Hothouse Flower (38 page)

< 62 >

RYKE MEADOWS

Movie night at Rose’s Princeton house has already
turned into a fucking fight.
Gravity
stays paused on the flat screen with Sandra Bullock suspended in space. Besides
the furniture, the TV is the only thing left standing in the living room. All
the books are packed away and the pictures on the walls have been taken down
and rolled in bubble wrap.
 

Lo and Rose have been fighting for the past ten minutes, and
unfortunately
Lo’s
go-to move is to throw popcorn at
her. She swats away another flying kernel.

“I’m trying to talk to you
civilly
,” Rose combats. “Stop pelting me with your popcorn.”

“I will when you start fucking listening to me.” He throws
another kernel at her, and it lands on her lap.

Connor has to grab Rose around the waist, since she looks
ready to spring off the couch.
 

“Careful, Rose, you’re pregnant. You’re not going to be able
to take out your claws for seven more months,” Lo tells her in his edged voice.

“Don’t be an ass,” I cut in. I hold Daisy on my lap as we
sit in the big chair facing the TV. She stays quiet, always the spectator of
fights, never really in them. It’s not a coincidence. She hates this shit and
tries to avoid inserting herself into these situations. I’m not as nice.

Lo and Rose continue to bicker, and I drift out of the
argument as I watch Daisy delete a text message from her mom. My stomach caves.

“Hey,” I whisper, and her big green eyes meet mine. “Don’t
make my fucking mistakes, okay?” I tuck a strand of pink hair behind her ear.
I’m the cynical one who holds grudges. She’s the lighthearted girl who forgives
and opens her arms to strangers. I don’t want her to change because of this.

“She called the cops on you,
Ryke
,”
she murmurs. “It’s not okay.”

“I’m already fucking over it,” I say. My publicists have
been blasting the media, denying the allegation, and reminding people that Greg
Calloway confirmed to
People
that our
relationship started after Daisy turned eighteen. It was his way of apologizing
for his wife’s rash, emotional decision.

But the pictures of me going to jail—the headlines that
circulated through every major magazine—those won’t ever disappear. Not even
with a public statement. The backlash—I felt it, even if I don’t read tabloids.
The nasty stares at the gym, the glares at the fucking grocery store.
Time
magazine pulled that issue of us
off the racks.

There is a whole lot of fucking hate towards me. And a lot
towards Daisy too, for sticking by my side. I don’t care what anyone thinks
except the people in this room and our families. But the more people attack “
Raisy
”—as the press has called us—the more she blames her
mom.

The more her hate stirs.

“How?” she asks. “I watch you get handcuffed, all because of
her.”

“It was her way of protecting you and saying
fuck you
to me. That’s it, Dais. She
loves you, you know that.” I pause. “And you love her.”

Daisy stares at her cellphone with a watery gaze. I hug her
close and kiss her head. Our mother problems have always been similar; mine are
just a few more years down the road from hers. I took a wrong turn, and I don’t
want her to follow me this time.

I tilt her chin up, and she says, “I’ll think about what you
said.”

“Okay,” I nod. My voice lowers even more. “Are you going to
talk to your sisters about your sleeping issues?”

Her face falls. “After this?” This past week, she’s been
more open to the idea of sharing all the details of what happened in the past,
even the most painful one.

“Yeah.” I give her a look, to make sure she knows what I
mean.

Her shoulders slacken a little and she nods. “Okay, after
this.”

Lo opens his mouth to speak again, but Connor interrupts,
“We’re offering a solution. It’s nothing to be upset about.”

Lo presses his hands to his chest. “I’m not going to live
with you. You’ve been a great roommate for these past two years, but you’re
having a baby, man.” He shakes his head. “You don’t need to be dealing with our
shit on top of that.”

 
“You’re not ready,”
Rose butts in like she did before. “You relapsed only a few months ago—”

“I’m never going to be ready, Rose!” Lo yells. “If you’re
waiting for me to be cured, then you might as well give up now. This is going
to last forever. Not a month. Not a few years. I’m an addict. I could very well
stay sober for ten years and relapse again. You
gotta
accept that.”

Her lips draw into a thin line. “And what about Lily?”

“I can take of her like I always have,” Lo snaps.

