My heart is in my chest as we climb the stairs to my brother's apartment building. Cade is behind me, making snide comments under his breath about my jeans, but I'm too nervous to blush at them. We stop, and I turn to look at him.
He grins. "Calm down, Jaden. It'll be fine. Your brother is out with some girl and Will always stays in the night before a baseball game. I'll go into my room and start packing. Just do what we practiced."
I'm two seconds from throwing up. I feel it crawling up, and I'm not sure I can choke it down much longer. "I don't know how to do this, Cade."
He gives me a yeah right look. "Do what? Flirt?"
"Uh, yeah," I say. "Look how awkward I am. I didn't have too many gentlemen callers in high school, and I'm just not … sexy. I'm not that girl."
Cade chuckles, sliding an inked arm around my waist, he pulls me toward him. "I beg to differ. You're sexy, because you're not trying. Will was trying to get with y
Jaden looks lost as she stares off into space. I can't imagine the images, the memories or thoughts that cloud her mind. I've been down before, lost, but never enough to want to kill myself. I move my fingertips against the slither of skin between her t-shirt and jeans. She doesn't seem to notice. Her mouth opens to speak but nothing comes out. I want to tell her she doesn't have to say anything, but I want to know so bad. How bad did Justin and Selena hurt her? What all happened? The scars are still visible on her wrist, the vertical marks tell me she really wanted to end it. They don't look superficial. She rolls over on her side and faces me. Her soft features look cloudy and distant. "You know what happened between Justin and I. How he treated me, and then the pictures circulating. I told you about overhearing Selena in the bathroom?" I nod. She frowns. "It only got worse from there. It took Selena minutes to find out who I was, and the ve
Dad doesn't call, but I know they've been busted because it's on the school's newspaper the next morning. Seeing my brother's face, bruised and sunken in makes my chest hurt. This isn't the Adam I know. I close the receipt book as soon as the clock turns five. I'm glad to be finished for the day, and even more excited to go home to an apartment that isn't Adam's. Cade doesn't look at the clock, never does, so I sashay over to the garage and knock my knuckles over the metal door. "Hey handsome, it's time to clock out!" I shout. Johnny sticks his head up from underneath the hood of a Mazda and smiles. "Alright, Sweetheart, I'm coming." Cade walks around and nonchalantly hits him in the back of the head with his sack of dirty rags for the day. "My bad," he says with a smile. He looks worse than the day before since his fight with Will and Adam. I'm thankful the random neighbor broke it up, because I knew I couldn't. But his garage uniform looks g
I trace my finger over the small tattoo on Jaden's hand. It looks beautiful against her skin, and even though it's red around the edges and beginning to peel, I love it. She hasn't stopped looking at it since we pulled the bandage off thirty minutes ago. "You like it?" I ask her. "I love it," she says, rolling over to her stomach on the bed. I smile back at her, but it doesn't meet my eyes. I haven't been able to stop thinking about what Lonnie told me. She knows the man that jumped me, and I'm eager to go repay the favor. But I know I'd walk into a lion's den if I did, especially in my current position. I don't have my wingman anymore anyway. Adam is walking a thin line with drugs, and I don't want to get involved in it. My entire life revolved around drugs, and since my mother is gone, I don't want anymore to do with it. "You're thinking about what Lonnie told you?" "Yeah," I say rubbing my good hand down my face. "I want to go fin
It's Friday and I have to go to school. Our professor hinted at a quiz this week, and since we haven't had one, I'm assuming I'll walk into one today. My mind has been everywhere but on school recently, especially with everything going on in my life. So, I'm not sure how I'll do this semester, but I can always try again. My phone vibrates on my walk from the parking lot to class, and I dig it out. Nancy's name crosses the screen and I feel relief. I haven't spoke to her since the day my dad bombarded me at the apartment. "Hello?" "Baby Girl," she says softly. "How are you?" I make my way toward the building and smile. "I'm good. How are you? What about Dad? I haven't heard from him since that day in the parking lot, and with everything going on with Adam, I figure he's had a stroke." Nancy chuckles. "Oh, he's had about ten strokes. I just can't get a grasp on your brother. Why would he jeopardize everything?" I shrug, knowing s
I'm beyond pissed when I pull into our apartment's parking lot and Jaden is sitting on the steps. She looks scared, her face ashen and her hands shaking. To think they would rally around my girlfriend and scare her? For what? I hated that they brought her into this at all. I barrel out of the truck and toward her. "Are you okay?" "I'm fine," she whispers, rubbing her elbow with her palm. "I—it just scared me, that's all." I glance around to make sure no one is watching us before walking into our apartment and locking the door. I run my palm over her hair and kiss her forehead. "They just rolled in and swarmed you?" I ask. She nods, her eyes make contact with her shoes. Something is wrong, besides the ambush. "What's the matter? What happened today?" Jaden turns to walk into the bathroom, but I stop her. "Tell me. What is it?" When she finally turns to face me, I see tears running down her cheeks. "Someone sent the pictures around the s
I check the number at least three times as Cade drives us away from the restaurant. I can't piece anything together because tears are threatening my eyes, and my throat feels like it's going to close up. Why would Adam do this to me? What have I ever done to him? The theories on why race around in my mind, and block out everything else, so much that I don't even realize when we're at Adam's apartment. Cade instantly gets out, and I snap back to reality. I beat him to the stairs and stop him from going up. "You've been in too many fights, Cade, plus, you're crippled right now. We can't just walk in with gun's blazing." "The hell we can't," he spits. "Your brother has been threatening you and sending out nude pictures? What kind of sick crap is that? I can't let him get away with that." "You don't even know if he's here. He was just arrested, I'm sure my dad has him on a short leash right now." Cade gri
If finding out that Adam was the person sending the pictures around wasn't enough, I get Jaden's text and time stops. Johnny manages a bar downtown? I can't image why he'd need to work at Dan's if he owned a bar, and better yet, why hasn't he ever mentioned it? I gnaw on my lip, debating on what to do next. Should I ask Dan about him? He would tell me wouldn’t he? I jet out of the apartment and head toward Dan's house. I've only been there a few times, but I know he'll be there, because the only socializing he does is bowling on the weekends. Dan's sitting on his porch when I pull up, a beer in one hand and the other rested over his stomach. "Well, what a surprise," he says. "Grab a beer." He points toward the cooler beside him. Snagging one, I sit down in the other rocking chair and gather my thoughts. He senses something is up, I can see it on his face, but doesn't ask. After a few long minutes, I ask, "What do you know about Johnny?"
Pins and needles dance along my spine when Johnny walks into the garage on Monday. I'm the worst at lying and hiding my feelings, but I try my best. Johnny knocks his knuckles against my desk, as he always does, and smiles. "Hey Girlie. How was your weekend?" I bite my bottom lip. "Good. Good. How about you? What did you do this weekend?" I pry, but he doesn't bite. He shrugs. "Watched some football and hung out." Yeah, at his secret restaurant. I smile, but it doesn't reach my eyes. "Where is Cade?" he asks, buttoning his uniform. "In the back," I say, turning on the computer. "He's all better, finally got his cast off." Johnny nods, still working his buttons. Pursing my lips, I continue to scroll over appointments, and say, "I wish they would have found the thugs that did that to him. Scumbags." Johnny finishes his shirt, and gives me a smile. "Yeah, he didn't deserve that." I watch him walk toward the back, not giving me a second thought, which is bittersweet. I don't want