Chapter 22
Maeve
Anagapesis (n) no longer feeling any affection for someone you once loved
Anger.
Red hot anger.
I am beyond angry, actually. I just hope for her sake she walks in here like a normal, respectable human, but who am I kidding? It’s Nessa.
The tall oak doors swing open, and she struts in as though she owns the place.
Arrogant bitch.
Her dark hair is pulled into a high ponytail, sunglasses perched on top of her head.
Her usual accessories—necklaces, rings, and earrings—are missing.
The guys had stripped her of all of her belongings before she was allowed in.
She’s wearing a hot pink lipstick that looks like it was pulled out of a kids' makeup kit, and she had done a piss-poor job at blending her contour. She was usually good at this kind of stuff, but today was not one of those days. She’s wearing a dress that is too short and too tight for the weather, along with ridiculous six-inch heels.
You’d think she was getting ready to go clubbing, even if it was just after three in the afternoon.
She strides toward where I’m sitting on the arm of the couch.
Callum is lounging beside me on the cushion.
His ankle rests on one knee, one arm slung casually along the back, and the other resting on the small of my back, tracing lazy circles.
She pauses on the edge of the rug in the center of the display, but it only lasts for a heartbeat.
“What the fuck, Maeve?” she whines nasally. I just stare at her with a flat, unamused expression and let her fill the silence.
“Are you fucking deaf now? Why haven’t you returned my calls?” She pauses expectantly.
I give her nothing.
“Hello? All of a sudden, you can’t speak either?”
Still nothing. I know I’m making her blood boil. Good. She’ll begin to falter and say something stupid. She’s too easy, too arrogant, too naive. Always has been. She turns her attention to Callum this time. Wrong choice.
“What lies have you told her, Callum? Was this your whole plan? To turn her against me?”
Callum's hand pauses on my back, and I reach down without looking and place my hand on his chest, silently telling him that I have this.
I put my hands on my knees and just stare at her for a moment.
Her posture shifts from defensive to insecure as she begins to fidget nervously.
I smirk, straightening my skirt as I stand.
I slowly walk toward her, and she begins to shift uncomfortably the closer I get. I look her up and down as I slowly circle her, and I catch Callum's devious grin that he attempts to cover by rubbing his lips with his fingers.
I come to a stop in front of her, staring down at her for a moment.
I allow a gentle smile to pull at my lips as I reach up and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, looking over her face.
Her pupils dilate, and if fear were a scent, it would be rolling off her.
I can tell she doesn’t trust the gentle persona I’m showing her.
As I stare at her, memories come flooding back from the evening of the party, and I can’t believe it has taken me this long to realize that she had planned the entire thing. Had planned it and brought other people into it too. Fucking bitch.
16 Years Old
Nessa walked out of my closet holding a light pink dress I usually wore around Callum.
It was his favorite. I was almost finished doing my hair, and I had already done Nessa’s hair.
She insisted that I style her hair the way I do mine, something about not wanting to overheat her new dye job.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about her hair color being so similar to mine, but I figured she’d tire of it and go back to her dark colors before too long.
“Do you really want to be wearing the same color?” I asked her. Usually, she told me that we couldn’t both wear the same color. She thought matching was weird and seemed planned out, corny.
“It’s not that big of a deal,” she says flippantly as she holds my dress up to her body, studying the effect in the mirror.
“Ness, you literally told me last week that I couldn’t wear my leather jacket because you were already wearing yours,” I said, raising my brows in question.
“I look better in leather is all, but we both look gorgeous in pink,” she said, brushing me off. She extended the dress out to me before she went back to the closet to pick out a pair of heels.
"Absolutely not," I said. Heels were a no-go for me, and I intended to wear my Vans.
Once we were ready, we loaded into Orin’s SUV, and he looked at Nessa with his lip curled. He didn’t like her one bit. She tended to try to boss him around, asking him to fetch things for her.
“Remember, you have to be back by one,” Orin reminded me, looking at me through the rearview mirror. “I don’t want to have to explain anything to the next shift.”
“I know. I’ll make sure to give us plenty of time to—”
“Stop being such a buzzkill with the planning,” Nessa whined, cutting me off.
