Chapter Ten

Leah

My eyes are as wide as dinner plates as I stare at Darius, who is mirroring my expression. I tear my gaze from his to see both Saint and Crue standing in the entryway to the kitchen looking between the pair of us. I have no idea what to say or do. Thank God the tension is broken when Beck stands, wraps an arm around my shoulders and speaks.

“Change of plans. Saint, Crue you in for pizza?” Beck asks as he leads me toward the door. I can feel Darius’s gaze on me the whole time.

“Hell yeah, we are!” Crue shouts before racing after us. The moment we step out the front door, I’m able to breathe again. As if Beck knows I’m too stunned by that encounter, he doesn’t release his hold on me until we reach his car. He opens the passenger door for me and ushers me inside. Working on autopilot, I clip my belt in and wait for him, Saint and Crue to get in. My mind is reeling over what just happened. If Corvin had been home, Darius and I would both be dead!

The guys slide into Beckett’s Audi and the tension from earlier returns. In a weird way Darius just outed us to the guys and I have no idea how we are going to keep this secret from Corvin.

Beck reverses the car out of the driveway. We’re all silent as he drives us away from the house. As the silence stretches my nerves begin to get the better of me but that’s not the only thing, my mind keeps wandering back to Darius and Chelsea and what they could be doing right now. I close my eyes and take a deep breath as I try to rid myself of all the nasty images flashing through my mind of the two of them fucking all over the house. My chest aches thinking about him sleeping with her. I never expected him to be celibate or anything but I did expect that the next time we saw each other that he would at least give me a reason as to why he ghosted me for years !

“Well this is awkward,” Saint mumbles. I cringe knowing that he’s right. The ride isn’t exactly filled with easy conversation and laughter.

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” I say quietly, feeling like shit for dragging the three of them into mine and Darius’s…I don’t even know what we are doing right now. When my phone rings, I stiffen at the sound of his ringtone. I don’t even move to pull it out of my pocket, there is no way I am answering that call in the car where the guys will be able to overhear. I’m not a saint but I’m also in a pickle and I don’t know how to get out of it without bringing my deepest darkest secret to life.

“You gonna get that?” Crue asks when my phone begins to ring again.

“Uh, no, I’ll call Cody back later,” I lie, hating that I have to do this to these guys when I’ve known them most of my life, but I don’t have a choice. I don’t have the money to pay him, not that he needs it. If I did, I wouldn’t be in this position right now! Crue’s phone rings and I’m so grateful for the interruption.

“Yo,” he answers. “We’re just getting some grub then we’ll be back so an hour or so tops.” He pauses for a beat listening to whoever is on the other end of the call. “Sweet, see you soon.” He ends the call and then says, “Corv says we need to have a meeting about… work.” His cryptic words have me turning to peer over the seat at him and Saint, neither of them will meet my gaze, I slump back in my chair and look to Beck.

“What do you guys do for work?” I hedge.

“We help out at Saint’s dad’s company,” Beck answers. Call me crazy but I feel like he’s lying to me.

“Why don’t I believe you?” I retort. Beck flicks his gaze to me for a second before turning back to the road.

“You need to ask Corvin,” is all he says, then pulls into the carpark of the local pizza shop. It’s run by a beautiful Italian couple that must be in their sixties. All the students come here to eat as they make the best pizza in town, that is for damn sure! Beck parks the car and we all clamber out to head in to fill our faces with some yummy pie!

I’ve been sitting on the porch steps since we got home twenty minutes ago. I’m a coward and don’t want to go inside and see Darius with her. I’m not a jealous person but when it comes to Darius Lockhart, I become this possessive woman who would throw hands if some woman thought they could touch my man.

Worst part?

He isn’t my man, not anymore. I grab my phone and unlock it, four missed calls and three texts, I ignore the calls as I bring up the messages.

Piece of shit

You’re running out of time!

