Page 12 of Unhinged Love

Now I have no choice but to fall in line if I want to stay in my own home. My home. Not Irene’s. Not Elliana’s.

“Is that all?” It’s only going to piss him off worse, but I can’t sit here and take this without making sure he knows how pissed I am. What the fuck is so special about her that I have to wait around until she decides it’s time for us to go to school? If he loves her so much, why doesn’t he buy her a car? Then I would only be forced to see her in Psych and around the table at home. I could almost deal with that. It’s this being forced bullshit that makes me grind my molars before slamming the heel of my hand against the horn when the car in front of me waits too long after the light turns green.

“You are on thin ice,” he warns before ending the call. Music floods the truck’s cab again, but it doesn’t ease my tension this time. Nothing could.

I practically had to bite my tongue off to keep from reminding him I’m not some punk he dragged in for an interrogation. Though it’s pretty fucking clear he wants to treat me like a stranger, that’s not who I am. Whether he likes it or not.

He finally has the family he always wanted. I was only a placeholder.

Instead of sprinting across campus like I thought I would on arrival, I’m marching, punishing the pavement with every footstep like that will do anything to change the shitstorm my life has become. I have no control over anything—or at least that’s how it feels. Being told what to do, where to go, how to behave.

I can’t even make the decision to leave the house when I need to without having my ass chewed for it.

I bet she couldn’t wait to call Dad for help.It didn’t hit me until now. She could’ve called me, but she called him. The little bitch.

Sure, it’s good that I don’t have to see her during class today—it looks like psych is the only one we share—but she’s never far from my thoughts. I can barely hear anything happening around me for the noise in my head, like somebody kicked a beehive. It fills my ears, and nothing I do will stop it. I try to breathe slower, remind myself there’s nothing I can’t handle.

Nothing’s even happening right now—she’s not in front of me, and I’m not interacting with her or anything like that.

It doesn’t matter.

She’s in my fucking head. Like a worm that burrowed its way inside my skull. A worm with giant glasses and a heavy sweater.

“All I’m saying is,it’s been way too long since we had a party.”

Easton jams an elbow into my ribs—I was only half paying attention, lost in the anger still simmering under the surface, just shy of boiling.

Rubbing my side, I have to snicker at him. “Be a little more obvious.”

“I wasn’t trying to be sneaky. I’m saying, let’s have a party.”

“You say that like you’d be the one throwing it,” I point out, making his brother laugh from the other side of the cafeteria table at lunch. “Seems to me I would be the one throwing the party, since I always throw the kind of parties you’re talking about. So the right thing to do would be asking if we could please throw one at my house.”

Preston folds his hands under his chin and bats his eyes. “Please, Carter. Can we have a party at your house this weekend since your parents are going away?”

My parents.

All of a sudden, the sandwich and chips in front of me don’t look as good as they did before.

“I don’t know if that’s good enough,” I decide instead of reminding him to watch his language. The words he uses. They are not my parents. Dad, sure, but not Irene.

Saying some shit like that would only make me look childish and get my balls busted endlessly.

“But remember how great it was?” Preston sits back in his chair with a dreamy sort of look on his face. “Like Roman-orgy levels of great. So many pairs of tits bouncing in my face. So much pussy, just waiting to make my acquaintance.”

I’m trying to be serious, but I can’t help the laugh that bursts out of me. “It was pretty legendary.”

“Let’s keep the legend alive,”Easton urges, wearing a smirk because he knows how this is going to end. “Let’s take advantage of this opportunity. It’s kind of our responsibility to give our friends a good time, isn’t it?”

“Again, acting like you have anything to do with it. It’s my ass if Dad finds out.”

Instead of laughing, they exchange a look. “Do you think she would tell?”

She. Nobody has to use a name. Why the fuck can’t she disappear? We can’t even make plans without having to consider the unwelcome guest in my home. “It’ll be fine. She’ll lock herself in her room the whole time.”

“You sure about that?” Easton asks. “Just because she doesn’t want to be part of it doesn’t mean she won’t bitch about it later.”

Of course, he’s right. The fact that she doesn’t want to be a part of it might be even more reason to complain and get my ass in trouble. I can see it now, the way she would put on her whole little terrified victim act, even though there’s literally nothing for her to be afraid of.

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