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Authors: Elena Dillon

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BOOK: Crushing
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How did boys understand each other when their mouths were full?

“Th-th-the st-st-stutterer,” Holden said.

“Shut. Up. Holden.” I glared at him. Holden was the epitome of a spoiled rich kid. He had been a brat when we were kids and had teased Gage back in the day. He’d gotten better since elementary school. Most of that behavior had stopped, but sometimes he reverted back to that bully mentality, and I just wanted to kick him.

“That’s right. Didn’t you have a crush on him back in the day?” Holden looked at me and smirked.

I kicked him in the shin. Hard. “You’re just mad because he used to beat the crap out of you every week.” I glared at him.

“Ow, Rory.” He huffed and turned to talk to Veronica.

Dom turned in his chair to look me in the eye. “Do you know why he moved back?” He knew me really well, and I would need to tread carefully here.

“No.” I hedged. “I’ve seen him, but it’s not like I grilled him for information. I didn’t even know it was him.” I wasn’t exactly lying, but I didn’t want to tell the whole storm drain story now.

Laken looked over from where she was gazing into Walker’s eyes, obviously having something to contribute to the gossip. “I heard he went to a really expensive prep school that his rich uncle paid for. He got kicked out because he got caught with the dean’s daughter and got her pregnant.”

Veronica chimed in. “I heard he stole the dean’s car, and cheated on all his tests. And there was some kind of scandal with his parents a long time ago.”

“My uncle, the police chief, said he heard he was dealing meth,” Holden said. “He says they are going to be watching him real close.”

My heart sped up. That couldn’t all be true. Small-town gossip ran wild here. It could be any of that, none of it, or somewhere in between. And on top of it all Holden was a jackass. He always liked to stir up trouble. As if he didn’t get
into
plenty of his own trouble, his uncle or his rich parents had to consistently get him out of. I decided I wouldn’t believe any of the Gage rumors until I heard from a more reliable source.

“Yeah, well maybe we shouldn’t judge people before we know the truth.” I was getting even more irritated. “It sounds like Wynter gossip out of control to me.”

I was angry. Why couldn’t people mind their own business? Obviously no one had anything better to do than make up stories about him. Good grief. If he was moving here to get away from his reputation, I am pretty sure he picked the wrong place. Every time I thought about him or someone mentioned him I got a weird feeling in my stomach. Like a party was going on and the squirrels were leading a conga line in there. Not in a good way. All of a sudden I wasn’t hungry anymore.

Dom was looking at me in a way that made me uncomfortable. Everyone thought of him as this typical jock. Only interested in sports and working out, but then at the most inopportune moments he could be incredibly astute. It was inconvenient.

He looked concerned. “You okay, Ror?”

I just nodded. I couldn’t seem to get a handle on my feelings today. Any thoughts of Gage made my heart beat faster. My skin felt itchy, and I was having trouble concentrating on what everyone was saying.

I tried to focus and hoped I didn’t have my feelings all over my face. I wasn’t really good at hiding them. I was a pretty straightforward person. I didn’t want to lie, but I didn’t want Dom to feel bad either. He was at the very least a great friend and at most someone I cared a lot about.

He didn’t talk much the rest of lunch, but his arm never did leave the back of my chair.

Chapter 3

 

We spent the afternoon hunting down the rest of what we needed for the evening. I needed shoes, Veronica needed a necklace to match her new outfit, and Laken needed a top.

I had gone into a funky boutique to look for shoes next door to where Laken and Veronica were looking at jewelry. When I came out the front door, Holden stood in the corner with his dad. I ducked back into the archway so they couldn’t see me. Mr. Cosgrove gave me the creeps. Great. Stuck hiding like a criminal.

“Holden, your SAT scores came back lower than last time. CSU may not even let you in.” I could hear the hostility in his voice.

“I’m sure if you just write a check they’ll forget about it. Why are you making such a big deal?” Holden sounded annoyed.

“I’m not going to throw good money after bad. You will take those tests again and improve your score or I’ll make you sorry.” Mr. Cosgrove sounded furious.

Well, this could go on forever. I decided to give Holden a break. Even though he could be a jerk, his dad was worse. I came out under the archway.

“Hi, Mr. Cosgrove,” I said, trying to look friendly.

For the split second before he could change it, his expression was so angry it took me back a step. In a flash it changed to a condescending smile. “Good afternoon, Rory. How are you?” He looked me up and down like he was searching for a flaw.

“Just fine, thanks. Holden, you coming?” I asked.

“Yup. Later, Dad.” Holden walked away with me without looking back.