Piece of shit

Don’t ignore me, you either pay up or I go public with this.

Piece of shit

Out for a bite to eat are you?

A shiver runs down my spine, he was watching me and I had no fucking idea. Fuck. How the hell did I get myself into this mess? I didn’t do anything wrong, but because of the fucking tape I have no choice. He knows he can do this to me and there isn’t a fucking thing I can do about it. I should have gone to the police but I didn’t out of fear. When a guy like him takes the stand against a middle class girl like me, who the hell would you believe?

“Hey.” I snap my gaze up to see Garrett standing there on the sidewalk. I smile wide, thankful to see a friendly face that isn’t team Darius. I hop to my feet and rush over to him. He hugs me and sue me, I return the friendly embrace before pulling back and smiling up at him.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“I was out for a run.” I run my gaze over him and sure enough, he’s decked out in runners, loose basketball shorts and a white tank.

“Of course, sorry,” I mutter. He bends down so we are eye level and smiles kindly.

“You look like you need to get out of here, want to hang out?” I don’t even hesitate to answer.

“Yes!” He beams, then we walk side by side back toward campus, talking about nothing and anything all at the same time, which is nice. Don’t get me wrong, Cody and Katie are great but right now they aren’t the people I need to be around because they are team Da-Leah and right now, I’m not. Garrett heads toward the coffee cart and orders us a couple coffees before telling me to grab a seat at one of the tables. I do as he says and look around the quad. During school it’s bustling with students but after hours it’s empty and quiet.

“Here you go.” I smile my thanks as I grab my coffee from Garrett. He slips around to his side and sits down taking a sip of his coffee. “Why the long face, beautiful?” I deflate and drop my gaze to the tabletop unsure how to answer or even if I should. The need to talk to someone wins over rational thought, knowing I shouldn’t be telling him, but he’s my friend and the opinions of the guys shouldn’t matter.

“Darius and I had a fight. Corvin and I are drifting apart because I keep pulling away from him. My mom and dad won’t speak to me.” It rushes out of me so fast that I have to take a deep breath. Garrett doesn’t look put out by my verbal diarrhea.

“Okay, one thing at a time. Why aren’t your parents talking to you?” Now that I’ve started I can’t seem to keep my mouth closed.

“I lied to them. I told them I got kicked out of my last school but the truth is I dropped out and transferred here which caused them to have to put off their retirement so they could pay for me to go here.” Saying it out loud makes me feel even worse than I do already. I don’t blame them for being angry with me. I wanted to tell my mom the truth so many times but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. If they knew, they would go to the police and I can’t relive that shit, I just can’t!

“Okay, I’m guessing the reason you haven’t told them why you dropped out is that it’s something that is embarrassing for you?”

“Yeah, something like that,” I mumble.

“Okay, next thing on our list. Why are you pulling away from your brother?” I narrow my eyes.

“You don’t even like my brother,” I point out, and he shrugs.

“No, I don’t, but you’re my friend and I care about you so therefore, if being close to my enemy is what makes you happy then I’m here to help.” His words shouldn’t make me happy but they do. Garrett isn’t at all what the guys say he is. He’s kind, caring and even… sweet.

“Corv still thinks I was kicked out of school. He has no idea about Mom and Dad not talking to me. I hate myself but I have to do something to my brother that I don’t want to and it is going to kill him, but I have to and I hate myself because of that.” I’m rambling but fuck, it feels good to finally say that out loud.

“Does arguing with Darius have anything to do with not telling him the reason for the change in schools as well?” I shake my head. I’m willing to talk to him about my parents and Corvin but not Darius, that is one thing I can’t trust him with. “The way I see it is you need to give your parents time to come around and realize that their little girl isn’t willing to share everything with them. Corvin, well the guy is such a guy, so give him a couple weeks and he’ll forget about it.” I snort at his reference to my brother.

