Keep From Falling (Markson Grove Series Book 1) (22 page)

Evan’s eyes grow wide, “He did what?”

“He raped her!” I say again, this time with so much force that Evan actually takes a step away from me. “He took her out on a date, he beat her, and then he raped her. There’s nothing
intimate
about that! He’s a fucking monster!”

“Did she report it?”

I shake my head, tears of anguish flowing down my cheeks. “She pretends like it never happened. The only times we are ever reminded of it is when Parker comes around and tries to talk to her. She’s petrified of him. She trembles in fear when he’s around. What you saw, it just couldn’t have been like that because… her ripped clothes, her black and blue face… she was covered in dirt and mud—” my voice cuts off abruptly, as I get choked-up by the memory.

Evan shakes his head in disbelief. “He’s lucky I didn’t know any of that a few minutes ago! I would have beaten him to death right here!” he growls, clenching his fists angrily.

“I know the feeling.”

“I always knew Michelson was a piece of shit.” He takes a deep breath, exhaling long and hard. He reaches for my hand, “Are you ok?”

I nod. “I’m fine. I’m sorry I reacted that way, it’s such a dark memory for me.”

He forces a weak smile as he brushes away my tears with his index finger. “Let’s forget about it for a few minutes and get this date back to a happy place, ok?” he says, shaking away his anger and showing me that cute half smile he knows I love so much. I can tell he’s forcing it, but I appreciate the effort.

I kiss him quickly on the cheek. “Are you hungry?” I ask, pointing to a canteen at the end of the boardwalk. I’m still feeling queasy, but I know it’s the best way to get all of this off of his mind. I had no idea he would react so strongly about what happened to Skylar.

I decide that talking to him further about Skylar and Spencer’s lie isn’t really something I need to do, and bringing it up to begin with just brought a lot of negativity to our already complicated situation. I don’t want the rest of our date to go back to that.

He smiles and moves himself in front of me, wrapping his arms around my waist. He gently pulls me to him and I look up into his big brown eyes, wanting nothing more than to kiss him over and over again. “I’m so crazy about you, Bree Porter.”

I kiss him hard on the lips, savoring the taste of his mouth as he eagerly kisses me back. The gesture makes me tremble, and all I want to do is kiss him harder, and push my body closer to his. “I feel like I’ve been going crazy since the day I met you.”

He smiles, flashing his beautiful dimples yet again, and all thoughts of food and everything else goes flying out the window. “I feel exactly the same.”

Evan

“So Queensland, huh?” Derrick says to me the minute I pull up into his driveway that night. He’s lying in a hammock that’s attached to the front porch and rolls out of it, making his way toward me. He’d texted me earlier that night and I’d stupidly told him where I was and who I was with. You’d think I’d learn.

“It was Bree’s idea. So Skylar wouldn’t find out.” I roll up the window of the car and get out, slamming the door behind me.

Derrick pats me on the back, “She’s still seeing Skylar, huh?”

I nod but say nothing. There isn’t anything to say. There isn’t anything to do about the situation. What am I going to do? Fight a girl for Bree’s love? Nope, that’s not an option.

“Where’s Kels?” I ask, heading toward his steps and taking a seat on the top one.

He sits down next to me. “When I told her you were heading over she left. She’s still pretty pissed, man.”

I look at him sideways and cock my eyebrow. “Apparently,” I say, thinking about the dirty look she shot me in the hallway at school yesterday.

“Doesn’t matter, bud, I’m here. What’s up?”

“Parker Michelson was in Queensland today. He saw us walking on the boardwalk.”

Derrick shrugs, indifferent to the fact. “It’s only an hour away, you can’t expect not to bump into somebody you know. What’s the big deal anyway, did he say something?”

“Yeah actually, he did,” I say bitterly.

“Really?”

Derrick knows that even though Adrienne cheating on me with both Parker and Tris left me resentful, I’ve never once confronted them about it, and they’ve never confronted me either. It was like we all just pretended it never happened and moved on. Well, except for the fact that I no longer had a girlfriend that is, but I guess that decision was on me.

