For3ver (6 page)

SARA: U cumming over again 2night? 

I saw spots in my vision as I read the texts over and over. Fury came over me as I put the puzzle pieces together. I threw the phone as hard as I could at Gage's head and screamed at him. 

  "GET THE FUCK UP GAGE PORTER!"

He howled and grabbed his head, turning to look at me with hung-over, guilty eyes. 

  "Sara?! Really?!" I yelled at him as he was still slowly waking up. 

  "What?" he growled. I used to think that voice was sexy, too. Not anymore. 

  "You. Fucked. Sara." I spit at him. His eyes got wide like a deer caught in headlights. 

  "How do you think that?" he asked as he rubbed the sleep from his face, then his head where the phone bounced off. 

  "Read the texts, asshole. You lied to me about when you came home last night because you were with Sara all night. I'm done, Gage. That's the last straw," I growled out and stormed back up the stairs.

Tears were freely flowing down my face before I made it out of the house. Running into Gram on the front porch, she asked me something, but I couldn't hear over my sobs. I ran inside, past my parents and up to my room to cry myself to sleep. 

Done. I was done with him and very possibly done with the Porter boys all together. 

CHAPTER 5

LIAM

"Liam!" I could hear Gram's screams from down the road as I walked home from the pond. "Oh, Lord! Liam!" Frantically looking around, she was in her robe, standing in the front lawn. 

  "Gram!" I screamed, bursting into a sprint to get to her. 

  "Liam!" She cried. "Gage! Gage!" she panted and then I heard it. Animalistic screams coming from the house. 

I hate admitting this and I don't like to think about it, but I didn't know if I was going to run into that house to Gage beating the hell out of Ryley. That thought should have never been in my head about my brother. I'd never seen him get physical with a woman before, but I was frantic to get into the house. Practically rolling down the stairs where the screams and thunderous crashing noises were coming from, I found Gage alone, trashing the entire basement. The TV was shattered, the couch was on its side and across the room, and the coffee table was snapped in half. It looked like he even picked up the washing machine and threw it at the wall. 

  "Gage!" I screamed over his rage, but he didn't stop.

I'd never seen my brother so crazy before and I was scared he wouldn't see me and he'd treat me like one of the inanimate objects he had no regard for, which was bullshit. That was all Gram's stuff he was breaking. There was no stopping him without force, so I ran at his back and tackled him. I locked my arms around him, trying to keep him pinned to the ground, but he was so much bigger. He bucked me off, but I saw his hands were bloody so I wasn't giving up and I tackled him again. 

  "Gage, stop, calm down, man, stop!" I screamed, holding tightly. 

He was getting weaker and soon his weakness turned into tears. I jumped away from him like he was melting. I'd never seen Gage cry, not once. Not even when he found out about Macy, not even when he took the beating of a lifetime by Rod's belt. Gage didn't cry, he was strong, he was aloof to all else in the world. Curled in a ball on the cluttered basement floor, he bawled his eyes out. 

  "Gage." The fear in my tone made me feel like a pussy, but I was scared shitless. When I reached for him, he screamed something and kicked me away. 

I ran, as fast as I could. I ran to Ryley's and pounded on the door. 

  "Liam!" Mrs. Reynolds barked, startled by my frantic knocking. 

  "I'm sorry, Mrs. Reynolds," I panted. "I need Ry! Please, I need Ry."  

She could make him feel better. I knew she could. 

  "Go on up, Liam, and calm down before you fall down those steps!" She lectured me as I bolted up the stairs. 

  "Ry!" I knocked and burst into her room, finding her bawling her eyes out while curled up on her bed. 

It was a bad deja vu and I was frozen for a minute. Thoughts of Gage slipped from my head when I saw Ryley crying like that, and all that mattered was her. 

  "Ry," I spoke softly while pulling her into my arms. 

Latching on like a leach, she cried on my shoulder for a few minutes and I held her tightly, stroking her hair in pure confusion. I wondered if they got into a nasty fight about my stupid CD I made her and I hoped it wasn't all my fault. 

  "Ry—" Before I could get anything else out, she shoved me away from her, and hard. I fell off her bed and stared up at her like she was insane. 

  "Get out," she cried at me, pointing to the door. "I hate you boys. Get out!" she shrieked, yanking open the door. 

  "Ry." I sprang to my feet, going for her. 