“Just because your dad lets you go and do whatever you want doesn’t mean that mine does, nor has he ever. You’ll have to get over it, Nessa,” I said, leaving no room for argument. That never stopped her, though.
“You could just say screw it and do whatever you want anyway,” she told me as she flipped her hair over her shoulder. “That’s what I do, and Daddy never stops me.”
“Yeah, well, our relationships with our fathers aren’t exactly the same.”
Orin and I looked at each other through the mirror again, both of us rolling our eyes at the blatant disrespect she showed her father, Liam.
My father would never allow me to speak to him the way she speaks to her father.
But it wasn't for Liam's sake that I'd clocked Nessa's lack of respect.
He certainly wasn't someone I enjoyed being around, to put it mildly.
I avoided him as much as possible and would always avoid him.
“Stop here. I don’t want to be seen being dropped off in this,” Nessa said as if she were getting out of a beat-up truck and not the nice blacked-out Yukon. Orin stopped anyway and let us out.
“Keep your phone on, and on loud please,” Orin said, knowing I kept my phone on silent when I was at home and forgot to switch the ringer back on sometimes. I switched it on in front of him.
“There. Thanks for bringing us,” I said. He gave me a nod and a slight grin, then pulled away.
I started my search for the boys, and it didn’t take long to spot Callum's head towering over everyone else around him. He was exceptionally tall. Ronan was standing near, talking to some girls who were a bit too handsy. I walked up to Callum and bumped his hip with mine, and for a brief second, he looked like he was about to rip into me, until he realized it was me and not some drunk kid who wasn’t paying attention.
“Hey you,” he said, drawing out the "you’" like he was taking me in and had forgotten how to form words. He really liked this dress.
“Hello,” I said sweetly, stepping into his outstretched arms. He smelled so good.
“You want a drink?” He asked, pointing to the beer keg sitting in an iced kiddie pool. “I don’t know how much I trust it, but it’s the best the kid could do, I guess.”
“Sure, but I won’t be drinking a lot tonight,” I told him, and his face was soft, even with the defined jaw line and muscles showing through his t-shirt. I tried not to stare too much.
“We aren’t either. We have to train in the morning, so I told Ronan that we can have one or two, but no more than that.”
I smiled and took the cup from him, watching as his posture stiffened.
“Cal!” Nessa shouted over the music shrilly. “I forgot you’d be here!”
Callum just stared at her with a straight face, all traces of gentleness gone.
“I told you in the car,” I said, annoyed with the dumb-girl persona she loved to show anytime we were around Callum and Ronan. I looked over to where Ronan was and saw him adjusting his posture to get a better view from his current position.
“Oh, I must not have been paying attention,” Nessa said, batting her fake lashes toward Callum. “JADE!” Nessa shouted, causing Callum and me to look in the direction she was yelling. She bumped into Callum, causing his beer to foam.
“What the fuck?” he said, but she didn’t turn around to apologize. We joined Ronan and the other girls, listening to their conversation. Callum and I were standing close enough for our arms to be touching. I don’t think either of us heard a word, exchanging glances every few seconds.
My phone rang, and I told Callum I’d be right back.
“Oh, okay,” his response was slow, but at the time, I thought nothing of it.
I stepped outside to take the call. It wasn’t a number in my phone, but it could have been my dad.
No one spoke on the other end. Then, I got a call from Orin, asking me if I was still inside the house, and I told him that I had stepped out to make a call.
His tone was different, a hint of concern lingering in his words.
When I went back inside, I looked around for Callum and Ronan, but I saw Ronan making out with not one, but both of the girls he had been speaking to. I let him be. I searched the entire floor before Jade told me she saw them walk upstairs a few minutes ago.
I wish I hadn’t searched. I'll never unsee it.
“Nessa, Nessa, Nessa,” I say, tsking. She shifts backward, and her face twists in disgust. She sidesteps me and starts yelling at Callum again.
“What the hell have you been filling her head with?” She shouts, her voice filled with panic and venom, her eyes narrowed in anger.
Callum shifts in his seat as if he is about to say something, but I shoot him a look that stops him.
He shifts back into his seat, and I swear I see lust sparkling in his eyes.