“Not to me,” I say. “To Bree. I mean, yeah he was trying to piss me off too… indirectly, I think. But he was
really
trying to get under Bree’s skin.”

“She knows him?”

“Yeah, she seems to know him,” I say, staring off into the distance. I think about what she told me he did to Skylar and how much I think it could be true.

“Shitty deal, man.”

I scowl. As if every girl who knows Parker just automatically cheats on her boyfriend with him.

“She’s not going to cheat on me with him. She hates him.”

Derrick laughs. “Yeah, they all hate him until they love him.”

“Would you shut up and listen to me!” I snap, visibly annoyed. Why do I even bother coming to him for advice? This happens every time. “She’s not into him. She hates him. And do you want to know why she hates him?”

Derrick scratches the top of his eyebrow with his index finger absentmindedly, “Why?” he asks with a sigh.

“Because she says Parker raped Skylar.”

Derrick stops scratching and stares at me for a moment before looking away abruptly. He doesn’t speak at all. In fact, he is eerily silent. It isn’t normal to be able to render Derrick speechless like this.

“What?” I ask finally, breaking his silence. I’m officially worried by his reaction.

He shrugs casually, but I can tell he’s forcing it. “I don’t know, that’s a pretty serious accusation. I mean, he’s a dirtbag and a total ass, but rape?”

“Bree seems pretty convinced.”

“But didn’t you tell me that you saw Skylar and Parker having a moment or something?”

I nod. “An exchange…a few weeks ago… yeah, so?”

“Well, would you say that what you saw was the result of a rapist-slash-victim type of exchange?” he asks, making air quotes with his fingers before and after the words ‘rapist’ and ‘victim’.

I shoot him an annoyed look, “Be serious.”

“Oh, I am. Deadly serious. Because I really don’t think he raped her.”

“Want to tell me exactly what makes you think that?”

Derrick lets out an uncomfortable sigh. “Not really.”

I look him over uneasily. “What do you know?”

“I can’t exactly tell you what I know.”

This makes no sense. How could Derrick possibly know something about Parker and Skylar? And even if he did, why wouldn’t he be able to tell me about it?

“You’re being crazy. You’re going to keep a secret from me for Parker Michelson?”

“It’s not for him, it’s…” he hesitates. “Ok, if I tell you this, it’s between us forever. It can never get back to Kelsie, all right?”

I squint my eyes and look him over uncertainly. “Ok,” I agree.

“I’m a
Misfit
.”

I feel my jaw drop open in complete shock. “You’re a what?” I ask. I heard what he said, but I can’t wrap my head around the idea of it. It makes absolutely no sense!

“A
Misfit
… have been for over two years now.”

“You’re kidding me,” I manage to sputter.

“Nope. Total truth, cross my heart.”

I freeze in place, completely shocked. “What do you go there for?” I ask finally, the minute my voice returns to me. And then an unsettling thought creeps into my mind. “Oh my God, please don’t tell me you go there for sex!”

“What? “He looks at me like I’ve grown two heads. “Fuck, No… Jesus, Evan! I love Kelsie.”

“Then what?”

“I place bets on fights.”

This doesn’t seem real. I’ve known Derrick for nearly four years and suddenly it’s like I never knew him at all. “What kind of fights? Illegal fights?”

“Whatever you want to call them,” he replies, making it clear that he isn’t going into detail about any of that.

“Are you fucking with me?” I manage to say. Derrick is a
Misfit
, he bets on illegal fights… at the mansion. I can’t even let the knowledge of that sink into my brain without my mind wanting to explode.

“People fight at the mansion every weekend. Really hardcore shit. I bet on who’s going to win.”

“All right,” I say. I want to try to get my mind back to where we had originally started our conversation. “So you’re a
Misfit
. What does that have to do with Parker and Skylar?” I ask even though I’m beginning to have a good sense where this is heading.