No real question why Holden drove us all crazy I guess. The answer stood behind us glaring holes into our backs.

When I got home, my parents were happy to hear Dom was walking me over to the party because they had been worried about me going by myself. They hadn’t forgotten that summer when the girls had gone missing, and they still talked about it like it happened yesterday. I understood that they worried, but it bordered on ridiculous. There hadn’t been a disappearance in six years except for a few girls the police thought could be runaways. No proof had shown otherwise. I headed to my room to avoid another argument.

I took a nap, then got ready. By the time I came downstairs, Dominic was in my kitchen—no surprise—eating. How did one person eat that much? I said as much to him, and of course he had a defense.

“Shopping makes me hungry. Besides, I went to the gym twice today.”

“Twice?” I maybe made it once a month. I played golf, rode my bike, and kayaked with my brothers on the weekends. That was enough for me. I needed to be doing something fun to get exercise. Exercise just for the sake of exercise bored me to death.

“I lifted this morning and did cardio this afternoon. This body doesn’t just happen, you know.” He grinned as he made his chest muscles dance under his shirt.

I blinked a couple of times and turned around to get something to drink. All that working out paid off for him. I had spent a lot of time on hair and makeup, or I would have stuck my head under the faucet to cool off.

My mom rubbed his head as she walked by. He smiled up at her.

And we were right back to where we started.

My brother Jeremiah strolled into the kitchen looking sleepy.

“Late night?” I asked, grabbing him as he walked by to snuggle in for a hug. I had heard him come in around five this morning. He didn’t always come home on the weekends, and I missed him and Jackson terribly. I had the best older brothers. I hated that they lived in the dorms at Charleston Southern University. I complained to my parents that they got away with murder, but I loved them so much.

He gave me my expected bear hug. “Yup.” He smirked down at me. He rubbed my back and moved on to the fridge.

“Is Jackson coming home?” I asked hopefully.

He took the milk out of the fridge, but just before he could drink out of the carton my mom shoved a glass at him.

“He’s writing a paper this weekend, so he has to stay. He needs the library.” He poured the milk and scrounged around in the fridge for who knows what, when he asked, “Wanna kayak tomorrow after church, Shrimpy?”

“Sure, we haven’t been in weeks.” I loved kayaking in the swamps and marshes with my brothers. We’d been doing it for as long as I could remember.

“Wanna go, Dom?” Jeremiah asked.

I tried not to visibly cringe. Jeremiah, Jackson, and Dom were good friends. Dom was eleven months younger, but the three of them had been inseparable since Dom had moved here. Now that the boys were away at college, when they came home they wanted to hang out.

“Definitely.” Dom was grinning from ear to ear.

I knew he missed them too, so it was hard to begrudge him time spent with Jeremiah. I would have loved to have my brother to myself, but that rarely happened anymore.

“Okay, we’re on, then.” He sat down at the table with the leftovers he found in the fridge. My mother set down a plate of the chicken piccata she had whipped up for dinner while I had been getting ready. My brother proceeded to wolf down the leftovers and the chicken in an amount of time that couldn’t have been healthy. Dominic had already finished his. Boys and their food.

“So I heard Gage Maddox moved back in across the street.” Jeremiah raised his eyebrows at me.

“Yup, that’s what I hear.” I got up and started rinsing my plate.

“You gonna cry if he leaves again?” Jeremiah smirked.

How is it I can love my brother but want to throw something at his head at the same time? “Shut up, Jeremiah.”

“What are you talking about?” Dom asked.

“Rory was in love with him when he lived here before,” Jeremiah informed him.

“I was not. You are such a jerk!” I’m sure my face was beet red.

“You cried for a month, Rory.” He laughed.

“Two,” my mom said as she made her way to the laundry room with her laundry basket.

“What is the matter with you? I was eleven. He was my best friend.” I threw my hands up in the air.

“Your first real-life crush. You loooovvved him.” He made kissy noises and rubbed my head when he took his plate to the sink.

“Why does everybody keep saying that? I’m going to tell your date that you peed the bed until you were nine,” I told him.

“I peed the bed once when I was nine, and it was because I drank too much soda and didn’t wake up in time. One time, Aurora,” he argued.

“Well, she won’t know that.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I won’t be bringing her here, then.”

Dominic wasn’t laughing; he just sat quietly while my brother and I argued about the appropriateness of telling family secrets until Jeremiah wandered off to shower for his date. Jerk.

Chapter 4

 

Dom and I walked along the beach toward the party. He was rambling on about the end of our senior year and everything we still had ahead. Prom, Ditch Day, the Senior Trip, and college.