“Oh, you mean when you spent years letting her have sex with
different men every night,” Rose refutes. For fuck’s sake—she has less of a
filter now that she’s pregnant. She just says whatever’s on her fucking mind.

Lo scowls, so coldly that I’m surprised Rose doesn’t shrivel
back. I’m ready for him to tear her apart with something completely nasty. But
then he says, “That’s your pregnancy pass for the fucking night. Whoever is
growing in your belly is a demon. Straight up making you evil.”

Rose narrows her eyes, ignoring the slight to get back to
the topic at hand. “I don’t care about the baby. I want Lily to live with us,
and if she wants to, then you shouldn’t be fighting me on it.”

“She doesn’t.”

“Have you asked her?”

“Yes!”

I look to the couch beside Lo, where Lily used to sit. But
she went to the bathroom…

I turn my attention to Connor.

He’s checking his watch. The same thought must be crossing
his mind. “How long has she been gone?” My voice cuts Lo and Rose’s fight,
silencing them.

Lo rotates and notices the bare cushion to his left. “Shit,”
he curses and stands up, his eyes wide with worry.

“Twenty minutes. Maybe fifteen,” Connor says, following my
movement as I rise to my feet.

Lo doesn’t even hesitate.

He just runs.

< 63 >

RYKE MEADOWS

“Kitchen bathroom!” Rose calls out before Lo
sprints up the staircase.

I’m right behind him, my hand on his back as he rushes through
the house. Connor follows close behind, and I just think…
please fucking God be okay
. Please let everyone be overreacting. It
wouldn’t be the first time someone barged in on Lily taking an extra-long piss,
reading her magazines. She lost
Lo’s
trust a long
time ago. I think when he realized her recovery is a lot fucking bumpier than
smooth.

The shower pipes groan through the walls.

Fuck.

Lo picks up his speed, and when he reaches the door, he
slams his fist against the wood, trying the locked knob.

“LILY!” he screams, his voice full of unadulterated fear. He
told me yesterday that he tried to kiss her, and she turned away. For Lily,
rejecting a kiss isn’t a small thing. Her reasoning was that she didn’t feel
good, and he let her go back to sleep.

She’s been doing that a lot too—sleeping.

Lo keeps jiggling the knob. “LILY!”

“Move,” I tell him.

He does, and I slam my shoulder into the wood. It takes two
hard rams before it swings open. I run ahead of Lo, and I whip the shower
curtain aside.

Lily is fully clothed, sitting in the tub as shower water
sprays down on her. She shivers, her arms clinging around her legs, and her
knees pressed to her chest. Her black long-sleeve shirt is wet and suctions to
her thin body.

As I shut off the faucet, the shower pours on my arm, the
water
freezing
cold. It almost jolts
me backwards.

What is Lily’s fucking obsession with having meltdowns in
tubs?

Lo jumps in, soaking his pants, and he holds Lily’s
colorless cheeks steadily. “Lil, talk to me.” His voice is choked, pained
beyond belief. Before the shower cuts off, it douses him, his light brown hair
wet, and beads of water rolling down his razor-sharp cheeks.

She looks fragile in his clutch, but my brother seems just
as broken, just as dark and pained. My heart pounds as I watch her hurt
exchange between them. Without the water gushing, her sobs echo in the
high-ceilinged bathroom. Heavy sobs that morph into cries.

“Lil,
shhh
,” Lo says. “You’re
okay.”

I step into the bathtub behind her and feel around with my
foot, the ice cold soaking through my jeans. Then I squat and use my hands, searching
for anything: razors, sex toys, all of the fucking above. I find the closed
drain and lift it up so water begins pouring out.

“I’m…
sorrrry
…” Her teeth chatter
and she buries her face into his shoulder.

“Sorry for what, Lil?” he whispers, rubbing her back to warm
her body.

Rose is pacing by the sink, her phone at the ready, one
minute from speed dialing either an ambulance or a psychiatrist.

I climb out of the tub, and Connor nods to me. “Anything?”
he asks.

I shake my head and stand beside him on Lily’s purple bath
rug.

