TWIN PASSIONS: (A Logan Brothers Novel) (20 page)

“
OK, easy now,” said Kyle,
as the girls looked at each other and laughed.

A short silence fell on the
group, everyone glancing over at me and then up at Cade. He was
staring right at me through his glasses. My heart was pounding.
What
was his deal. This was so awkward.

“
And finally, Zack, my
faithful twin brother.” The tone of his voice was weirdly sarcastic
and unsettling.

“
Zack, you've always been
there for me, giving me advice, helping me when I needed you,
supporting me. And you know what...you've even been so nice as to
take care of my girlfriend for me as well.”

Huh! What the fuck was he
talking about?

We stared at each other across
the table as everyone else looked back and forward, a silence
dropping between us.

“
What's going on guys?”
asked Crash. “If there's something you two need to talk about then
you should do it in private.”

Cade was shaking his head now.
“No, no Crash, it's all right. I think this is something that
everyone might be interested to hear about.”

He kept staring at me through
his sunglasses, this blank expression covering the rest of his face.

I found my voice: “what
exactly are you talking about Cade? Please do enlighten us, because
you're talking in fucking riddles here.”

I still didn't get where he
was going. So even if he knew that I'd been for a drink with Gemma
before the fight, so fucking what, it was just a couple of drinks.
How fucking jealous could a guy be?!

“
You're a fucking snake Zack,
that's what I'm talking about. Fucking slithering in and kissing my
girlfriend.”

Everyone turned suddenly towards
me, their faces covered in deep frowns. None, though, were deeper
than my own.

“
Are you fucking high? I
haven't kissed Gemma. What are you talking about?”

“
You know what I'm fucking
talking about. You've both been lying to me this whole time. You've
been laughing at me behind my back.”

His words were coming out
strong, fueled by all the champagne and God knows what else in his
body. Clearly, now, he knew that I'd known Gemma for years. She must
have just told him after the fight. She must have told him we kissed
when we first met

“
All right, big fucking deal
mate, it was ages ago.”

All eyes shot back to me.

“
You kissed Gemma?” Crash
growled. Fuck it, I didn't need him getting involved.

“
Yeah, but it was years ago. I
know I should have probably mentioned it, but we knew each other in
high school. We kissed once and then were just friends. It was so
long ago now, so it doesn't matter.”

Cade finally dragged the
sunglasses from his face, revealing his bruised eye. He looked
straight at me with a mixture of intensity and confusion. “I'm not
talking about back then you fucking traitor. I'm talking about
tonight, in the bar before my fight. You were there drinking and
kissing behind my back while I'm stepping into the ring. I can't
believe you'd do that to me Zack.”

“
No, I didn't...nothing
happened...we just had a couple of drinks.”

I caught the look on Crash's
face, glaring at me. “You told me you'd met her outside,” he said
coldly. “You'd do that to your own twin brother on the eve of the
biggest fight of his life?”

“
No...I'm not lying. Nothing
happened. We just met for a chat and got caught up. I swear, I
wouldn't lie about this.”

“
But you lied about knowing
her,” Crash continued calmly. “Why should Cade, why should we,
believe you.”

“
Because it's the truth. Cade,
I swear, we were just talking.”

He kept looking at me, his face
still like thunder. I'd never seen him look so angry.

“
So what's this?” he said,
pulling his phone from his pocket. He slid it across the table
towards me and I picked it up.

My heart went wild as I looked
at the image. It was me. It was Gemma. We were so close, leaning into
each other across a table. Our lips looked like they were about to
touch, had just touched. But they hadn't. We hadn't kissed. No, this
was all wrong. Where did it come from? Who took the picture?

“
No, this isn't what it looks
like,” I said. “Where did you get this?” My words had lost
their calm now. They were frantic, nervous, confused.

Crash leaned across the table
and ripped the phone from my hands. His face contorted in anger as he
looked at the image, before passing it back to Cade.

“
I think you should go Zack,”
Crash said.

“
But I didn't...we didn't. We
were only talking, nothing happened.” I turned up to Cade. “Cade,
please, I swear I'm not lying. Who sent this to you? Whoever it is is
the one who's lying to you. Ask them, they know the truth. We didn't
kiss, I swear.” My words were tumbling out of my mouth now like a
ragging torrent.

Cade sat down slowly, still
staring at me. “You're pathetic, you know that. You've always been
jealous of me, and this is your way of getting back at me?”

“
No, it's not true...”

“
You know she broke up with me
tonight. She was the first girl I really cared about, Zack, and you
had to screw it up for me. You couldn't bare to see me finally have a
real relationship, could you?”

“
No...” I continued to
plead, but I knew it was useless.

“
Just go Zack. Get the fuck
out of my sight.”

I looked around the table at
angry and disappointed eyes. My whole family were against me. I was
alone with the truth, and none of them would believe me.

I stood slowly, and turned. No
one called me back. No one wanted to hear me out. No one would let me
explain.

I moved out of the VIP section
and back through the bar, the world becoming hazy around me. Who'd
done this? Who had taken that picture? Whoever it was, I'd kill them.
I'd fucking kill them no matter what. 

Present Day

Gemma

I sat alone in my apartment with
the lights dimmed. It was quiet, all except the rare sound of a car
rushing by on the street outside. It was late but I couldn't sleep,
not with all of the shit that was rushing around in my head.

I couldn't tell, in the heat of
the moment, whether I'd done the right thing. I'd said some things
that, maybe, I didn't mean. Or did I? I couldn't be sure right now.

