” I say, “but I’m not going to do this to her. You need to end things with her before we even think about repeating what we did upstairs.”
“We don’t have to do that. I just...” He looks down, rubbing his jaw. “I don’t want to be here.”
“Then go somewhere. Go get something to eat. Take a drive.”
“That’s not what I meant.” He looks up at me. “I meant I don’t want to be—” He stops and shakes his head. “Never mind. Go ahead and go. See you on Monday.” He turns and walks away.
What was he going to say? That he doesn’t want to be alone? Is that what he meant? He looked really sad when he said it. I’ve never seen him look sad.
Maybe I should stay. But what if it’s all an act to get me to continue what we started in his room? Maybe he thinks I’ll have sex with him.
I should go. I shouldn’t be alone with him.
Just a few weeks ago, he was practically assaulting me behind the school.
Being alone with him in his house, anything could happen.
But I don’t think it would, and I don’t feel afraid.
Something’s changed with Briggs. Like he said, there’s been a shift in our relationship.
I don’t fear him as I did before. Well, I kind of do, but it’s nothing like I felt before.
Now my fear of him is based on the feelings he’s causing me to have — feelings I don’t want to have for Briggs.
There’s noise coming from the kitchen. Briggs must be in there making dinner. And then he’ll eat it, all alone, in this big, lonely house.
I shouldn’t do this, and yet my feet are walking down the hall that leads to the kitchen. I open the door and see Briggs, his back to me. He’s standing over the sink, gripping the counter, his head hanging down. Behind him on the center island is a plate and the containers of leftover Chinese food.
“Have enough for two?” I ask, coming up beside him.
He rears back. “What are you doing here? I thought you left.”
“I was going to, but then I had this craving for Chinese food and I remembered you had some left over. Any chance you’d share?”
A slight smile creeps up his face, but sadness still clouds his eyes. “Sure.” He points to the containers. “Take whatever you want.”
“Where do you keep the plates?” I ask, opening a cupboard. “Found one.” I take it out and dish some of the food on my plate, putting the rest on Briggs’ plate. “You want it heated up?”
“Yeah, but I can do it.”
“I don’t mind. It’ll give me a chance to try out your fancy microwave.” I walk over to it. “I’ve never seen one like this. It looks like a regular oven.”
“Because it is. That’s a wall oven. The microwave is down there.” He points to it in the island. “I’ll get the plates.”
I’m not really hungry, but I could have a few bites.
Even if I just stay for an hour, maybe it’ll be long enough to wipe that sad look off Briggs’ face.
Why do I even care? He’s made me sad plenty of times and not given a damn.
I’m not even the cause of his sadness, and here I am trying to make him feel better.
Why am I doing this? I should just leave.
“Thanks,” Briggs says, putting my plate in the microwave. “For sticking around.”
“Sure.” I look at him and wonder why he asked me to stay but not Parker or Finn.
I hope he’s not planning to do something to me.
I don’t get the feeling he is, but the Briggs I know can’t be trusted.
The only reason I’m staying is because this isn’t the Briggs I know.
The one from last night wasn’t either. He was actually nice to me last night.
He was fun, easy to talk to, and a good listener.
I hope that’s the Briggs that’s here with me tonight.
If not, deciding to stay was a huge mistake.