“I meant to tell you…” Lily says under her breath, her tears
still dripping, but they’re silent, accompanied by deep fucking sorrow.
“Yesterday, I was going to… I got scared…” Her entire body quakes from being
soaked with ice cold water, most likely done to combat her cravings. I’ve seen
her do it before, but not like this. She usually jokes about it, making an ice
bath, jumping in for two seconds before shrieking and running away. “Sexual
urges be gone!” she’d say with a smile.
 

This is fucking different. This is way more intense.

Connor hands Lo a towel, and he wraps the soft purple cotton
around her trembling frame.

“Lily…you can tell me anything,” Lo says.

“Not this.” She shakes her head, tears pooling down her
cheeks. “Not
this.
”

She fucking cheated on him? I set my hands on my head at
that gut prediction.
She fucking cheated
on him.

But then Lo takes her hand in his, lacing their fingers
slowly, as if each one is more important than the next. His eyes stay focused
on their hands, as if he can’t bear to look anywhere else. And I wonder if he
thinks the same thing as me.
  

“You have to tell me, Lil,” he murmurs. “I can’t guess.” His
voice turns into a choked whisper. “Please don’t make me guess.”

She nods repeatedly as if working herself up to it. No one
speaks, too frightened that she might crumble into nothing at someone else’s
interjection. She opens her mouth and then something must click because her
expression flips from realization to complete devastation. “Do you think…you
think I cheated?”

Lo looks heartbroken. “I don’t know, Lil,” he whispers.
“You’ve been acting distant, and you didn’t come with me to Paris, so you had
all that time alone… I just, I don’t…I don’t know.”

“I
didn’t
cheat,”
she says with so much fucking conviction. “You have to believe me.” She
searches his eyes for it.

I let out a breath. My brother exhales a fucking bigger one
than me.

“I do, Lil.” He touches her cheek. “But you have to fucking
tell me what’s going on.”

“I was upset…overwhelmed. And I wanted to do things and I just
thought…this would help.” Her eyes flicker to the showerhead and back to her
kneecaps, closing up again.

“Just spit it out,” Lo urges. “Whatever it is. Just get it off
your chest right now, love.”

It’s her turn to stare at their hands. “I didn’t know how to
tell you…I thought while you were in Paris, I’d figure out a good way to say
it, but I don’t…I don’t think there’s a good way. And I just kept putting it
off, thinking
tomorrow will be the day.
”
She wipes her eyes quickly and with a deep breath, she says, “I’m eight weeks
pregnant.” She barely looks at him.

My hands drop off my head.
What?
I wrack my brain for signs, but I can’t think of much other
than Lily being anxious—like she normally is. Maybe her boobs were bigger?
She’s so unassuming and comes across shy and introverted unless you really,
really talk to her that it’s hard to notice these things.

Now I realize how she kept a sex addiction secret for so
long.

Lo is stunned to silence. We all are…except. I look at Rose
and Connor, and they carry a content expression. They’ve known. Fuck them.

“You can’t be…” Lo finally says. He lifts up her sopping
shirt, and I zoom in on her belly. I think we all thought she was just gaining
a healthier amount of weight, but now with this answer, I can tell the fucking
pudge
isn’t from eating more.

This is very fucking real.

Lo turns his head and finds Rose. “
You’re
pregnant.”

“We both are,” Rose says softly.

“That’s not possible.”

“The probability is slim but it’s not impossible,” Connor
answers, his hands in his slacks. “Their cycles had synced up after living
together. I don’t use protection with Rose, and I’m sure you didn’t with Lily.”

“I forgot to take my birth control a few days,” Lily
breathes. “I didn’t realize it…” She trails off and keeps staring at her
fucking hands. I can understand why she’s kept this information to herself. My
brother has been getting better since the road trip, but he was at a horrible
place. And he’s been so adamant about
not
having kids.

I don’t want to believe it, but I think this knowledge could
have sent him over—caused him to jump off the fucking deep end. No one could
know for sure, but it’s clearly not a gamble Lily was willing to take. I’m not
sure I would have either.

“You could have told me sooner,” Lo says quietly, but his
brows furrow, trying to think back to that time. Probably realizing the same
thing as me.

“I know you don’t want kids, and I didn’t want to stress you
out with this…I’m sorry.” She sniffs louder, trying hard not to cry.

