Page 59 of Paper Hearts

“Yeah, ya slut.” Arya laughs in Kamila’s face when she passes by her. “He don’t like you!”

Kamila shoves her hand in Arya’s face only to have Ender move between them. “Don’t touch my sister,” he warns, and then leans in to say something in Kamila’s ear.

I don’t know what he says, but she doesn’t like it and turns away from him.

My heart beats faster. I feel like I hurt him by kissing Carter when I didn’t know the whole story. Ender and Kamila have a past, one that clearly goes way beyond anything he’s ever told me about the two of them. And just because he showed up with her doesn’t mean he’swithher.

While Roman gets Arya in the truck, Ender turns to me and steps closer, his mouth at my ear as he backs me up against the side of Carter’s truck. “What’d he do to you?”

Before I can answer, Arya pukes on Walker and Roman who are holding onto her.

Walker takes his shirt off, tossing it in the back of Carter’s truck. “What the fuck, Arya?” he yells at her. “Goddamn it.”

Roman shoves Walker back. “Come on, man. Go easy on the poor kid.”

“I’m not a kid!” Arya shouts at Roman, jamming her finger into his chest. “I’m not! I’ve almost had sex.”

“Yeah, okay.” He pats the top of her head as she bends over and pukes into the grass now.

Carter reaches for my shirt in the bed of the truck and hands it to me. I take it, but Ender rips it from his hand, his livid stare on his friend. “What the fuck were you doing with them here?”

Carter rolls his eyes. “Ender, knock it off. They’re just having fun.”

Ender’s gaze shifts to mine. He points to his truck behind Carter’s. “Get in the truck, Hads.”

I don’t say another word. I don’t want to fight with him. Not tonight.

Just as I’m getting in the truck, Carter follows. “I can give you a ride if you don’t want to go with him,” he says, looking from me to Ender and then back at me.

Ender shoves him hard, and he falls back against the side of the tractor next to the broken beer bottle. “The fuck you will. I thought I told you to stay away from her.”

“You’re not her dad,Ender. And you don’t own her, despite what you think.”

Ender whirls to face him, grabbing hold of his shirt with both fists. “What was that?”

Carter steadies himself. “I said, you don’t fucking own her, asshole. You walk around thinking she’s going to fall at your feet anytime she looks at you.”

Well, he has me pegged, doesn’t he?

Ender slams Carter into the tractor. “She’s falling down drunk because of you and if I hadn’t shown up, what were you going to do with her? I told you she’s off limits to you.”

He told him that? I blink rapidly, kinda turned on by his display of anger over someone touching me, and annoyed he thinks he can dictate everything I do.

Arya, who’s gotten away from Roman and Walker, tries to stand up, intending to get in Ender’s face again, but instead falls over backward, laughing when her legs go up over her head and she practically does a summersault.

Ender says something into Carter’s ear, and his eyes widen. I don’t know what he says, but it’s enough that Carter scowls at him and backs away.

Without words, Ender nods to the truck and I follow. I’m weak and I know it. I follow because I’m afraid to lead. Terrified he won’t love me back if I stand up for myself.

Arya pukes most of the way back, dry heaving and hanging her head out the window. It’s hard to watch and harder to hold my own liquor down. Not a word is said between us, the noise from Arya and the hum of the engine filling the space with Walker and Roman groaning about being puked on.

* * *

When we get backto Ender’s house, we sneak inside, get Arya into bed and then Ender has me cornered in the hall, his hand on my stomach as he backs me into the wall. “What happened with him?”

“Where were you when I called you?” I challenge.

He tips his head back, rolling his eyes and then starts walking away. “At a baseball game, remember?” he answers, shrugging.

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