We could see the bonfire from pretty far away. It was huge. Nobody ever did anything halfway here. This was the South; everything was big. When we got there the crowd had already grown to a considerable size. It was a small island where not very much happened, so when it did, everyone showed up.

As soon as we got close, Veronica made a beeline for me and grabbed my arm.

“Finally! Where have you been? I’ve been texting you.” She dragged me away from the fire to where Laken was looking anxious. I pulled out my phone and saw that it was on silent. Oops.

“What’s going on?” I asked, turning the sound back on and shoving it in the pocket of my new jeans.

“Walker has been talking to Regina Finster all night and ignoring Laken.” Veronica looked at Laken, who was trying not to look upset, but I could tell she was struggling.

“It’s fine. Whatever. I mean, he can do whatever he wants. We aren’t official. I just wish he would say something instead of pretending he likes me all day and then acting like an ass because he’s drinking,” Laken said.

I could tell she was more upset than she was saying, and I didn’t blame her. What a jerk. Sometimes I understood why my mom said dating in high school was a bad idea.

“You know what to do?” I asked.

They both nodded. We took off toward the fire. We found the nearest bunch of people and started laughing and talking like we were having the time of our lives. We weren’t flirting as much as just doing our best to make sure Walker would see Laken having a good time without him.

We had a pact with a set of rules. We called it “IGIT.” It stood for Idiot Guy in Training. Sometimes it stood for Idiot Girl, depending on the situation.

We had seen many a girl get her heart broken by guys thinking they had the upper hand. These guys would start ignoring them, and the girls would just get more and more desperate. We had decided we would not be those girls. We would not be caught looking like we were upset in public if a guy turned. We were not desperate females.

IGIT was born.

We circulated, smiling and laughing our way around the bonfire. I wasn’t drinking—not really my thing. I don’t like feeling out of control, and in general, drunk people look stupid. So when I noticed Holden acting like even more of a jackass than normal, I decided to give him a wide berth. As I went to go around his back, he turned around.

“Aurora, my love, what are you drinking?”

Crap. He was slurring and sort of leaning toward me.

“Water, Holden. You know me—I’m a big partier.” I was trying to make my exit, but he grabbed my arm.

“Let’s get you something stronger than that. You can’t drink water at a party. That’s just wrong.”

“No, really, I’m good. I’m gonna go find Veronica.” I tried to pull my arm free, but he didn’t budge. “Holden, let go.” I looked around for Dominic and noticed he was down by the water with a bunch of guys playing football. I didn’t want to cause a scene and shout for him. I could handle this.

Just when I was starting to get really annoyed, I saw Holden look up. He must have seen someone else he wanted to irritate because his face lit up. I was relieved, but then my stomach flip-flopped when I heard Holden call out.

“Hey, everybody, look—it’s our new neighborhood drug dealer. Got any meth?” He was laughing like he was the funniest person on the planet. He still had a hold of my arm. I tried pulling back again, but he tightened his grip. I looked up, and Gage was right in front of me glaring at Holden like he was going to kill him.

“She said let go.” He was a good three or four inches taller than Holden, and his stance made it clear he was serious. This was going bad fast.

“What are you gonna do about it, loser?” Holden’s tone was mocking.

Gage reached out and grabbed the hand Holden had on my arm and yanked it off. He shoved Holden sideways away from the fire. Holden shoved back, and Gage grabbed him by the shirt. All of a sudden I was pushed to the side as Dom grabbed them both by an arm.

“Hey, man, chill out. He wasn’t hurting her. He was just playin’ around.” Dom was trying to pry them apart, when Gage turned, hauled off, and punched Dom in the mouth. That was it. Dom stumbled back, then took a full-out run at him and tackled him to the ground. They were rolling around on the ground trying to get punches in. All the boys at the party were immediately surrounding them, hooting and hollering.

What in the world just happened? Why were Gage and
Dom
fighting? I needed to get someone to break it up, but I had gotten shoved to the back of the crowd. I was trying to push through to see, but there was nothing Southern boys liked better than a good brawl, and I was getting nowhere.

Panic started to set in. I couldn’t see how bad it was. I couldn’t see anything. Holden and Dom against Gage didn’t seem fair. What if he got hurt? It would be my fault. My hands were shaking. I had to find a way to stop them.

I turned to see if I could find the girls or any help at all and saw Jeremiah starting toward the crowd, looking pissed off. Not sure if this was better or worse. At least he could stop it.

He pushed through the crowd with no trouble. How did he do that? I got through behind him. He pulled Gage off Dominic.

