Present
“SHE’S LYING.”
I looked over at Kai, his narrowed eyes glaring at me.
Michael stood with his arms crossed over his chest, a flat expression on his face.
“Kai was with me,” he stated. “He caught up to me at my house almost as soon as I got home, and we got drunk while watching game footage the rest of the night. He wouldn’t have had time to take you out into the middle of the fucking woods.”
I shook my head. “No. That’s not right. He was there!”
“She’s making it up to save her own ass,” Damon chimed in, stepping up next to his friends.
“And I certainly don’t remember that,” Will added. “There was the warehouse and then nothing. I was drunk off my ass.”
Michael looked away, shaking his head almost regretfully. “Just admit it. You leaked the videos, and we know.”
My heart flipped in my chest. “What? Leaked the videos? You think…” I trailed off, scanning the air in front of me.
We trusted you…
Your tantrum cost us three years…
You owe us, and this has been a long time coming…
I closed my eyes, my lungs emptying. All this time they’d thought…
I looked at them again. “You think I posted the videos that got you arrested? That’s why you’re doing this?”
Oh, my God.
Michael leaned in and grabbed me by the back of the hair. I let out a small cry, sweat breaking out on my forehead.
“You had Will’s phone,” he charged.
But I shook my head. “I didn’t! I would never have done that.”
“You had the phone, because you had Will’s sweatshirt,” he argued. “Damon saw you with it. Say it!”
“Yes!” I gritted out. “Yes, I had the phone, but it fell out of my pocket when I was fighting with them!”
“You weren’t fighting with them,” he growled, his voice stinging my ears. “Stop lying!”
“I swear!”
He shoved me away, and I curled my fingers into my palms. None of this made any sense.
“You’re already caught,” Will said. “Michael says Kai was with him. That’s how we know you’re making all of this up. He wasn’t even there.”
I slammed my fists down. “He was! You all were, except Michael! You were passed out in the car, Damon was threatening me, and Kai grabbed me. When I hit him, he just laughed and said, ‘You can’t hurt me. The devil always has my back!’ You were all there, and the phone fell out when I was on the ground!”
“’The devil always has my back?’” Kai repeated, looking confused. “I didn’t say that. I’ve never even heard that before!”
I shook my head, closing my eyes in despair.
“I have.”
Everyone stilled and turned their eyes on Michael.
“My father,” he said in almost a whisper, looking uneasy. “He says that.”
Heat spread over my exhausted body, and I forced myself to take deeper breaths as I watched him turn his dark stare on Kai.
“Trevor,” he said in a low voice.
Kai’s stair hardened, and Will inched in to find out what was happening.
Trevor?
I thought back to that night. Trevor in Kai’s mask. Would he do that?
Michael turned around, and I saw Damon lock eyes with him.
“What?” he snapped.
“Will was drunk as shit,” Michael challenged. “But you weren’t. You took her into the middle of nowhere instead of directly home, and you knew it was Trevor under that mask.”
Damon blew out a stream of smoke and ground out his cigarette on the island. “You’re taking her side?”
“You’re the one lying to me,” Michael replied.
He shook his head as his friends all turned to face him. “This changes nothing.”
They waited while he stood there, and I looked over at him, completely numb. Damon never pretended to be my friend.
I felt nothing.
But Trevor…?
He’d played me for a fool. That’s why he’d whispered that night. So I wouldn’t recognize the voice.
You think you can hurt me, you fucking slut?
All these years I’d been unaware. How he must’ve enjoyed that.
Damon hooded his eyes, looking bored. “Kai left almost immediately after you did that night,” he told Michael. “That’s when Trevor showed up. He was looking for Rika, and he wasn’t happy. Someone told him that she was with us, so he came to get her.”
I walked around, standing next to Kai.
“We had words,” Damon continued, “but then I realized that we could help each other. He wanted Rika away from us, and so did I. We decided to fuck with her.”
“What was your problem with me?” I demanded.
“You had no business with us.” He pinned me with a scowl. “Women always complicate shit. Michael couldn’t take his eyes off you, and Kai was starting to notice you, too.”
Kai straightened next to me, shifting uncomfortably.
“It was only a matter of time before you tore us apart,” Damon bit out. “You’re fucking pussy and nothing more.”
Michael lunged.
He charged for Damon and slammed his fist across his face, sending Damon flying back and crashing into the stove.
He didn’t come back swinging, though. He just stood there, blinking long and hard and breathing fast. He was either in too much pain from the wound or he knew when he was outnumbered.
He swallowed and stood up straight again, continuing like nothing had happened. “We went out to your car and got the masks. If she thought it was Kai, Will, and me together, she’d get the shit scared out of her and never come around us again. Will was piss-drunk, so we put him in the car and went back in to get her, but she’d already left. We caught up to her on the road.”
“And you left my sweatshirt in the booth,” Will chimed in, “along with the phone.”
“Which I found and wore on the walk home,” I added.
Christ.
“And then Trevor found the phone when she lost it in the struggle,” Kai finished.
“So she says,” Damon snapped. “We can’t trust her.”
“I trust her a hell of a lot more than I do you!” Michael bellowed.
“Yeah, fuck you,” Damon growled. “She’s a worthless fucking cunt, and I’ll show you exactly what she’s good for!”
Damon shot out from around the island and moved to pass Michael. I instantly backed up, steeling my jaw as he came at me, but Michael grabbed him and threw him against the counter.
Damon howled, holding his wound, but before he could straighten up again, Michael threw a right hook across his face, sending him flying to the floor. He crashed, and Michael came down on him immediately, grabbing his hair and raising a fist in the air.
“You choosing her?” Damon choked out, reaching up to grab Michael around the neck. “Huh? You choosing her over your friends?”
