Chapter 3
786 Words
Camille Hayes
"I'm just saying," Kane starts, voice annoyingly calm for someone who's been arguing with me for the past ten minutes, "you didn't have to sit in the backseat like I'm your driver."
I don't even look at him. "And I'm saying I didn't trust you with me in the front." I begged Cass to drive, too worried Kane would kill us all before the night was over.
Cass lets out a long sigh from the driver's seat. "We're not doing this right now."
Kane ignores him to continue our argument. "You act like I've never driven you anywhere before," and look how well that ended.
I finally glance at him. "Yeah," I say. "When I was fifteen and you still thought doing burnouts in our driveway was a personality trait."
A short laugh slips out of Cass before he catches himself. "Okay, that one was fair."
Kane leans back in the passenger seat, smirking like I didn't just insult his entire existence. "You miss it."
"I miss silence," I correct.
"That's basically the same thing." He replies with that stupid look on his face.
"It's really not." The words slip into the air causing a moment of silence to fill the car. Finally, I thought as I stared at my phone waiting on Tara to text me back.
Cass flicks the blinker on harder than necessary. "If you two don't stop, I'm dropping both of you off at the curb and going home."
"Please do," I say immediately.
"Traitor," Kane mutters as he gasps with a hand on his chest. He’s so odd, angry one minute, and joking the next.
I turn my head slightly. "I would literally pay you to leave me on the curb."
"Not happening, Angel." Kane stares at me from the passenger’s mirror and I swear it looked like he winked at me. What is wrong with him? I hate he calls me ‘Angel’ more than I should—he's been saying it since before he left for military school. Before he came back acting like time erased everything between us. The jerk really thinks the world revolves around him.
Cass pulls into a line of parked cars outside Murphy's, bass already vibrating through the street like the house is breathing.
The second the engine cuts, the night feels louder. Cass turns around in his seat. "Alright. No fighting inside."
Kane scoffs. "She starts it."
"I literally breathe and you get offended," I say.
"That's not my fault."
Cass points between us. "Separate. Immediately. Or I'm leaving."
Kane holds his hands up in surrender. "Relax."
I open my door before either of them can continue.
Cool air hits my face the second I step out.
The house ahead is chaos—lights spilling through cracked windows, music bleeding into the street, people already spilling onto the lawn like the walls can't contain it.
Perfect.
"Where's Tara?" Cass asks as we start walking up.
I don't even hesitate. "Busy."
"With what?" Kane asks.
I glance at him. "Her current bad decision."
Cass laughs. "So she ditched you again."
"She didn't ditch me," I correct. "She texted me."
"What did she say?" Kane asks.
I pull my phone out and read it flatly.
Tay🧚♀️— met someone. don't wait up. tell kane he still looks like a problem <3
Cass snorts. "She's insane."
"She's living her truth," I say.
Kane mutters, "That explains a lot."
I shove my phone back into my pocket. "She's not a floozy."
Cass raises a brow.
"She just," I continue, "likes having fun."
Kane glances at me. "Too much fun."
I shrug. "That's her brand."
We reach the porch just as the door swings open and someone stumbles out laughing, nearly crashing into Cass.
"Sorry—oh s**t, Cass!"
Cass steadies him. "You're fine."
Kane leans toward me slightly. "You're sure you want to do this?"
I don't look at him. "I already said yes."
"That was a mistake."
"Most things are."
That makes him quiet for half a second.
Then—
"Still stubborn," he says, like he's confirming something.
I finally look up at him. "Still annoying."
A beat.
His mouth twitches like he wants to say something else, but Cass cuts in before he can.
"Alright," Cass says firmly, stepping between us like he's physically done with this energy. "Inside. Now."
We both move at the same time.
Not because we agree.
Because Cass has always been the only one who can make us stop.
For now.
The moment we step into Murphy's, the noise swallows us whole.
And I swear—
I feel Kane's presence behind me before I even turn around.
Like he never actually left my side at all.
- Writer
