Breathe With Me (The Breathe Series Book 3) (47 page)

“Piper, wait! Let me explain. Oh shoot, I didn’t mean that he….”

I don’t even let her finish;
I don’t care.
He’s done this before and it destroyed everything. Flinging the door open, I let the fire that ripped through me years ago blaze into an uncontrolled anger that may never subside.
He had no right and he needs to learn that my past is not up for social gathering discussions. How could he; how could he??!
It’s the only thing that keeps repeating in my brain, because I cannot fathom why he would.

My face twists as I scrunch my brows into a veil of pain and confusion, while keeping my lips glued shut by a thin sheet of gloss. He looks over to me the second I walk out of the bathroom as if he can sense my very presence as I enter a room. It’s something he’s always done, whether I’d walk out of my cabin, enter a classroom or pull up in Dad’s car, he would always look up, knowing I’m there. It was always a comfort to me that he could feel me even without the sound of my voice, yet today, it is not a comfort at all. I draw my brows down further, the urge to zap lasers or fire from my eyes if I had the power to, burning through me. Just like years ago, his usual smartass smirk shifts and changes to something more, confusion just like I’m feeling maybe; a hint of fear or dread, but this time I see something more…recognition.

I don’t even wait for him to say a word. “How could you?”

WHAT THE HELL?

Piper bolts out of the door of the restaurant with Abby mumbling behind her, “I didn’t say he told me…Piper I didn’t mean to cause…”

Shit! Dammit! Son of a bitch, I knew we should have talked about this in the beginning; all of it.

As Abby tries to explain herself in a remorseful tone, I shoot up from the table, refusing to let her storm out of my life for a second time. I don’t even feel my feet as I fly towards the door seconds behind her. I’m reliving the worst and most regretful moment of my life, because I know without a doubt that her thinking I told Abby, has her doing the same thing as before.
I should have never spoken to Abby about it. I should have known I’d put my damn foot in my mouth.
My hands fall to the cold hard surface of the door as I shove with all my force to get outside as fast as my feet will carry me. Cold air sweeps over my skin as I hear a tap tap-tap on the pavement as Piper races down the sidewalk.

“Piper, would you wait!” I call out, knowing she’s pissed as hell and not going to even care to hear an explanation.
This feels like a repeat of years ago.

I shake my head, the rage from that day beginning to rise within my veins and bubble to the surface. I literally wanted to drop my brother into the deepest hole in the world when he came off that dock not too long after Piper had stormed off, but then he surprised me with what had happened.

“Dude, your chick is history, I think.”

My fists wound up tight as my chest constricts and my jaw damn near feels as if it may crack in half. Spinning around, I feel an ache and loss that I’ve never felt before; something deeper and more horrifying than I could have imagined. I’ve lost her; all because of him, I’ve lost her.

“What did you say!” I roar out my words, not caring who hears at this point. “What did you say to her, Mitch?!”

Tristan quickly steps up, siding up to me as if he is ready to pen me down in case I lunge at him; and I will.

“Oh boy, was she pissed off at you.” He presses his lips together, but all I have running through my head is me driving my fist right into them and how good it will feel when I do. “I’m thinking you weren’t supposed to tell me that info, little brother.”

That’s it, I’ve had it. Raising both my hands, I reach for him ready to tear him limb from limb. Tristan’s arms fall around me as he holds me in a bear hug that locks me in place.

“Whoa, hey just let it be. He’s just trying to rile you up.”

Mitch cocks his head back. “Whose side are you on, man?”

Tristan holds on tight, having a death grip across my chest that I cannot penetrate, no matter how I squirm and fight.

“Let me go, Tristan,” I say through a clamped jaw.

“Hey, I’m not taking sides, but,” Tristan gulps. “But I do have little brothers and I don’t think yours in any way asked for this.”

Mitch starts laughing and it shoots anger right through me. I kick my legs, clipping his in the process and knocking him off his feet.

“Whoa…” Tristan mumbles.

“Let me go…” I yell out, wanting to tackle him while he’s down.

“You little shit.” Mitch quickly picks himself back up, looking around to make sure his precious image is safe.

Everything was perfect that day, just like today; I had no warning. My mood was sabotaged, and I was robbed of ever explaining how it all went down. Then when Mitch proceeded to tell me all the cruel and horrible things he said to her, even Tristan couldn’t hold me back. I wanted blood for that. I ran to her cabin, but when I heard her parents yelling and saw through the window as she sat at the table in utter ruins, I was a coward. I walked down to the dock with tears in my eyes for probably one of the first times in my life. My mind flipped through it over and over until I finally convinced myself to go back and just talk to her, to explain, but by that time she was gone; packed up and had drove out of my life.

