Page 15 of Obligation
“Thanks. I used to play ball in high school.”
Well, that explained his good physique. Carissa swallowed hard and kept her back to everyone, afraid if she turned around, her true thoughts would be written all over her face. The last thing she needed was to encourage Bradley any more than she already had.
“Me too,” Cory said. “What position did you play?”
Carissa tuned out her brother and Bradley as they talked about basketball. She knew her brother, and once he got started about sports, he’d never shut up. And she’d heard all of his stories, multiple times.
But when he said, “We should shoot hoops sometime,” she twisted around. Her brother was not seriously making plans to hang out with Bradley, was he? How could her own twin be so clueless about the tension radiating between her and Bradley?
“Yeah, just let me know when and where.” Bradley nodded.
“You free tomorrow?” Cory asked.
Carissa’s ears rang, and her eyes widened with panic. He’d better not even think about it…
“Yeah, why?” Bradley continued to clean up the kitchen, taking care of the leftover pizza and disposing of the boxes.
“We always have family dinner on Sunday. You should come. We can play ball.” Cory grinned. “Garrett will be there. Bring Jeremy along, and we can play some two on two.”
At that, Bradley stopped, an empty pizza box in his hand. “What about Danny?”
Silence descended like a thick, choking fog. Carissa’s head spun, and she was suddenly hot for an entirely different reason. Cory sliced a look in her direction, his expression pleading for her to save him from his own stupidity.
“My father doesn’t like Danny, so he’s not invited,” she said coolly.
“Okay then.” Bradley disappeared onto the back porch.
Carissa jabbed her brother in the ribs hard enough to make him yelp. He moved out of her reach and rubbed his side.
“What time tomorrow?” Bradley returned without the pizza box.
“We eat promptly at one. Don’t be late. My mother will take it personally if you are,” Carissa said.
She finished making the popcorn, and Danny and Jeremy returned a few minutes later. Without a word, Danny raced upstairs. He’d gone to the store with Jeremy so he could buy condoms, which meant he was hoping for sex tonight. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, especially knowing they were in a house full of people.
“Alright,” Jeremy announced and pulled bottles of beer from the case he’d set on the kitchen island. He handed one to each person. “The rules are simple. Each time a character in the movie does something dumb, we drink. Each time someone dies, we drink. Each time someone has sex, we drink.” He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned.
“So, basically, we just drink throughout the entire movie?” Cory asked and twisted the top off his bottle. “This movie might not suck so bad after all.” That garnered him laughs from almost everyone.
Later, when Carissa had a moment alone with her brother, she was going to strangle him. The fact that she couldn’t invite her boyfriend to family dinner was bad enough, but now she had to spend the day with Bradley instead. Maybe she’d be sick tomorrow and skip out on Sunday dinner.
“Dibs on the couch,” Danny called as he came downstairs and grabbed a beer. He proceeded to said couch and sank down near the armrest, then patted the spot next to him.
Carissa curled up against his side, feet tucked beneath her, and Danny wrapped his arm around her. Bradley plopped down on the other end of the couch, kicked his feet up on the coffee table, ankles crossed.
Her heart pounded at his close proximity, and she had no idea how she was supposed to concentrate on the movie with him sitting next to her. Her only saving grace was that she had to look past him to see the TV, which meant she could study him without anyone really noticing.
Garrett shut off all the lights in the house, and only the light from the TV illuminated the living room. She snuggled closer to Danny as the opening credits began on the screen. He dragged his fingertips over her shoulder, and she shivered.
“Cold?” Danny asked. “I can grab a blanket.”
“No, I’m okay.” She smiled up at him, and he leaned down to give her a kiss that she cut short. Normally, she didn’t have any issues with kissing him in front of people, but things were different with Bradley in the mix.
Within the first two minutes of the movie, a character was murdered. “Drink!” Jeremy declared.
Carissa took a long pull from her beer and made a face at the bitter taste. She was more a fruity drink kind of girl. Or straight up whiskey—the good, expensive stuff that she’d stolen from her father’s private stash, not the cheap crap kids her age could afford.
Half an hour into the movie, and everyone was on their second beer. At this rate, she’d be too drunk to pay much attention to what was happening. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. If she drank enough, she could pass out and not have to come up with a reason not to have sex with Danny. Or she could imagine he was Bradley.
