Page 139 of Chaos

“Oh, I seriously can.”

“Listen, bitch—”

A single, threatening step forward is all I manage before Ricky catches my forearm and yanks me back. “Vic, get in the car.”

She glares, but she obeys.

When I bark like a dog in her wake, Ricky laughs. “Fuck, I missed your crazy ass.”

I shake him off. “Don’t touch me.”

“Don’t be like that. I…” He sighs, and I recognize the noise. I know that fake, forced regret. I’ve heard it so many times before, every other time he did something worthy of an apology and coughed out something lacking. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what happened. I’m sorry, Lottie. I’m so fucking sorry.”

“Wow. It took you three months to come up with that?”

“You know me. I’m a little slow.” Because apparently I haven’t made it clear enough that I would rather stick my hand in a vat of acid that holds his, he reaches for me again, repeating, “I missed you.”

“Keep trying to touch me and you’ll be missing something else.”

“What, you don’t want your new boyfriend to see?”

I flinch.Fuck. He noticed Finn,of coursehe noticed Finn. “I don’t have a new boyfriend. I don’t have anoldboyfriend either. I have a creep who won’t keep his hands to himself.”

Ricky pouts—he still thinks I’m playing, that I’m only pretending to be mad.

“Leave,” I say, clear and concise and so fucking serious. “I mean it, Ricky. You shouldn’t have come here.”

“But I did. I came all the way out here. We’ve been driving for, like, five hours—”

“Do you want a medal?”

“Iwantto talk to you.” Again, he tries to grab my hand, and again, I evade, shoving both in my back pockets. Sighing, he messes with his hair before propping his clenched fists on his hips. “Look, just come out with us for a bit, yeah? I’ll buy a drink.”

“I don't drink anymore.”

He snorts. “Then I’ll make it a double.”

“Ricky—”

“Or,” he interrupts, adopting a slick smile that has my hackles rising, that makes my stomach hurt. “Maybe I need to go back inside and ask your sister for permission. Lux, is it? Y’know, while I’m here, I should probably introduce myself to all your sisters. Your friends too. Yournotboyfriend. Tell them all about how much fun we used to have.”

I open my mouth to tell him to go right ahead, to call his bluff, to insist I don’t care, even if he is being serious.

Except I don’t. I can’t. Because I do care. I hate it, but I care a whole lot.

Which is why, through gritted teeth, I concede. “One hour. And then we’re done.”

“One hour,” Ricky agrees.

I’ve never believed him less, but he’s left me with no fucking choice. I’m backed in a corner with no good options, nothing to do but locate the nerve to go back inside and suffer the weight of the half dozen gazes that track my approach.

“Lottie…” my twin starts, hesitating when I shake my head sharply.

Lux, predictably, isn’t silenced quite so easily. “What’s he doing here, Charlotte?”

“I don’t know.”

She doesn't believe me. I don’t have to look at her to know, I don’t have to hear the skepticism in her voice because I canfeelit. “Did you tell him to come here?”

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