“I’ll be so dead if you repeat this to anyone, ok? So seriously, don’t. Ever. I’m telling you this, but you can’t tell Bree…or anyone… I’m bound by oath. We don’t talk about what we do inside the mansion and we definitely aren’t allowed to talk about what others do. You understand?”

The seriousness and urgency in Derrick’s voice leaves me unsettled. I’ve never seen him like this before; torn about what to say, and worried about what saying it could possibly do. “I won’t say anything. I promise.”

“Parker and Skylar are Misfits too.”

I nod. I saw that coming. In fact, I had already suspected that Parker, Tris, and Adrienne were all Misfits and the mansion was where they had hooked up. After just finding out about Derrick, Skylar being one isn’t a huge shocker.

“Skylar hasn’t been there for over a year now, but before that, Skylar and Parker were inseparable.”

“Inseparable? What do you mean? Like a couple?”

He shakes his head. “That’s too easy of a description for the mansion. I don’t know their agreement or their boundaries within their agreement. But I do know, everyone at the mansion knows, that Parker was protective of her. Like, crazy protective. Before…” he stops what he’s saying and frowns, “You have to promise me you won’t repeat this.”

“I told you already, I promise. I won’t say anything to anyone,” I snap, clearly becoming annoyed with his hesitation. Where the hell is he going with this story anyway?

“Ok, fine. So, before Parker came along Skylar was called
The Goddess
because she would sleep with guys
and
girls, but mostly guys, for hits of ecstasy. We’re talking three or four different people a night.”

“You can’t be serious,” I reply, completely disgusted. What a slut. I wonder to myself if Bree knows anything about this.

Derrick nods his head. “I’m dead serious, man. Everyone in the house knew about her.”

“Ok,” I say, trying not to show my disgust but I can’t help it. Sluts and
The Misfit Mansion
seem to go hand in hand and it’s honestly nauseating. I don’t want to be judgmental, but after everything that’s happened with Adrienne and now hearing about Skylar, it’s hard not to be. “So what changed?”

“She met Parker. And I don’t know much about their arrangement, but I can tell you what I saw, which was them spending
all
of their time together outside of the rooms.”

“The rooms?”

“Yeah, the rooms are rented out every night. You know, for private things to happen.”

“Ok. Following you so far,” I say, cringing. I bet Adrienne used to rent those rooms.

“But Skylar kept doing people for E.”

“So they weren’t together then,” I say. This story is annoying me. I wish he’d just get to the point.

Derrick glares at me in frustration. Seriously? I’m the one who should be getting frustrated with him and his all-over-the-place story. “It’s not the same as it is out here,” he says. “There is no right or wrong at the mansion. What she was doing could have been one of the exceptions they had set for whatever it is they had with each other. That’s between them. I don’t know about any of that.”

“So how do you know what they were doing was anything more than just partying together then?” I return stubbornly, not wanting to believe that any of this story makes a difference with what Bree told me earlier.

“When she’d be in rooms with other guys, Parker waited outside the rooms for her. Just pacing the floors, sometimes for hours, every single time. It was a hot topic around the mansion for a while.”

“So what are you saying?” I ask in disbelief. “That he was in love with her?”

Derrick nods. “That was the word in the house.”

I’m completely at a loss for what to think right now. Everything I know of Parker is through seeing him interact with Tris and what I know happened with Adrienne. If Derrick is right, then everything Bree says that happened between Parker and Skylar is completely wrong. How can that be?

“Why was everyone talking about them anyway, I mean there must have been lots of shit to gossip about. You’re talking like this was the only thing people noticed going on.”

“Because Skylar was there to get high and to have sex. And she had sex with people
a lot
. Guys. Girls. You don’t understand what she meant to, like, ninety percent of the
Misfit
population. Parker… well, he just showed up by her side one night and never left it.”

“So he didn’t get rooms with other people or anything like that, I mean, other than Adrienne and Tris?” I ask, wrinkling my nose in distaste.