Page 12 of Girl Like Me

“There is more to what happened Bristol, more than you know. I have watched to see if you had any of your memories back because as soon as you do, you’re in danger. They will send you straight back to the psych ward and on those medsyou will forget, again.”

“What do you know?” She asks as her bottom lip trembles.

“Now isn’t the time, the less you know the better. You are in no danger right now, if our father notices you with him though there will be.”

“How do we know we can trust you? You knew your sister was locked in a psych ward and did nothing.” His lips twist into a grimace as he stares at me.

“She was better off in there. You have no idea who our family is, it was that or a bullet. You’re a smart guy, do some research or ask your little cop friend. Who do you think kept the parents away as long as I could when I was notified you escaped? I had hoped you ran as far away as you could. We had a plan to vanish when we turned eighteen. A different country, a different identity. I promise to fill you in as your memory comes back.”

“You need to leave Mercer.” JD says as she turns her attention to me. “I’m sorry but I need to deal with who I was before I can be who you need me to be.”

“I can help.” It almost sounds like a plea but she still shakes her head no.

“It isn’t worth the risk, just forget about me.” She steps towards me for a hug, wrapping her arms around my waist and pulls me in tight.

“We all need you, no one is the same.” I whisper softly in her ear.

“Snapchat, get my user name off Mac.” She whispers back. Why would Mac be in contact with her? He hasn’t said anything to us about it.

She pulls back from me and I reluctantly let her go. “I’m sorry Mercer but I’m not that girl anymore. I’m Bristol Montgomery and you all need to forget about me.” Her words say one thing and her eyes another as tears start to well in the corners. She is smart to not fully trust her brother. Something doesn’t seem right.

I storm from the room and go to find Cindy, if I had as much as seen one tear fall I would have carried her out of here with me kicking and screaming. I walk through the hallway, peeking my head into different rooms until I find one that a bunch of kids are sitting in and ask if anyone has seen them. They point me in the direction of an office three doors down from this one. Pushing the door open, I don’t know what I expected to find but this was definitely not it. Cindy is laid out on the desk, her dress pulled up to her waist with the dickhead between her thighs. They didn’t hear me come in, too engrossed in the moment to pay attention to anything else happening around them. With a plan formulated in my mind, I pull my phone from my jacket pocket.

“I’m leaving.” Cindy shrieks at the sound of my voice. I hold out my phone and snap a few pictures, shutting the door before the douche can pull his pants up and chase after me.

“Ballsy move.” My eyes snap to the direction of the voice and see Oliver leaning against the wall. “Need a lift before his highness has you beaten to a pulp?”

“I’m not scared of him but since my lift is indisposed it would be appreciated.” He turns heading in the opposite direction and motions for me to follow him. We slip through the party unnoticed and exit through the back entrance. A beeping sound catches my attention and what I see makes my jaw drop.

“Holy shit, you have a lambo?” A bubble of laughter erupts from his throat as he sees the dumbstruck expression on my face.

“Pretty much everyone here does, or something just as expensive. Carter got one and guess what my father did?” He points to his Lambo with ait’s not that hard to figure outlook on his face. “Then a few others within our group just had to have them too.”

“And here I thought my Hummer was something special.” I mumble, scratching at the back of my neck.

We jump in and he peels out of the property and out onto the road.

“So, what’s your deal?” He asks. I look at him confused, unsure what deal he is talking about. “You’re clearly not rich, Cindy doesn’t seem like your type and Sebastian isn’t someone you want as an enemy.” He punctuates his statement by lifting fingers for each point he makes.

“Maybe in your world he isn’t but in mine he is a nobody. I hate Cindy with a passion and the only reason I’m here is because she blackmailed me.”

“And Bristol?” He asks, raising a pointed brow, glancing in my direction then turning back to the road.

“Complicated. We had a thing while she was gone but she made it clear tonight that she is done with me.” I lie in case it gets back to her family.

“She seems different since she has been back.”

“What do you mean, what was she like before?” He laughs, a deep belly rumble that echoes throughout the entire car.

“She was a typical mean girl. She was only friends with people who could benefit her and that even goes for Sebastian. She hates his guts, always has, but go online and search Hashtag Bastian and it tells another story. It’s all about appearances in our world. We all come from old money, people like Cindy are considered new money and then there’s everyone else.” He doesn’t come across as snobbish, nothing like the room full of people we just avoided.

“I will be sure to look them up and do a little research. The J…Bristol I know was sweet and kind and caring…”

“You like her, I can tell. It’s written all over your face. Man that girl is a chameleon, here she is queen bee, yet throw her into the Eastside and she fits in like the gutter trash. When I first heard she went to the psych ward I wasn’t surprised.” I want to punch him in the face for talking poorly of her, but he seems to be loose-lipped and we need information to piece together her life. “A few thought she was faking it for attention and this memory loss stuff is really convincing.”

“You think she is faking her memory loss?”

“Yeah, I mean it’s possible. She was practically forced into her relationship with a douche and he is borderline abusive. Her father is pretty much king of the underworld, not that you could ever find any evidence of that since his brother is the one always in shit with the law but with so many people in his pocket he always gets his brother off. Bristol was caught up in some drama also with this guy Echo and he is one scary mofo even if he doesn’t look like it.”

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