I took a swig of wine from the
bottle and set it down, empty, on my coffee table.

My mind was swirling, the drama
of the night pounding away at me. I'd never broken up with anyone
before. I'd had two proper boyfriends in the past, but I'd always
been on the receiving end when things went sour.

I guess, in a way, I felt
empowered. I was second guessing my decision but, at the same time, I
knew it was the right one. I couldn't help this gnawing feeling that
Cade was just using me, that he didn't care about me like I deserved
to be cared about. I mean, I wasn't one of these girls who needed to
be pampered and told they were loved every five minutes, but some
sort of affection and sensitivity might be nice.

No, Cade never gave me that. He
told me sometimes that I 'meant a lot to him', but I barely believed
him. All he seemed to care about was boxing, fighting, winning. I was
merely a tool to help him get there.

Did he care about me? Sure.

Did he care about me enough?
Enough for me to stay with him? No.

I stood and walked over to the
refrigerator, scanning for another bottle of wine. I felt slightly
light-headed, my eyes sore from dried up tears, as I pulled a half
empty bottle from the back.

It wasn't like me to turn to
alcohol when I was feeling low, but then this situation was unique.
Aside from my break-up with Cade, I was so confused by what had
happened with Zack. Everything had happened so quickly that we had no
chance to talk about it.

There was just so much more
between us than with me and Cade. There was this history, this deep
caring. I'd loved him when I was younger, loved him as a friend. But
there was more to it than that, there always was. He'd wanted to be
more than friends back then, but I wasn't ready. Now, I felt the same
desire in him, the same look in his eyes. It all made more sense than
me and Cade, it all just fitted so well.

I heard the sound of another car
rushing by outside as I slumped back onto my sofa. This time, though,
it slowly came to a stop, the engine still rumbling quietly. I heard
a door open and shut quickly and then, a moment later, the buzzer to
my apartment started blaring frantically.

The sudden noise made me jump
slightly as my heart began racing.
Please don't be Cade, I can't
deal with that right now.

I sat for a moment and did
nothing. By all rights I should be asleep right now. The shrill noise
of the buzzer ripped through the silence of the room again, cutting
into my aching head.

Screw it.

I stood quickly and walked over
to the door. “Who is it,” I said, my voice slightly irritated.

The response came quickly on the
other end. “It's Zack. We need to talk.”

What, now? This surely wasn't
the time to discuss things.

“
Zack, do you have any idea
what time it is?!”

“
Yeah, I know it's late, but I
need to speak with you.”

I signed deeply and reluctantly
pushed the button to open the security door at the bottom. I heard a
click downstairs and the door open, before shutting loudly. I opened
the door to my apartment and saw Zack coming up around the corner of the stairwell.
His eyes were heavy as he stormed forwards and straight in past me.

He hadn't been here before, but
took no time to look around.

“
What happened tonight, what
happened with you and Cade?” he asked, his voice quick and frantic.

“
We broke up,” I said,
shutting the door.

“
And what did you say about me
and you? Why did you tell him!”

“
It just slipped out Zack. I
was nervous and he was in my face. I was just explaining why we were
late and it slipped out. Look, I'm sorry....why is it such a big
deal? It's all my fault, not yours, and it's over now anyway, so...”

He ripped his hands through his
hair and walked over towards my sofa, reaching down and picking the
bottle of wine up from the coffee table. “Do you have anything
stronger?”

I shook my head, and he took a
long gulp.

“
This is all fucked up Gem.
He's got this picture on his phone....someone took a picture of us
together in the bar.”

A frown hit my face. “Yeah, so
what. We were just having a drink.”

“
Were we though?” he asked,
walking towards me. His green eyes were shining in the dim light. He
moved close, his voice lowering.

“
Well...yeah. What else could
we have been doing?”

He stared at me for a moment,
his head slowly beginning to shake.

“
The picture, Gemma...it looks
like we're about to kiss, or have just kissed. Someone must have sent
it to him.”

“
What! Why?!”

“
I was hoping you could tell
me?”

“
I have no idea. And anyway,
we didn't kiss, we didn't do anything wrong.”

“
I know. I tried telling him
that, but he wouldn't listen.” His voice was beginning to deflate.
He looked tired and weary, his eyes beginning to droop. “Everything's
fucked up Gemma, they all hate me now, they all think I've betrayed him.”

He moved over to the sofa and
sat down, leaning forward with his head in his hands. He sat
motionless, like a statue, caught in a moment of despair.

I moved over and sat down next
to him, wrapping my arm around him. He was breathing slowly, deeply,
his head beginning to shake lightly.

I didn't know what to say to
him. He looked grief-stricken, as though his world had just come
crumbling down around him.

“
They don't hate you Zack,”
I said consolingly. “This is all just a big mix up, a big mistake.
They're realize that soon.”

He looked up and turned to me,
his eyes glistening slightly with tears. “They won't. We've been
lying to them all along....they won't believe us on this.”

I pulled him in for a hug. He
seemed vulnerable, emotional, weakened by the night's events. I knew
that family was everything to him, that his family really was his
life. To have them think of him in this way, to have them believe
that he'd betray his twin brother, would tear him up.

But then, had the clock not
chimed, had it not broken us from the spell, we would have kissed. We
were being inexorably drawn together, and I knew that it was what we
both wanted.

He leaned back from my hug and
we sat together, unspeaking, on the sofa. I could feel the weight of
sleep beginning to descend onto me now, my eyelids growing heavy. We
were both drained, neither with the energy to keep talking.