I look up to see Mitch standing in front of me. I wince as I look at him. It’s not because I dread him. Actually, he’s been kind of nice to me and Katie since the day Jeff punched him. He even went so far as to apologize to Katie. He explained he had a fight with his father and took out his anger on her and he was sorry. I’m not sure Katie totally forgave him, but Katie’s got an awesome father. I know what it’s like when your father is an asshole. So, I feel sorry for him. We’ve become pretty good friends the last few months. All that aside, however, the reason I’m wincing is because Mitch’s face looks even worse now than it did when Jeff laid into him. I hiss between my teeth and reach up to touch the nasty gash along the side of his face.
“What happened to you?” I ask him, using my fingers to trace along the gash to the already swelling area under his eye.
“Just a love note from dear old Dad. He was pissed this morning,” he says and there’s a bleakness in his eyes that I understand. I’ve started avoiding my own dad because of the shit he says to me. Last night, he said I couldn’t have supper because I was getting too fat. So, after I fixed him and Mom food, I was sent to my room.
“Damn, I’m sorry, Mitch. What got him upset this time?”
“He was pissed because Reed stayed out all night and wasn’t there to take Dad to work this morning. I got the fallout.”
“Reed stayed out all night?” I ask, my stomach feeling as if the bottom is falling out. “That doesn’t sound like him.”
“It has since he’s been hooking up with Chasity. He stays out at least twice a week.”
“Chasity? Chasity Newberg? They’re dating?” I squeak, my heart skipping multiple beats in my chest. Chasity Newberg has the nickname mayonnaise by all the guys because her legs are always spread and ready.
“Chasity doesn’t date, Callie. But yeah, she’s been hooking up with Reed for a couple of months now.”
“Months? I don’t believe it. Reed hasn’t breathed a word of it. Besides, I thought you and Chasity were seeing each other.”
“We were,” he says, combing his hand through his hair. “I was staying with Marshall one night, but my stomach was doing some strange shit, so I wanted to come home. I tried to call Reed to come and get me, because our old man fucked my car up. He wouldn’t answer his phone. So, I had to walk home feeling like shit.”
“Where was Reed?” I ask, not sure I want an answer.
“I get upstairs to our room and he’s there, fucking my girl.”
“I…I need to talk to Reed,” I respond, sick to my stomach.
I push against Mitch and take off half running through the hall, not caring that everyone around is looking at me. Mitch has to be lying. He has to be. There’s no way Reed would be fooling around with Chasity and not tell me. He wouldn’t touch her, not when she was dating his brother. The Reed I know just wouldn’t do that. I have to talk to him. He’ll explain everything. I skid to a stop, my shoes sliding on the floor and making a squeaking noise that sounds really loud to my ears. I lean against the fire door that closes off the stairs I just jogged up. They’re wedged open, but right now I wish they would close and hide what I see in front of me.
Across the hall, I see Chasity talking to Reed. They’re standing really close together. She’s leaning on him, making sure her big boobs are pressed against him. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but from the smile on Reed’s face, I have a feeling I don’t want to.
“Callie, slow down,” I hear Mitch mutter behind me.
A minute later, I feel his hand on my shoulder. I don’t acknowledge him. I can’t. I’m too busy trying to find a way to breathe over this giant knot of misery inside of me. How could I have missed this.
I watch Chasity walk away from Reed and inside I’m screaming no. It’s too late. I’ve wasted too much time getting up my nerve and now… It’s too late.
I start to move. I don’t have a plan, but I just want to talk to him now that Chasity is leaving him alone. Before I can tell my feet to move, however, she turns around to look at him. I can hear what she says now, even from where I’m mostly hiding by the door. I really wish I couldn’t hear, though.
“Oh, and Reed, come by tonight and I’ll give you a preview of the fun we we’ll have together at prom,” Chasity says, killing what hope I had inside of me.
Mitch was telling the truth…
Chasity walks by me a minute later, a smug smile on her face. “Oh, hey, Callie,” she singsongs, making me physically ill. I have to swallow down the bile that rises up inside of me. “Mitch,” she adds, his name snide and hateful.
“Mayonnaise,” he says with a nasty smirk that I see when I look up between them.
“Bastard.”
“Whore, fucking my brother in my bed.”
“If I knew your little brother was that much bigger than you, I would have tried him out much sooner, lover,” she purrs before continuing down the stairs.
“I’m going to be sick,” I whisper to no one, just feeling the need to say the words.
“Shit, Callie. I’m sorry. I thought you and Reed were just friends, or I would have warned you,” Mitch says.
Bitterness wells up inside of me. “We are. I told him that’s all I wanted,” I answer, feeling numb, knowing I’m right. I’m the one to blame for the way things are. Now, it’s too late to do anything about it.
Much too late.
14 Callie
“When were you going to tell me that you were going to the prom with my brother?” Reed growls. I lift my gaze away from the table, to look at the man who has decimated me and doesn’t even know it.
My fault.
Still, in the middle of my self-blaming and misery is this other emotion. Anger. Of all the girls he could fool around with, Chasity feels like the biggest betrayal. It’s not that he’s seeking out a relationship—or even falling in love. He’s just looking for someone to screw. He’s also doing it in a way that will hurt his brother. I remember the rivalry I felt between them when I first got to Texas. That’s the main reason I told Reed I only wanted to be friends. I didn’t want to be a casualty of some war they have going on.
I guess he found someone to replace me with.
“Well?” he demands when I don’t answer fast enough to suit him.
“I didn’t know my girl had to answer to you, Reed,” Katie says, instantly taking up for me. God, I love her.
“Stay out of this, Katie.”
“Stop telling Katie what to do,” I bark. “She’s my best friend. She has a right to take up for me any time, because that’s what friends do.”
“That’s rich. I thought we were friends, Callie. Isn’t that the shit you kept shoveling my way? Is this how you handle friendship? You know how I feel about Mitch getting around you and what the fuck do you do?”
“Oh, I know how you feel about your brother, Reed,” I snap, having enough of being his dumping ground. This might be my fault, but the fallout is not. That’s all on him.
“Apparently not. If you did and you valued our friendship at all, you wouldn’t go to the prom with him.”