Chapter 5
Chapter Five
River
Four Years Earlier
She looks stunning. Fucking stunning.
How am I supposed to let her walk out that door? Walk into the arms of another man, a man who will definitely be planning to fuck her at the end of the night. It’s Prom; it’s a given that the guy gets laid at the end of it, and her dick of a boyfriend will expect nothing less.
I need to do something. I can’t have her lose her virginity to him. My gut clenches at the thought of her losing it to anyone but me. She will, of course it’s not something I get to have, but it’s not something he gets either.
I run up to my room — the room I rarely use — looking for ideas, for anything I can use to stop him.
Raiding my bathroom cabinet, I see it.
EXLAX.
Christ, can I actually do this to her? Yes, I have to. He doesn’t get her, and I’ve got no other ideas.
I make my way back downstairs and head to the bar in the corner of the main living room, mixing her a mocktail, her favorite one, and crushing up some tablets into her drink. I mix the rest of us a martini and carry them over to where my mom and her dad are currently having her pose for pictures.
“A toast,” I say as I hand out the drinks. I hand Ava her glass and she eyes me curiously.
I’m sorry, pipsqueak, but I have to.
***
“What is it, darling?” My stepdad answers his cell phone just as the movie we’re watching nears the end. “Calm down, Ava. It’s okay, I’m on my way.”
“What’s wrong?” Mom and I ask at the same time.
“Ava’s not well and she needs to come home. She’s asked me to get her.”
“Oh no.” My mom gasps. “Not at her Prom. She must be so upset.”
“Yeah, she didn’t sound good.” He runs his hand down his face in agitation.
“Let me go, you’ve had too much to drink to be able to drive, anyway, Richard.”
He and my mom have had a bottle between them throughout the night, not to mention the cocktail I mixed at the beginning of the night. The cocktail I didn’t drink for this sole reason.
“Shit, you’re right. You sure?”
“Of course. We’re family.”
Do I feel like shit? You’re damn right I do. Would I do it again given the chance? Yes. Anything to stop where the night was going.
***
I call her cell phone when I’m outside the school — another reason we can never be: she’s eighteen and still in school, and I’m twenty-fucking-five.
“River…” She sobs down the line and my heart fucking cracks in my chest. I did this to her.
“I’m outside, pipsqueak. Can you make it out to me?”
“Yes,” she whispers just before she hangs up.
I press my head back into the headrest and squeeze my eyes shut. I can’t be nice to her and it’s going to kill me, it does every time I make her hate me that little bit more.
I see her a few minutes later, her fragile frame hunched over as she clasps her stomach. I want to run to her, scoop her up in my arms and hold her, but I can’t. I wait until she’s in the car and belted in before pulling away.
“Pretty shit evening, huh?” Her eyes snap to mine and narrow.
Yeah, I’m an evil fucker.
Ava
I’ve finally managed to leave my bathroom and hearing River’s voice downstairs, I know this is my only opportunity to find out if my suspicions are true. After his comment in the car, I can’t help but think he did this to me. That my stepbrother has committed another cruel joke at my expense.
Sneaking into his bedroom and quietly making my way into his bathroom, I open the cabinet and find it straight away.
EXLAX.
I knew it! I will never forgive him for this.