“Walk it off.” He pushed him toward the edge of the crowd away from Dom. Gage hesitated. I couldn’t tell if he had been hurt. He looked like he wanted to continue, but I think he realized his fight wasn’t with Jeremiah.

He glared at Holden, bounced his shoulder off him as he went by, then pushed through the crowd and disappeared into the dark.

Jeremiah pulled Dominic up. He was furious. “What the hell is wrong with you two? My sister was right next to you. Someone could have ended up in the fire.” He shoved Dominic and Holden toward the street.

“Let’s go.” With Jeremiah standing six foot three and built like a semitruck, neither of them were going to argue. “You.” He pointed at me as he walked by. “Get in the car.”

Was he serious? Ugh. This is what I get for having a caveman for a brother. If this had been my dad or even Jackson I would have attempted to argue, but Jeremiah? No way. He wouldn’t argue back. He would just pick me up like a sack of potatoes, and that would be the end of it. Not being up for any more public humiliation tonight, I went along quietly.

#

Complete silence engulfed the car. Holden had passed out in the back, and Dom just sat staring out the window. My brother’s jaw was set. The level of testosterone in the car was a little overwhelming. I thought about what had just happened. Gage had obviously showed up ready for a fight, and the situation got out of hand. Why had he punched Dom like that? Boys are so strange. Some little thing happens and they are rolling around in the sand punching each other, but then something big happens and they do nothing. I don’t understand, and I guess I never will.

Jeremiah dropped Dom and Holden off at their houses, and neither said much. Holden, because he was incapable—Dom had to help him into his house. And Dom, I’m sure, because he was angry.

Once we were alone in the car, Jeremiah looked at me. “You know that was about you, right?” Great. “I saw the whole thing from the top of the dune.”

“I don’t know why he did that. Holden was just being obnoxious. He wouldn’t let go of my arm. I’m sure Gage just thought I was getting hassled.”

“Yeah, that’s why he punched Dom in the mouth.” The sarcasm in his voice was clear. “Trust me—that part didn’t have anything to do with Holden.”

“Well, boys are dumb. That’s what I know.” I nodded. “No offense, even though I’m still mad at you about earlier.”

His lip twitched, but he still looked annoyed. I didn’t usually include my brothers in that whole immature-boy category. I loved them and they were awesome. Any girl would be lucky to have them. Of course, I’m biased.

“What exactly is going on with you and Dom? It’s not cool to lead people on, Ror.” He looked out the windshield, his face serious.

“I’m not trying to. I am not dating Dominic. He takes it upon himself to act like we are. I have told him repeatedly that I want to stay single. I don’t know why that fight happened, but it wasn’t about me.”

Jeremiah’s laugh was a bark. “You don’t have a clue, do you? How is that possible when you grew up with me and Jack?”

“What do you mean? I know how guys think. I just don’t know what the big deal is.” He was making me feel like a stupid, shallow girl. “What were you doing there anyway? I thought you had a date,” I huffed.

I love my brother, but he was in some ways a carbon copy of my dad when it came to the women in his life. It irritated me that he stepped back into my personal life to tell me everything I was doing wrong.

“You’re lucky my date didn’t work out or I wouldn’t have been there to stop all your boyfriends from fighting over you.”

I glared at him. “Since when did you become the king bouncer of beach parties, anyway? You used to let everyone deal with their own stuff.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment, and then he took a deep breath.

“At one of the college parties I went to in the fall, some guys were drinking and started fighting. Nobody did anything. We just thought it was funny, ya know? Just another brawl. One of the guys ended up with severe head trauma and is a vegetable now. I promised myself I wouldn’t ever stand by and do nothing again.”

I was floored. I had no idea he had been through that.

“That’s awful. I’m so sorry.” I took a deep breath. “I’m not trying to lead Dom on. I don’t know what I could have done to prevent that fight, but I’ll try harder to stay out of trouble.” I conceded.

“All right.” He smiled. “You’re a good kid, Ror.”

“Kid? I am only twenty months younger than you and Jackson! Are you for real?”

He laughed. “Well, twenty months makes a big difference. I go to college now. I’m obviously much more mature than you,” he said with a condescending look on his face.

As we pulled into our driveway, I felt safe enough to reach over and poke him hard in the side.

“More mature? Okay exactly how many girls are you dating right now? Real mature!” I jumped out of the car as soon as it stopped moving to avoid retribution. I ran into the house ahead of him. He was much bigger than me, so I had to rely on any advantage. He may have been an awesome brother, but he was not above torturing me. And tonight did not seem like a good time to pee my pants while he held me down and tickled me until I cried.

BOOK: Crushing
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