Chapter 11 Gabe
GABE
“Remind me why we’re going to a high school party?” Shane asks from the passenger seat of my car.
I shoot him a dirty look. “We just graduated. Settle down. Plenty of people from our class will be there.”
He rolls his eyes.
As we pull up at Akers’s, there are already cars parked everywhere. Shane jumps out of the car, lighting a cigarette before his feet hit the grass.
I flick my eyebrows. “Jonesing?”
“Shut up,” he grumbles as I head into the woods.
“Gabe!” Theo shouts from the bed of his truck.
He holds out a beer, and I take it, hopping up on the open tailgate. “What’s up?”
He shakes his head. “Playing babysitter, I guess. My dad said I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on Akers tonight.” He grins, holding out his arms to the party. “My eyes are on him.”
I chuckle. Theo’s a year older than me and his little brother Akers is a year younger. I’ve known them my whole life.
He leans forward resting his elbows on his knees. “I heard your dad’s giving you and Shane the apartment above the shop.”
“Yep. Handed us the keys this morning.”
“Badass! No more riding home with Daddy when I drink too much. I’m crashing at your place from now on.”
His dad, Phil, is in the club. He’s a fucking prick.
Shane appears, sliding onto the tailgate next to me.
“Feel better?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer but gives me a shitty look.
When my phone dings, he asks, “Who’s that?”
“Lily,” I mutter, texting her back.
“Who?”
“The redhead that hangs out at the club.” My tone’s clipped because I know he knows who I’m talking about. She was in Theo’s class, and she’s been hanging out at the clubhouse since she graduated.
His face scrunches. “Why’s she texting you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because I have this face and am a great lay.”
He scoffs. “More like she thinks it’s gonna get her keys to the castle. You’re so fucking stupid.”
In all honesty, he’s probably right. I don’t think Lily has any sort of feelings for me, but I’m sure she thinks if she hangs around long enough, she’ll end up my old lady.
Never going to happen. I’m not settling down with anyone for a long time, if ever. I like Lily, but I don’t do drama, and she has her share of it.
“Also isn’t she kind of…” He wrinkles his nose and curls his lip.
“Maybe.” I grin. “But she gives great head.”
He furrows his brows. “You’re a dirtbag, you know that?”
“Is your dad gonna let you prospect this year?” Theo asks, sitting on my other side.
“Yep. Shane too.”
He nods. “No shit.”
JT should be too, but the dipshit went and got himself arrested. Since he’s been in trouble a few times before, he may be sitting there for a while.
A wave of blonde curls catches my eye next to the fire. I nudge Shane. “Isn’t that your sister?”
“Fuck! What the hell is she doing here?”
I shake my head. She notices us and glares. Then the little shit flips me off.
“Woah! What the hell did you do to her?” Theo asks.
Shane huffs, hopping off the tailgate. “She thinks it’s his fault none of the guys in town will talk to her.” He shrugs. “Said you threatened one of them or some shit.”
“I mean I did, but the kid’s a douche. Who cares?”
He takes off toward her, and I hop down to follow.
His shoulders tense the closer he gets. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
She spins around with a scowl. “Excuse me?”
“Does Gran know you’re here?”
“Uh… that’s none of your business, Shane. Go away.”
Akers stands behind her with his head down. He knows damn well that Shane’s going to kick his ass for this.
“You invited my sister?” he shouts.
Ash puts a hand on Shane’s chest as he steps toward Akers.
“Nik invited me. I just met him. Can you take your bad attitude and cigarette breath somewhere else? We’re trying to have fun, and you’re ruining it.”
He rears back, scoffing. “You’re sixteen, Ashton! You shouldn’t be drinking in the fucking woods with this punk!”
“Yeah, and you’re nineteen, jackass! What’s it matter?”
“Your brother’s kind of a dick,” her pink-haired friend whispers.
Ash glances at her. “You have no idea.” When she turns back to Shane she adds, “Are you done?”
“No, I’m not done. You’re going home! Get your shit!”
She puts a hand on her hip. “I drove.”
“Well, too damn bad. You forfeited that Jeep when you drank this.” He pulls the beer from her other hand and dumps it on the ground.
The irony of this situation isn’t lost on me. Like Shane has any right to lecture anyone.
“Will you drive my shithead sister home?”