  "Get out!" Her scream halted me. 

  "Ryley?" her mom called up the stairs with worry. 

  "I'm sorry," I blurted, not sure what I was sorry for, but I left. 

  "Liam?" Mrs. Reynolds questioned. 

  "I—" I paused and stared at her confused. "I don't know, I'm sorry." And I walked out. 

I could hear Gram crying, not in pain, but she was still crying so I rushed through the front door. It looked like Tornado Gage had gone through the living room too. 

  "Sit down," I snapped at her as she tried to lift the entertainment center by herself. 

  "Oh, Liam," she cried and I carefully wrapped my arms around her. "He's hurting so, so much, Pickle." 

I wanted to know why and I wanted to know why Ryley was crying too. 

  "Grandma, go lay down," I told her, able to hear her heaving, raspy breathing. "I'm gonna get this cleaned up." 

When she actually listened to me, I knew she was exhausted. She slowly wandered to her room. I started bringing broken furniture to the curb for the garbage man that was thankfully coming in the morning. In the mess I spotted Ryley's hoodie and I brought it to Gage's room, but the door was locked. After I finished cleaning the basement and living room, I hesitantly made my way to Ry's. I knew if I used the window, she wouldn't cause a scene because she wouldn't want her parents to know how she snuck out of the house. 

  "Ry," I whispered through her cracked window and tapped on the glass. 

Pulling herself from the bed where she was curled up and watching TV, she pushed the window open. 

  "This is yours." I held the hoodie out to her and when she reached for it, I almost fell off the windmill when I saw the marks on her arm. "What the fuck is that!" I shouted. 

  "Shh! Liam!" She hushed me and rushed to her door, quickly closing it. 

I jumped through the window and grabbed her arm. 

  "Liam... stop," she said in a pleading tone, attempting to pull her arm away. 

  "What the hell is that, Ry?" I quietly yelled at her. It took me a few minutes but I lined my fingers up, realizing it was a handprint. "Who did this?" I felt a fire in my chest. I was ready to kill. "Who did it?" I snapped at her, seeing tears rolling down her face. "Gage?" 

Covering her mouth, she just cried into her hands, not confirming nor denying. 

  "Ryley, tell me right fucking now before I lose it. Did Gage do that to you?" I was heaving breaths. I wasn't thinking rationally. I wanted blood from whoever hurt her. "Now!" I shouted, startling her into a jump and whimper. 

  "Yes!" she cried. "He didn't do it on purpose, though!" she swore. 

Seeing red, I burst from her bedroom and was stomping down her stairs with only one thing on my mind: killing Gage. 

  "Liam!" Mrs. Reynolds bellowed when she saw the crazed look on my face. "I thought you left? Ryley! What's going on?" she demanded. 

  "Liam, stop!" Ryley cried, rushing after me. 

Flinging open their front door, I wasn't sure where I would find my brother, but he wasn't home so I paused and it was long enough for Ryley to grab me. 

  "Please, Liam, don't do anything!" 

  "What the hell happened?" I growled at her. She wanted to tell me, I watched her mouth try to tell me, but she broke down in tears again. I pulled her into my arms and inhaled her smell, calming down a little. "Ryley, Jesus," I whispered, laying my head on top of hers. 

  "Liam, what is going on?" Mrs. Reynolds asked, standing at the door. 

My ears perked up when I heard the engine of Gage's shitty El Camino he'd won in some shady bet a few months prior. The car whipped into the driveway and he jumped out. 

  "Get the fuck away from her!" he screamed at me, and I did, but only so I could charge him. 

I skipped the three steps to their porch and ran at him. He caught me, but I tackled him and it turned into flying fists and rolling around, pounding the shit out of each other. If Mr. Reynolds were home, he woulda kicked the shit out of both of us, but after Ryley tried to break up the fight and inadvertently got thrown to the side, Mrs. Reynolds called the police. I wasn't eighteen for five more days so Gage got booked and spent the night in jail.

I got my ass up for school the next morning and Ryley and I silently drove in together. I didn't even know if she wanted to give me a ride, but I didn't give her an option. I was waiting on the hood of her car when she came outside. I didn't have money for a car and obviously Gage wasn't doing shit for me anymore. 

  "See you third hour." Those were the only words I'd spoke and we parted ways. 