Michael’s fist came down over Damon’s jaw, but then Kai and Will were on him, trying to pry him off as he fought against their attempts.
Damon’s face turned red as he raged up at Michael. “You’re no better! What’d we bring her here for, huh? She’s nothing! And she’s making you weak!”
Michael lunged for him again, tearing out of Will and Kai’s hold, but I didn’t stick around to see what happened next.
I ran out of the kitchen and raced through the foyer. Slamming into the wall next to the door, I opened the keypad and punched in the code, unlocking the front gate. Digging my keys out of my pocket, I reached for the front door and pulled the handle. But then something hit the door, and I gasped as it was pushed out of my hand and slammed shut again.
I jerked my hand back as I watched the basketball that had hit the door bounce to the ground and roll away.
“You’re not leaving,” Michael’s voice came behind me.
I reached for the door again, but he came and grabbed my arm, whipping me around.
“Let me go.” I tried to yank my arm free. “I won’t stay here!”
“We’re not going to hurt you,” he gritted out, and I could see blood on the knuckles of the hand he had wrapped around my arm. “No one is going to hurt you. I promise.”
“Let me go!”
But then I straightened, rearing back as I looked over his shoulder at what was coming behind him.
Michael turned around, facing Damon. He wiped blood away from the side of his mouth as he charged toward us.
“Get out,” Michael ordered.
Damon shot him a scowl and then locked eyes on me, grabbing the door handle as Michael pulled me out of the way.
He stared into my eyes, and what I saw there was no longer dead. His glare coursed right through me and coiled around my neck.
Yanking open the door, he left the house, slamming it behind him.
I let out a breath, my shoulders dropping.
But then I felt a hand brush my cheek and heard Michael’s voice. “Are you okay?”
I jerked away, slapping his hand off me. “Fuck you.”
He dropped his hand and straightened, keeping his distance. He knew he’d fucked up. What they’d done tonight was unforgivable.
“Fucking Trevor,” Will grumbled, charging into the foyer. “I can’t believe it.”
“He always hated us,” Kai added, coming in behind him.
Michael exhaled and turned away. Walking over to the stairs, he sat down and buried his head in his hands, looking completely defeated.
Yeah, it must be a bitch to realize you wasted three years hating the wrong person.
Chills broke out over my skin, and the heat that had covered my body before was now gone. The wet clothes stuck to my skin, and I shivered.
All this time, I thought I was insignificant to him. A stupid kid, barely worth his time. A mistake he’d made one night long ago that he barely remembered. But now I knew that, not only was that not true, but he’d spent three years planning how to hurt me?
And he was going to let his friends hurt me, too.
Tears welled, and I clenched my teeth, hardening my jaw, to keep them away. He didn’t fucking deserve them.
Stepping slowly toward Michael, I demanded, “Where is my mother?”
He combed his fingers through his hair and looked up, his eyes weary. “California,” he answered. “She’s in a rehab in Malibu.”
“What?” I blurted out.
Rehab? My mother would never agree to that. She wouldn’t leave the safety of her home or friends. She wouldn’t leave what was familiar.
“I had a judge sign a court order, forcing her stay,” he clarified as if reading my mind.
I inched closer, narrowing my eyes on him. “You forced her?”
“What everyone should’ve done a long time ago,” he argued, his voice firm. “She’s fine. Perfectly safe and taken care of.”
I turned my head away, closing my eyes and running a hand over the top of my hair.
Rehab. So they weren’t hurting her then.
But…
But if Michael wanted to hurt me—if he thought I’d betrayed him—why would he do
something that would ultimately help my mom? Why not just lock her in a basement somewhere like I’d thought?
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Why haven’t I been able to get a hold of anyone?”
I now knew why my mother had been unreachable. She probably wasn’t permitted a cell phone in rehab. But Michael’s mother, his father’s cell phone, Trevor, our housekeeper who was out of town…
“Because you haven’t been calling anyone,” Michael admitted, looking up at me with a flat expression. “During Trevor’s party, Will went into your car and took your phone, replacing everyone’s numbers under their names. You’ve been calling a fake phone we set up.”
My fists curled under my arms, and I dropped my eyes, seething. I couldn’t fucking look at him.
How had all this happened? Why hadn’t they confronted me sooner?
“We were so sure it was you,” Will chimed in. “I woke up, saw the videos online, and I panicked, realizing I’d left the phone in my sweatshirt at the warehouse.”
He could barely look at me.
“And then Michael saw the sweatshirt hanging on a kitchen chair the next morning, and we finally figured out through Damon that you’d worn it home. You were mad at Michael, feeling rejected, so we…we just…”
He trailed off, the rest not needing to be said.
I glared at Michael. All this time. All these years he could’ve confronted me…
But that was him, I guess. He pushed forward no matter who it hurt, always believing he was right and never apologizing. At least I could see the regret in Kai and Will’s eyes.
With Michael, nothing. The more mistakes he made, the taller he tried to stand, so no one could see over him. So no one could see anything but him.
I shook my head, my eyes burning as I stared at him. Say something!
How could he just sit there after everything we’d…?
I’d trusted him—shared parts of myself I’d never coming close to sharing with anyone else—and this is what had been going through his mind every time he whispered in my ear or touched me or kissed me or…?
I squeezed my fists so tight my nails dug into my skin.
“I want to leave,” I told him, tears still thick in my throat.
“No.”
“I want to leave,” I repeated, hardening my tone.
“You can’t.” He shook his head. “I have no idea where Damon is. We’ll all go back to the city tomorrow.”
I ground my teeth together. Goddamn them.
I stomped past him, up the stairs toward my room. I couldn’t stand the sight of any of them.
“So what do we do now?” I heard Kai ask behind me.
“Let’s get fucked up,” Will breathed out.
And I ran to my room, locked the door, and wedged a chair under the handle.