“
Shhh
.” Lo holds her tighter.
“It’s okay, Lil.”

“It’s not,” Lily says, wiping her tears even faster, an
attempt to control them. She pushes him back a little so she can stare up into
his amber eyes. “You don’t want a baby.”

“That doesn’t matter anymore.” He lets out a long breath and
touches his chest. “We’re addicts. You and me.” He motions between them like
they share the same favorite color. “Maybe we shouldn’t have kids, but we have
the means to raise him or her well.”

“And you have us,” Rose says. She glances at me.

And I nod at my brother. “You have us, Lo. We’re here for
both of you.” Rose, Connor and I have this kind of confidence that Lo severely
lacks, and we’ll support him one-hundred fucking percent. I won’t let my
brother fall.

Both Lo and Lily look overwhelmed. My brother nods back at
me like
thanks.
And then he whispers
to Lily, “We did this together. It’s not your fault, love. We’ll figure it
out.”

“I’ve fucked up,” she says.

“I think I’ve beat you these past few months,” he murmurs.
“You’ve been there for me, and I’ve been fucking stupid.”

“No,” she says with tear-filled eyes. “You’ve been really
strong.” And then they hug at the same time. Both magnetically drawn to each
other, arms wrapped in such soul-deep comfort that I can’t fucking watch.

We give them privacy, but Rose purposefully leaves the door
open, so maybe not that much privacy. And my head whirls as we go into the
kitchen. “How did she not get pregnant when she was screwing different guys
every day?” I ask in disbelief.
 

“She said she was much more careful. It was her only worry
back then,” Rose tells me.

Now that we know Lily didn’t slit her wrists or anything,
Rose leans against the kitchen counter like it’s Sunday afternoon.

“So you knew about her pregnancy the whole fucking time,” I
assume. “You didn’t think to tell Lo?”

“It wasn’t my place,
Ryke
,” Rose
says.

 
I look at Connor.
“And you? You’ve never been known to butt out of other people’s business.”

“I think you’re confusing me with you,” he says casually,
“and if you want my honest answer, no, I didn’t want to tell Lo. I didn’t think
he could handle it. Be glad you didn’t have to make that decision because it
was a fucking hard one.”

I’m known to lie to my brother’s face if I don’t think he
can handle certain things. Like my own fucking identity when I first met him.

I don’t envy the knowledge they had. I wouldn’t have wanted
it.

I scan the kitchen, the granite counters, expecting an
easily excitable girl to be sitting there, swinging her legs against the
cabinet. She’s not around, so I walk through the archway to the nearly empty
living room, searching for Daisy, but she’s not here either.

I stop in place, realizing something…she was going to tell
her sisters about what happened months ago. She was going to finally spill
these harrowing details that have fucked her over for weeks.

And of course, Lily’s issues came out today, pushing Daisy
to the side. I can imagine how she feels—like her problems aren’t significant,
like they don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. She’s going to shut down
again, to crawl back into her hole where she hides her feelings and covers it
with jokes and sarcasm.

My heart lodges in my fucking throat. “Daisy!” I call out,
my nerves escalating. Why the fuck was I helping Lily? I don’t ever, ever want
to choose Lily over Daisy. Just because Lily cries harder. Just because Lily
screams louder. It doesn’t mean that Daisy’s pain isn’t more.

I run back through the kitchen, and Connor and Rose ask me
what’s wrong. I shake my head and check the guest bathroom.

I have the worst kind of feeling in my gut.

I sprint to the garage while I take out my phone and call
the security at the front of the gate. I grab my bike keys out of my pocket.
“Did Daisy leave?” I ask, but I find my answer. My black Ducati sits
lonely—without its red match.

“Fifteen minutes ago,” he says.

Fuck.
I hang up.

“RYKE!” Rose screams at the top of her lungs to get my
attention. “What’s going on?” She stomps into the garage that’s already halfway
open, the doors groaning as they rise.

“I’m taking care of it,” I tell her, fitting my helmet over
my head. I start the fucking bike, changing gears, and then I ride the hell out
of there before she can say another word.

I’m so fucking angry at myself.

But most of all, I just hope she’s okay.

I hope I find her before she does something completely
fucking insane.