The Golden Boys: Chapter 36

“You and Parker back at it again?”

I peer up from my duffle toward Dane when he asks. I’m confused at first, until he points at the strip of condoms I just dropped into the bag.

Smiling, I zip it closed. “Nope.”

Curious, he shoots me a look. “Who then?”

I shrug, pretending not to have anyone specific in mind, but there is definitely someone specific in mind. My brothers just don’t need to know that. Not right now, anyway. Eventually.

I’ve spent two weeks thinking about this weekend, and not because our team dominated in the district finals last week, clawing our way to regionals. What I look forward to has perfect C-cups and an ass I want to sink my teeth into.

Now that we’re done with the swimming unit, I haven’t had an excuse to be around her. No excuse to touch her. Sucks that I even need one. I’ve given her plenty of reasons to keep her distance from me over the past couple months, though. Now, she naturally avoids me.

She’s at every game, snapping pictures for the paper, but as far as interaction goes, there isn’t much of it between us. Not unless you count how we can hardly keep our eyes off one another during the one class we do share, when we pass one another in the halls and during lunch. I’m always aware of her.

Always.

I’ve even gone as far as telling the girls to pull back. Most couldn’t care less either way, but for Parker, everything concerning Southside is personal. Probably because being told that her sole target since the beginning of the school year is now off limits serves as a glaring statement. It speaks to my growing respect for the girl I once vowed to destroy.

I haven’t gone soft by any means, but I’m not so stubborn I can’t see the need to reevaluate. Starting with a decision I made about two nights ago, when I couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t stop thinking about …

It actually doesn’t matter who or what I was thinking about. The point is I was restless.

It was during this restlessness that I accepted something. Southside and I are long overdue for a conversation. One she’s been asking to have since the beginning. One in which I plan to lay everything out on the table, including what I believe about her involvement with my father. Having had that man’s heel pressed to my neck my whole life, it hasn’t been hard to see how she could get roped into whatever happened between them.

If it’s happened between them.

It’s the reason I’m past the anger and looking forward to putting this shit behind us. Honestly, I just want the air between us cleared.

Finally.

So, while the team and dancers are all partying in Trip’s room tonight, I’ll be with Southside, laying my full truth bare. After that, neither of us will have any need to fight whatever happens next. All questions will be answered, all our secrets will be out in the open. A clean slate.

“All right, we gotta go. Bus leaves in forty-five.” Sterling announces, hiking a bag up his shoulder.

Dane grabs his jacket and I shrug into a hoodie, since winter is officially on our heels.

A text has my phone vibrating and I glance down to read the message.

‘We need to talk,’ Parker insists. ‘And don’t blow me off, West. There’s a chance I can help you. Whether you like it or not, you need me right now.’

That knot in my stomach is back and the text has me on edge, wondering what in the hell she’s talking about. As much as I’d like to think none of those privy to the only secret I have would’ve told Parker, it’s feeling less and less like she’s bluffing.

“Everything okay?” Sterling glances back to ask when he sees I’m suddenly feeling anxious.

“Yeah, just a stupid text from Parker,” I say, but I’m making light of things. Truth is, if this girl opens her big mouth, I can kiss my football career beyond high school goodbye.

We get to the elevator just as the doors are parting and the message I just received is shoved to the back of my head. Because, unfortunately, our escape route is now being blocked by our father, the oppressor himself. He’s standing inside the brass box, brooding for reasons he has yet to share. But judging by the tie hanging loosely around his shoulders, and the vein throbbing on the side of his neck, it’s safe to say he’s worked up about something.

His eyes lock with mine, and what he says next is the last thing I want to hear.

“I need West for a few. You boys wait downstairs.”

Dane and Sterling both shoot me curious glances.

“We’ll wait in the car,” Sterling says, stepping inside the elevator to head down to the lobby. But his eyes are set on Dad as the doors close again.

Now, it’s just us, the man who rushed down here looking every bit as insane as I know him to be.

“What?” My tone is hard and unfeeling, which makes perfect sense, seeing as how I feel nothing for him whatsoever.

There’s something in his eyes I don’t expect to see, though.

Concern.

I’m admittedly curious now, wondering what this is about.

He leads with a gravely spoken, “Son … we need to talk,” that has my heart racing because he sounds just like Parker. No conversation in history has ever gone well after beginning this way, and as I stare into my father’s eyes, I don’t believe this will end any differently.