Piper’s feet still pound pavement as she makes it to the same old ass van she’s driven since she was sixteen.

“Just let me talk to you!”

She spins around fast, her eyes wide and looking like she’s damn near ready to lay me out. I stop, surprised by the venom in her expression; it’s not something I was used to before. She puts her hand out fast and I just know it;
here it is; she’s going to finally deck my ass. I deserve it.
I stare at her, expecting to feel her fist slam into my nose or eye or possibly even get a painful as hell blow to the groin, but instead her hand lies palm up between us.

“Give me my keys, Evan,” she hisses, her lip snarled and brows drawn into a diagonal slope above her deep dark brown eyes that look nearly black at the moment.

Patting my hand over the outside of my jeans, it falls on an odd shaped object jutting out at my hip that I know are her set of a million keys with at least five different frilly girl keychains to decorate it. At first thought, I flinch, moving my hand to the top of my pocket, but I pause.
She can’t go anywhere. Hell no, I’m not giving her the keys.
I drop my hand to my side and level her with a serious look that I’m hopeful will tame her guarded, about-to-throw-you-right-in-front-of-a-moving-vehicle expression that she’s giving me.

“First let me talk to you. Let me explain what happened with the whole Abby thing, because it is not…”

“Not what!” she cuts me off, hollering at a level I’ve never even heard her voice reach. “Not you opening your trap again and telling someone something you have no business telling them?! What, Evan?!”

Opening my mouth, I prepare to calmly explain the situation, but she does not wait. She’s mad as hell and in full on argument mode.

“Is it not the same as before?! You just don’t know how to keep your mouth shut! You did it back then and now you did it again! It will always be like this, because you don’t care, you don’t…”

“Whoa, whoa, wait just a minute…I don’t care?! You think I don’t care?! Seriously!! Piper, come on!”

“You always have to have the last word, don’t you Evan?! Always got to have a comeback for everything with some smartass comment or joke about…”

I cut her off; no way am I listening to this. “Since when did this become a dig at my personality. How does that even have anything to do with what’s going on here? Yeah, sure I like to lighten up shit and joke around. Big freaking deal!”

“It’s how you are; it’s how you will always be. You have a big mouth, Evan, and you need to learn how to control it.”

“And that is where letting me explain everything would help out a little,” I widen my eyes trying my best to drive home that she is damn well overreacting and not even giving me a chance here.

Piper, turns on her toes and starts frantically pulling at the handle on the passenger door as if it will magically come open despite the fact that it’s a solid metal car door that is locked tight. Shoving my hands in my pocket, I feel around until I find the little square lock remote. I pull it to the edge of my pocket, enough to see which button is the lock and which is the unlock. Zeroing in on the tiny picture of a fully sealed lock, I push it, a beeping ringing through the air immediately; giving her a sound confirmation that it is indeed locked.

“Arrrrrhhhgghhhh!” Piper instantly stomps her foot and kicks at the door then turns to face me. “Just unlock the door!”

“And what? Are you going to get in and lock me out, all while I have the keys right in my pocket and can unlock it at any point and talk to you?!”

Bouncing in a tantrum sort of fashion, Piper grinds her teeth together as her face twists and turns into angry frustration. “Just give me the keys then, Evan,” she urges me with a pained glare that nearly makes me give in.

“Hear me out?” I don’t give in, pleading with her right back to do something she never did before; let me tell her the whole story. “Just let me tell you what happened back then and with Abby. If you’re still pissed off, then I’ll give you the keys.”

She pauses, pursing her lips. “Fine,” she spouts out, still pissed off as hell.

Suddenly I have no clue where to start. Closing my eyes for only a second, I replay the entire frustrating moment of when my tongue slipped and I betrayed her.

“I would love to get a slice of that piece of pie,” Mitch says eyeballing Piper out in the distance with a smug grin on his face.

“Don’t talk about her like that and stop looking at her.”

“Or what?!” he snaps in warning but I ignore him.

He’s looking for a fight; he always is. If there were ever two brothers that detested each other with every ounce of their being, it would be us. After being dragged from military base to military base, you would think we would cling to one another for support, but it had the opposite effect on us. Mitch grew up following around all of the guys on base, longing to be just like them. I, on the other hand, wanted more. I wanted a home, friendship and a stable environment that didn’t include bouncing around the country. That ultimately pushed us apart as brothers; the need for a future so different.