“Yeah. I’m Lilly.”
I waited for her to say more. She wobbled the table by the way she bounced her foot on a leg. If she was so damn nervous, she didn’t have to sit by me. There were plenty of open tables around.
My gaze narrowed on her as she pretended to open her laptop. Mine was on its last dying breath. Hers looked brand spanking new.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said when she didn’t stop fidgeting and didn’t do any actual work.
She looked up and flailed her hand in the air. “Oh, I don’t think that.” She whipped her hand again and sent her water bottle flying right off the table. “Shoot!”
She bent to grab it and I slid my homework into my backpack. Lunch was ruined. So much for wanting company.
“Wait,” she said and slammed her hand down on the top of my backpack.
I gave her one slow arched brow and that hand disappeared into her lap, probably tangled with the fingers on her other hand.
“I came to ask you something. But um… well... I didn’t want to be rude. Or offend you.”
“You’re worried about offending me when everyone knows I’ve been in jail?”
Jail wasn’t prison but jail made people think of spending the night in a drunk tank, not being sentenced for murder.
Even as we talked, people glanced in my direction. Then hers. I wasn’t sure anyone had willingly talked to me this entire term and the few who did last semester pretended I didn’t exist once word got out.
She played with her braids before she leaned in closer and lowered her voice. “I-I have a brother. He’s into not-so-good stuff. I was wondering if you’d tell him what it’s like… where he could end up.”
God. The irony.
“You love your brother?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “We’re twins and Josiah is well, he’s awesome. Can be sweet, really. Good to our mama and our little sister and brother but his friends… they’re bad news—”
I’d heard it all before. Seen it. Lived it. His name was so eerily similar to Josh a fist gripped my heart and squeezed.
“Leave him be.”
“What?” Her face turned ashen and she licked her lips. “But he’s my brother.”
“Yeah. And he needs to make his own choices and he has to know when he needs the help to get out. You can’t fight his battles for him and if you start thinking you can, you’ll be the one who drowns.” I stood and grabbed my backpack. My skin itched. Too hot for my bones, too tight for my frame. Needle pricks spiked down my spine. I needed air. “Trust me.”
I got the hell out of there. From the first person who talked to me in months but only wanted something from me. It wasn’t that I was opposed to helping. I just didn’t trust easily.
I’d been burned enough.
I was perfectly content staying far away from any more fires.
Eleven Years Earlier
“Please. Don’t make me go home.”
“You can’t be here, Lilly. You can get in trouble.”
I stared up at my big brother, big man on campus in our school of thousands. “I’m not your business, Josh. And besides, you started coming to these parties when you were a freshman.”
“Yeah, but I was friends with juniors on the team and we were all invited. Guys here will eat you alive.”
“Ew. I just want to see it. Have fun.”
Keaton Malloy’s parties were legendary and for years Josh had talked about them. Keaton’s family traveled frequently and they had no problems with their only child hosting keg parties. They were infamous. The only thing even freshman at my school had talked about for months.
And I was finally able to come and my brother was ruining everything.
“Trust me.” My brother gripped my arm and started pulling me away from the crowd. I should have known he’d spot me. He was overprotective, to say the least, but then again, he’d pretty much raised me.
“No. I came with Nina and she’s taking me home.”
He glared at me and then pointed over my shoulder with his other hand. “Nina? The girl currently dancing on top of Lawson’s lap?”
Gross. She was our neighbor, same age as Josh and when she said she was coming to the party tonight, she told me I should come with her. So what I didn’t know anyone else and none of my friends were allowed to be out this late. I knew my brother’s friends and lots of his ex-girlfriends because he’d had so many.
“You’re leaving. I’m taking you home.” His grip on my arm tightened.
“You’re hurting me,” I said, fighting to get him to loosen up. “Seriously, Josh. That hurts.”
He dragged me while I fought against him and only stopped when Keaton Malloy stepped in front of us. And he didn’t look happy.
God. How embarrassing. Being hauled off by my brother and then stopped by one of the hottest boys I’d ever seen. I yanked my arm, but Josh held tight.
“She’s telling you you’re hurting her, Josh.”
“Out of my way, Malloy. I’m taking her home.”
“She want to go home with you?”
“No,” I growled and kicked Josh in the shin. He wobbled back enough he let go of my arm but he was fast. One of the state’s best high school quarterbacks. He already had offers for college. Full-ride scholarships. There was talk of him being the next Brett Favre, which pissed off Chicagoland’s Bears Fans.
“She’s my sister, dick,” Josh said, hands fisted and looking ready to charge Keaton. “And I’m taking her home. She’s only a freshman.”
Kill me. Kill me now. Had a hole in the ground opened and swallowed me whole, I wouldn’t have minded.
He glanced at me quickly and then dismissed me with a shrug. “My bad. You get my concern though, yeah?”
“Fuck off, Malloy. You got my keys in that bag?”
I’d noticed it on the way in and he had two straps wrapped around his shoulders now. If you drove, you handed over your keys. Keaton’s parents might not have cared about the parties, but that was their one rule. Any drivers who drank crashed in their rec room.
“You been drinking?”
“Anyone else going to get my sister home?”
Keaton sighed and looked beautiful doing it. He was a senior, varsity running back. He and Josh didn’t hang out much unless it was places like this I guessed, but I hadn’t spent a lot of time around him. I didn’t blame him for not knowing who I was. Up until this year, I’d been a middle schooler. Who paid attention to little kids?
But I wasn’t a little kid now, and Josh was ruining my chance to grow up.
“How many have you had? You good? Swear it?”
“Yeah, I swear it.”
“Or, we could stay and keep having fun.”
Josh skewered with me a glare, making me feel about two feet tall. “No. You can go to parties like this in two years.”
I glanced at my brother then. Sweat lined his temple and his breath smelled like raccoons had died in his mouth.
“You sure you’re okay to drive, Josh?” I asked.
He’d been getting in trouble for drinking lately. Pretty sure Dad had busted him for other things too. He lost his car for a month and over spring break, he went somewhere to feel better.