I was determined to find out what the hell happened and I wasn't going to let Ryley get out of telling me. I was getting it out of her third hour. It turned out I didn't need Ryley to tell me, I found out in second hour when Sara sauntered into the room wearing a bitchy grin, confirming she had to come straight from hell. 

  "'Sup, Liam?" She flipped her hair, sitting next to me; we didn't sit together. Ever. 

  "What?" I growled at her, ready to bite her head off if she talked shit about Ryley. 

  "What'd you do this weekend?" 

She fucking knew what I did; I'd seen her at both the parties I went to. 

  "Fuck off, Sara," I grumbled and faced the front of the room. 

  "Know what I did?" She leaned over, getting closer to me and I wanted to gag on her chemically floral perfume. "Your brother." She giggled, flipping her hair again and sat forward in her chair. 

  "What?" One of her equally stupid friends giggled and turned to face her. 

  "I'm fucking Gage again." She shrugged so nonchalantly I didn't know if it was a lie. 

  "Oh my GOD!" Katie's eyes flashed to mine and she was fighting back a shitty grin. "Did he break up with Ryley?" 

  "No," Sara said with no remorse in her screechy tone. "But I'm gonna make sure he does." 

Standing, I stormed from the room and went to Ryley's second hour. 

  "Mr. Porter?" The teacher said my name when I barged into the classroom. 

  "This is important." I took Ryley's hand and pulled her from the room. She stumbled behind me, embarrassed and confused. "He cheated?" I quietly asked, pinning her between my arms against the lockers so she couldn't escape. Her eyes shot to the ground and I knew it was the truth. "Fuck!" I punched the locker when I let her go and she flinched. 

  "Mr. Porter!" the teacher snapped. "I suggest you get back to class, or you can get to the principal's office."  

I looked at Ryley and she was still looking at her feet so I pushed her chin up. 

  "Fuck him, Ry, he's an asshole." 

In tears, she ran for the bathroom. She wasn't in third hour and I walked my ass home that day because it was obvious she left early. When I got home, Gage was on the couch and I attacked him again. 

  "What the fuck is wrong with you?" I screamed at him and the only thing that made me stop beating on his stupid drunk or high ass was Gram burst into tears. The fact he didn't fight back also made me stop. "You cheated? You put your hands on her?" 

  "Fuck off, Liam." His slurred speech had me studying his face to confirm if he was either high or drunk, but I couldn't tell which it was.

  "Stay the hell away from her!" I growled before going to my room, slamming the door. 

***

Gram made Ryley a birthday cake and being I hadn't talked to her in a few days, and obviously she wasn't talking to Gage, Ryley hadn't been around. 

  "Liam, Pickle," Gram quietly said to me. "Will you take this over to Ryley's?" 

I stared at the cake, afraid to see her; she had been in school, but she avoided me. I knew she didn't want to see me and I didn't know if it was the CD or if it was my asshole brother ruining the Porter name. 

I knocked on the front door and Mrs. Reynolds winced when she saw the fading bruises on my face from when Gage and I got into it days before. 

  "You okay, sweetheart?" She pulled me inside. 

  "I'm fine. Ry home?" I knew she was, her car was there. 

  "No. She went with Jenny to return her prom dress." 

When I jerked to look at her, I almost dropped the cake. 

  "Why?" I barked. 

  "Her and Gage broke up, she refuses to go alone. I told her she'd have a good time no matter what." 

  "I'll take her then," I boasted, offended she didn't give me the option. I was her damn best friend! That's what I was supposed to do. 

  "Then you get your butt to the mall and buy her dress." She grinned at me, taking the cake from my hands. 

After getting the info I needed from Mrs. Reynolds, I rushed into my house. 

  "Gram?" I called out. 

  "Liam?" She blurted with worry. It was a hard week on us all and I felt guilty causing her to be so stressed. 

  "Gram, can I borrow some money and the car?" 

She stared at me skeptically for a minute and I didn't know what the hell for. She knew I'd pay her back within a few days, and she knew I would never be reckless with her car. 

  "For what, Liam? I just borrowed Gage a hundred dollars and he used it to get drunk." 
     I scowled. Gage had money, he had a job, what the hell was he borrowing money from her for? 

  "To take Ryley to prom." 

  "Oh, Liam," she sighed. "I worry about you boys." Shaking her head, she walked to her purse. "I worry about all three of you." She handed me a few bills that I didn't even look at, then the keys. "Just please, no more fighting."