Dirty little secrets

15

~Ava~

Jax didn’t even wait for Riley to get fully out of sight.

The second she slipped around the corner toward Chloe, his hand shot out and grabbed my wrist, hard enough that my bones clicked, and that was when I snapped because I was already hanging on by a thread and he just decided to yank it.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I hissed, trying to pull free.

He didn’t let go. His jaw was tight, eyes dark, mouth twisted like he’d been chewing on something bitter all day and finally decided to spit it at me.

“Oh, don’t act innocent now,” he said. “You love this s**t. Playing dumb. Playing sweet. Playing everyone.”

I laughed. I actually laughed, sharp and ugly and way too loud. “Wow. You rehearsed that, didn’t you?”

“Drop the act, Ava,” he snapped. “I saw you. You think I didn’t? You were practically glowing. Like you just got f****d in the hallway.”

My stomach dropped straight through the floor.

“What did you just say to me?” I whispered.

He leaned in, voice low and nasty. “You’re a slut. You just love juggling men. One minute it’s me, then it’s×what, my girlfriend’s dad now? Or is there a lineup I don’t know about?”

I didn’t think. I didn’t plan. My hand moved on its own.

Smack.

The sound cracked through the hallway, loud and horrible.

His head snapped to the side. For a second he just stared at the wall like he’d forgotten where he was.

I was shaking. Full-body shaking. My palm burned.

“Don’t ever!,” I said, voice breaking but loud, “don’t ever call me that again.”

He turned back slowly, eyes blazing, a red mark already blooming on his cheek.

“You hit me?” he said incredulously. Then he laughed, short and mean. “Guess I struck a nerve.”

“You’re my stepbrother,” I shot back. “My stepbrother. And you have a girlfriend. So what the hell do you think you’re entitled to here?”

He stepped closer, crowding me, backing me up against the wall.

“So what?” he said. “So what if I have a girlfriend?”

That made something in my chest rip clean open.

I stared at him. “Are you insane?”

“You think I don’t want you?” he said, voice rising. “You think I don’t see the way you look at me? The way you always have?”

I laughed again, but this time it sounded hysterical. “You are actually delusional.”

“Bullshit,” he snapped. “You want attention. You want anyone who looks at you. You don’t care who you hurt.”

That did it.

Smack.

The second slap was harder.

He grabbed my wrist again instantly. “Do it, you know that s**t gets me hard, do that again.”

“Let go of me,” I yelled. “You don’t get to touch me.”

“You don’t get to pretend you’re better than this,” he shot back. “You spread your legs for whoever… ”

I wrenched my arm free and shoved him.

“If you’re allowed to want whoever you want,” I screamed, “then so am I. If you can have a girlfriend and still look at me like that, then I can have as many men as I want.”

The words were out before I could stop them.

His face went dead still.

“That’s who you are then,” he said quietly. “Just admitting it.”

I felt my throat close. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“Oh, I know enough,” he said. “You don’t even feel bad.”

I opened my mouth to scream something else, something cruel and cutting and irreversible…

“Ava!”

Riley came flying back down the hallway like her ass was on fire.

“I couldn’t hold her,” she hissed, grabbing my arm. “Chloe’s coming.”

“What?” I gasped.

“She’s literally right there,” Riley said, already dragging me. “Move!”

Jax took a step after us. “We’re not done.”

“Yes we are,” Riley snapped over her shoulder. “Back off before you ruin everyone’s life.”

She hauled me up the stairs so fast I nearly tripped. My legs felt weak, useless. I could hear Chloe laughing downstairs, totally clueless, and the sound made my chest ache.

Riley slammed my bedroom door shut and locked it.

I stood there for half a second.

Then I broke.

I slid down the door and just… folded. Ugly crying. No dignity. No control. My hands came up to my face and I couldn’t breathe right and everything hurt all at once.

“He hates me,” I choked. “He thinks I’m disgusting.”

Riley crossed the room in two steps and dropped to the floor with me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders tight.

“He’s an asshole,” she said immediately. “A jealous, entitled asshole.”

“I didn’t do anything,” I sobbed. “I didn’t do anything to him.”

“I know,” she murmured, rubbing my back. “I know.”

“I slapped him,” I hiccupped. “Twice.”

“Good,” she said. “Should’ve been three times.”

I laughed and cried at the same time, my face buried in her shoulder. “This is such a mess.”

“I know,” she said softly. “But you’re not what he said. Don’t let that stick.”

I nodded, even though it felt like the words were burned into my skin.

Downstairs, I heard Chloe’s voice again, cheerful and oblivious, and Jax answering her like nothing happened.

The normalcy of it made my chest ache worse.

Riley held me tighter.

“I’ve got you,” she whispered. “Okay? I won’t let this swallow you.”

I clung to her like she was the only solid thing left in the house.

I let myself cry without trying to be funny about it.