For the fraction of a second, I’m worried he’s found me out, knows the huge mistake I made, but I force myself to relax and remember who I’m dealing with here. If he’d rushed down here because of a ‘me’ problem, he’d be much more relaxed. He doesn’t care about anyone that much. Which means this is a ‘Vin’ problem.

What the hell has he done now?

Vin

“Care to explain this?”

West leans in and his expression never changes as he glances at the two-week-old picture. One that damn-near gave me a heart attack a few minutes ago.

Pam rushed into my study, hysterical, squawking about how she thinks our boys might be sexually active. After crushing her fragile heart with news that I’m positive they’ve had the pleasure of defiling at least a dozen girls each, she shoved her phone into my hand before storming off.

And when I glanced down at the screen, what the fuck did I lay eyes on? Like I don’t already have enough shit to deal with? My son—the star of Cypress Prep’s football team, and future quarterback for the best D-1 college in the state—dicking down a pretty blonde I know all too well.

“You fucking her?” There’s no need to sugarcoat anything with my boys. They’re cut from the same tough cloth as me. Not that flimsy shit they bypassed from Pam’s side of the family.

He doesn’t answer, but his stare is furious, and I can tell by the look in his eyes he feels something for this girl.

“This what you’re doing now?” My teeth grit together upon asking. “You ran out of good girls to screw, and had to start digging in the trash? Because that’s exactly what this one is. Trash. Straight out of the gutter.”

Again, he just stands there, clenching his fists.

“Do you care even a little about what this can do to your reputation?” is my next question. “Getting yourself caught up with one of the school’s charity cases? Playing with south side filth isn’t a good look for you.”

Boy’s head’s as hard as a brick. Hence the reason I fight to keep him and his brothers in line. They need me. Whether they realize it or not. Even if they hate my methods.

“How could you possibly know that?”

His question catches me off guard and I don’t miss the growing suspicion in his eyes.

“How could I know what?” I ask with a frustrated sigh.

“That she’s not from North Cypress?” he clarifies. “That she’s from the other side of town?”

Shit.

I’m usually very careful with my words, only saying things I mean to say. It’s an art I’ve mastered, but West is usually the one to catch my slipups. Little shit is always in the wrong place at the wrong time, and usually asking the wrong questions. Like now. In my anger, I screwed up again.

Royally.

I don’t immediately have an answer, which only makes me look guiltier, I’m sure. His expression shifts and it’s hard to read. The uncertainty that creeps in has me on edge, though.

“You don’t even have to say it,” he suddenly interjects. “I’ve known for months.”

I feel the tension in my brow, and right away, my thoughts are on the phone in the safe. The one I’ve secretly suspected West had already snooped through. Now, I’m more certain than ever.

“Son, you don’t understand what you saw. It—”

“How long?” he cuts in. “How long were you screwing her? What’d you hold over her head to get her to sleep with your old ass?”

It’s at this moment that I see where his mind has taken him. Only a boy would assume the obvious, but in this situation, it suits me that my son is a bit naïve. That he believes I only have one flaw—my weakness for young, pretty blondes.

Straightening my suit jacket, I hold in the triumphant smile that almost gives me away. Kid doesn’t even know he’s just given me the upper hand again. So, I play the part, pretend to feel shame for having been found out.

“West, I—I always intended to end it,” I grovel. “Things between Blue and I are … complicated. They have been for a while now.”

“She’s fucking eighteen,” he shouts, showing more of his cards than I think he means to. Showing that he does, in fact, have one hell of a soft spot for this girl. All this proves is that I’ve taught him nothing.

“I know,” I add with an air of regret, “Which is why we stopped for a while. She was seventeen at that time and I didn’t feel right about things.”

His face twists with anger and I welcome the idea of him being disgusted by me. Having him think I stuck my dick in some underage slut is better than having him know the truth.

I place my hand on his shoulder, knowing he doesn’t want me near him, and he shoves it off like I expect.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” he warns. For a second, I think the kid might actually have the balls to swing, but he seems to think better of it and settles down.

“Son, you must know I didn’t plan any of this. I love your mother,” I remind him. “But—”

“Men will be men, right?” he cuts in, quoting a conversation we had a few weeks earlier.

Feigning remorse, I nod. “I’m not perfect.”

“Truest shit you’ve ever said,” he scoffs.

“I didn’t intend to tell you all of this.” When I lower my head, I impress myself with how genuine this is coming across.

He can’t even look at me, and I’m okay with that. The boy’s resilient, bounces back from these sorts of things like they never happened. Just like his old man.