“You don’t know Corvin, he fixates on things and can’t let anything go until he has solved it.” That’s when I remember I need to talk to my brother about this work thing Crue and the others mentioned. I know they don’t have a job after school. I also know that the things they have in their house aren’t from Walmart, they are expensive, so how the hell are they affording it?

“How about we talk about something else to get your mind off all that?” I nod eagerly. “Good, tell me about your new dance routine I saw you and the team practicing in the gym.” A smile spreads across my face. I love talking about dance, but finding someone who isn’t on the team, who finds what you are saying interesting is hard. All they want to see is you shaking your ass but not how you learned to pop your hip or how you can rotate your body at a certain angle. We spend hours sitting here talking about dance, football and classes. Garrett hangs onto every word I say and I love that.

“We should head back, it’s getting late.” I peek down at my watch and that’s when my eyes widen, it’s nearly midnight!

“Shit, I lost track of time!” I rush to say as I jump to my feet.

“It’s cool. Come on, I’ll walk you home.” I’ll admit, I swoon like a high schooler. I bite my lip and nod. We fall into step and continue our conversation the whole way home. The walk ends too quickly and I find myself wanting to hang out with him again. We come to a stop on the walkway out front of the house. He doesn’t walk me to the door and truthfully I don’t blame him, it’s not like he’s welcome here. “Leah?” I peek up at him through my lashes.

“Yeah?”

“Um, do you think maybe I could take you to the movies on Friday?” My stomach sinks.

“Garrett, I?—”

“Just as friends,” he rushes to say. I stare at him for a minute trying to see if he’s sincere and when I don’t see any change in his demeanor, I agree. He gives me a toothy grin before leaning down and placing a quick peek to my cheek that has me standing stiff and stunned. “See ya tomorrow,” he calls out as he turns and heads back toward where we came from. When he disappears around the corner, I finally snap out of my shock and head into the house. I climb the porch steps with a goofy smile on my face, grip the door handle but before I can push it open I'm shoved to the side, then pinned against the wall of the house with a hand clamped over my mouth. Fear skyrockets through my body until he moves his face in, his nose touching the tip of mine, but it’s his eyes, they are filled with disgust and anger that I almost want to shrink away from him.

“You enjoy your little date ?” he spits the word date like it burns his tongue. I try to push him off me but Darius doesn’t budge. He pushes in closer until his front is plastered to mine. My treacherous body pushes into him loving his close proximity. His eyes blaze with something other than disgust, lust flares to life to life in his eyes. He yanks his hand away. I drag a full breath before his lips crash against mine. I gasp, and he uses that to his advantage, slipping his tongue inside my mouth. The taste of him has me snapping out of my stupor, and I wrap my arms around his neck, pulling him in closer.

The kiss isn’t slow and sensual, it’s a fight for power.

Teeth clashing, but there is a hunger to it, like we both have been starved of each other for so long that we need this in order to survive. It’s then that I remember why I was sitting on the steps and hanging out with Garrett and my anger peaks. I bite down on his bottom lip so hard that I taste blood. He shoves me back until I smack my head against the wall. I release my hold on his lip, and he takes a step back, giving me the much needed space that I’ll need to think clearly after that kiss.

“What the fuck, Goldie?” he snarls, while cupping his lip. I scowl at the asshole.

“You think you can kiss me after you’ve been doing God only knows what with that skank?” He drops his hand to his side and smirks, it isn’t a sexy smirk it’s one that promises pain.

“And I thought that the perfect Goldie liked an open relationship.” His words have me frowning.

“What?” He closes the space between us but this time he pushes his leg between mine as he places his hands on either side of my head, caging me in. He lifts his leg a fraction higher and a gasp tears from me when he presses it right against my pussy.

“See.” He moves his leg rhythmically back and forward as he speaks. “You think I don’t know that seeing her with me pisses you off.” A moan tumbles from my lips when he presses his leg harder against me, then he shifts slightly and the moment his leg connects with my clit, I moan.