When I realize he’s talking to me, I rear back, pinching my brows. “Uh… no. You take her home.”
He blows a sharp breath through his nose and leans in closer to whisper through gritted teeth, “Please, I just texted Marcus to meet me here.”
I roll my eyes. Marcus is his dealer. He’s a dirtbag.
Sucking my teeth I nod, reluctantly. I don’t want to play chauffeur, but I know Shane. He’ll get fucked up and forget all about the issue with his sister. Then he’ll wake up tomorrow feeling like a piece of shit.
It doesn’t matter to me if she goes to a party, but it matters to him, and I don’t want him to beat himself up in the morning.
Turning to her, I say, “Let’s go.”
She scoffs. “Are you kidding me? Shane, I am not leaving with this asshole!”
He grins at her. “You are, or I’ll call Gran, and she can come get you.”
“What about Nik?”
“No, that’s where I draw the line. I’m not a fucking taxi driver,” I say.
Nik grabs her arm. “It’s fine. I don’t really want to leave. I’ll have Akers take me home.”
Ten minutes later, she drops into my car, pouting. I start the engine and pull out. Maybe she’ll be mad enough to stay quiet the whole drive.
“Why don’t you get a new car? What is this, like forty years old?”
I whip my head in her direction, my eyes bugging out of my head. “Are you fucking kidding me? This is a 1970 Corvette LT-1!”
She scowls. “Okay?”
“Okay, well they only made one thousand two hundred and eighty-seven of them. It’s a classic.”
“Sheesh.” She throws her hands up. “I didn’t know it was a…” She waves one of her hands around. “Whatever you said.”
I exhale, loudly, glancing back to the road. “Yeah. Well, it’s a badass car. So… yeah.”
Why am I losing my cool with a sixteen-year-old girl? I shake my head and crack my neck.
“God, you’re just as pissy as my brother. Do the two of you twist each other’s panties or just your own?”
I glare at her. This is the last time I’ll ever agree to help Shane out. His sister is an annoying little shit. And I do mean little because she only stands like five-feet tall.
She crosses her arms over her chest. “You had no right to put your nose in my business. I can handle myself.”
“Noted.”
“Who I hang out with is none of my brother’s business.”
I quirk a brow. “Maybe not, but if he caught wind that you were fucking some kid in the back seat of a car at the sawmill, you’d have a dead boyfriend and a brother behind bars. So, if you think about it, I did you a favor.”
She whips her head toward me. “What is wrong with you?”
“You know, I can see the resemblance. Shane asks me that same question all the time.”
She glares, before forcefully blowing air out of her nose and slamming back into the seat. “Great. Well, you can pat yourself on the back. Now no one in town will even look at me.” She shakes her head and stares out the window.
That catches me off guard because there’s no malice in her voice this time. I look over at her.
Shit. She’s kind of pretty.
Nope. Absolutely not. I can’t think of my best friend’s little sister as pretty.
No matter how true that may be. No matter that her blonde curls look like morning sunlight, or that her gray eyes are almost silver with the moon reflecting off them.
Or that her bottom lip is just a little fuller than the top, and she’s wearing this berry color that I can’t seem to peel my gaze away from as she bites the top one.
And it especially doesn’t matter that the moment she climbed into my car, the space filled with the most pleasant warm vanilla smell.
None of that makes it okay for me to see her as anything but my best friend’s sister.
I don’t know what to say, but that sad look on her face has my stomach tying itself in a knot.
So, I hit the gas. She straightens, grabbing the seat with both hands.
“Are you insane?” she shouts over the roar of the engine.
I glance over at her, grinning. “Now whose panties are in a twist?”
“I don’t know.” She cocks her head, blinking. “How about I tell my brother you asked about my panties?”
Fuck me. Why did she say that? Not only will he absolutely kick my ass if she tells him that, but now I have to resist the urge to think about her goddamn panties, which is definitely over the line.
My jaw tics, and I speed up.
“Or that you tried to kill me!” she shouts.
“Oh, don’t be a wuss. We’re fine.”
“You’re going like a million miles an hour, Gabe!”
“Nah. Just ninety.”
She stares at me for a minute before cracking a smile and rolling down her window. The night air blows in, flinging her hair around, and I grin, rolling mine down too.
A full, warm sound leaves her mouth, and I wish I didn’t like it so much.
Her laugh is like summer.