I peer up at him again, keeping my expression solemn. “I only came down here … to warn you,” I add, which I realize has piqued his interest when he meets my gaze. “That girl, she’s playing you. Probably has been since day one.”

Even in his silence, I see how I’ve broken him, see how I’ve started a fire and then doused it in gasoline. The rage I see growing inside him is exactly what I want to see, because it’s what it’ll take to keep them apart.

While I know the risk I’ve just taken, it was one-hundred percent necessary.

“She’s using you to hurt me,” I add. “She threatened to do it, but I didn’t believe she had it in her. I should’ve known better.”

This lie is the hardest to tell, because I’d die before I let someone manipulate me like that. In fact, I have people on the books strictly to prevent this very thing from ever happening. Sure, it isn’t cheap, but it’s proven more than once to be a worthwhile cost.

To clean up my messes.

Even to clean up West’s.

“What’s her plan?” West seethes, now filled with searing anger and pain.

“She seems to think that sleeping with you will punish me for not leaving your mother. If she didn’t know I’d rake her ass over the coals, she’d probably try to sell the story to the first news outlet who’d listen, but she’s no idiot.”

When West doesn’t have a snappy comeback, I can only guess he’s bought what I just sold.

Damn, I’m good.

“You never leave your tracks uncovered. Ever. So, why this time?” A cold look flashes in my direction and there’s one last hint of suspicion burning in my son’s gaze.

One last doubt I need to stamp out of his head.

I make a false attempt at touching his shoulder again, but pretend to change my mind at the last second. Then, I lower my gaze in ‘shame’.

“You’re not gonna want to hear this,” I begin, taking a deep breath, “but … it wasn’t just sex with her. It was … more than that.”

I pause, letting that sink in with him, humanizing myself in his eyes in a way I’ve never done before.

“I can admit that I fucked up,” I add. “I let the feelings I developed give me a false sense of trust. Eventually, I told her things about me that I shouldn’t have, told her things about our family that I shouldn’t have, but that’s how clever she is,” I warn him. “She knows how to get inside your head, which is why I’m willing to bet you’re having a hard time believing all this. But, as much as I wish it was all made up, as much as I wish I could turn back time and redo what I’ve done … I can’t,” I conclude. “The only thing I can do from here is make sure she doesn’t continue to use you, manipulate your feelings, just to get under my skin. Because, trust me, once that happens, it’s hard as hell to get that one out of your system.”

He’s quiet. Very quiet.

“Have you told her about this? That you planned to tell me everything?” he asks.

My brow tenses, wondering why he’s asking.

“No, West. My loyalty isn’t to her,” I assure him. “It’s to you, this family.”

Hearing that, his jaw ticks and he grits his teeth. “Fuck your loyalty,” he growls.

I nod, agreeing like some sympathetic fiend, desperate for his approval. “Just tell me what I can do to make this right, son. I’m willing to do anything.”

His gaze is cold and unfeeling when it lands on me. “The only thing I want from you, now or ever, is your word that you’ll keep your fucking mouth shut. Don’t tell her you came to me with this.”

Again, I nod, but can’t help but to ask one last thing. “Why? What’s your plan?”

A normal kid would be scarred from the things West has seen and heard, but he’s made of steel, unbreakable. Which is why I know hearing this has only given my boy a newfound sense of vigilance. Whatever he thought he felt for this girl, it should be dying a slow death inside him now.

West storms off without answering the question, but even seeing how this talk has wounded him, I regret nothing. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve just successfully avoided a catastrophic disaster. If sacrificing my son’s perception of me keeps the Golden name from getting dragged down into the mud, keeps everything I’ve worked so hard to conceal from blowing up in my face, then … so be it.

Others might argue that the price might not be worth the outcome, but I would have to disagree.

Some secrets are never meant to be unearthed.

Blue

Not a word while we waited to load.

Not a word since getting on the bus.

I mean, I didn’t expect to sit together or anything, but this feels … extreme.

It’s not even so much that he hasn’t spoken—because that isn’t so far out of the ordinary for us—but he hasn’t even looked my way. He’s got his headphones on under a dark hoodie that hides most of his face, and it’s like I don’t even exist to him.

Well, I guess it’s better to know where we stand than to be left in the dark. Right? Apparently, the request he made in the pool a couple weeks ago no longer appeals to him. With how I’ve seen girls shamelessly proposition him, I shouldn’t be surprised he’s lost interest.

Just wish I’d known sooner. For one, I wouldn’t have wasted my time shaving this morning. You know, on the off chance that things did go further than planned this weekend.

But no chance of that happening now, and I can’t afford to care. West is nothing to me and I’m nothing to him.

Obviously.

Lucky for me, when we loaded the bus, I didn’t get stuck sitting by anyone I hate, but rather someone I don’t know very well.

So far, Joss hasn’t said one word to me, and I need something to distract me from glancing back at West every three seconds. So, I decide it’s on me to break the ice between her and me.

“Excited about the game?” I ask when nothing else comes to mind. Guess I could’ve mentioned the weather, but it’s cold and cloudy. Not much else to say about it.

She lowers the book she holds, smiling a little, which makes me feel less guilty about interrupting her.

“I am,” she answers. “You?”

I shrug, realizing that I was excited, before seeing that West has flipped the switch on me once again.

“Sort of. It’s kind of nice to be getting away from home.”

Not only is the school paying for my room, but Scar is safe, too. She’ll be with Jules the first night, and with Uncle Dusty the next.

“You play basketball, don’t you?”

I wasn’t expecting Joss to ask anything about me, because I didn’t realize she knew anything about me.

“Yeah,” I say with a smile. “They just made the final cut this past Monday.”

She nods. “That’s pretty cool. I’ve never been super athletic.”

“Dance requires quite a bit of athleticism, doesn’t it?”

Joss shrugs and actually closes her book.

“Sort of?” she answers with a laugh. “But I guess I’m referring to the whole hand/eye coordination thing. Dance is all about flexibility, strength, and good balance, but I couldn’t make a basket to save my life.”

I laugh a bit. This feels easy.

“I watch the guys out there on the field every week in awe,” she shares. “Dane goes into beast mode and it’s like watching art in motion. All the Goldens are like that, actually.”

She cleaned that up nicely, but I don’t miss that she mentioned Dane first. Nor did I miss the way she forced her expression to straighten after talking about him. It’s the sort of thing Jules would’ve called me out on, but Joss and I don’t know each other like that. So, I keep what I suspect to myself.

“Yeah, they’re really good,” is all I say back.

She eyes me with a smirk and I’m unsure what she’s thinking.

“So, it’s a little weird to have all those pics of you and West floating around on the net and yet, here you are, sitting with me instead of him.”

Apparently, she’s not as adverse to prying as I was a moment ago. I feel my face warm, which likely means it’s red, too.

“Well, I—”

There’s no real answer for that, so I pause. I showed up at the school today, expecting West to be at least a little warmer than usual, considering, but instead I got the cold shoulder.

“He’s just a bit hard to figure out,” I share with her, not feeling like I’ve said too much.

My statement draws a laugh from her. “Giving you whiplash, huh?” she asks, sounding like she knows a thing or two about that.

“That’s one way of putting it.”

She nods. “I will say this, though. Whatever the beef was between you two when you first got to Cypress Prep, West definitely seems far less hostile about it. Like, maybe he’s starting to soften up a bit.”

I suppose that would’ve come as a relief if I considered myself one of West’s groupies, but I’m not. What has me feeling weird is how he’s seemingly gone cold toward me again. No, he hasn’t been cruel, but having seen that there’s another side to him recently, I can admit to not being ready to let that go.

I enjoy that side of him.

I want that side of him.

It felt like things were changing between us—I mean, really changing—and now this.

“You two should just talk,” Joss suggests. I’m not even sure she realizes how complicated something as simple as a conversation can be for West and me.

“Easier said than done,” I admit.

“Tell you what. Trip and Austin are having everyone over to their room tonight. You should drop in and just, you know, pull West aside,” she suggests. “Despite what he has you thinking, he’s not a total d-bag. Actually, he’s a closeted sweetheart,” she says with a laugh. “You just have to get to know him.”

I nearly laugh out loud. No way West Golden is a sweetheart. Not even on his best day.

“I’ll think about it,” is all I say, but I’ve already made up my mind.

I’m staying as far away from him as possible. I’ve already given him too much slack, too much access to my thoughts, my body, and my heart. I’m sick of being made to feel like a fool, but that’s exactly how I feel every time I fall for West’s games. If this cycle we keep repeating is ever going to end, it’s up to me to end it.

So, that’s what I’ll do. Right here. Right now.

Whatever West and I were on the verge of becoming, it’s officially dead.

Completely.