Page 39 of Furious
“Potato po-tah-to.” She scoffs. “Your parents are married. That makes you kissing your stepbrother gross. Besides, I thought you were with Lev?”
I wish I could rewind time, come out of the front door and just wave Chance goodbye. Or better yet, stay in bed.
“I am with Lev.” I struggle to keep my tone firm and confident.
“Then explain why you were kissing another guy right in front of him.” Heather challenges me.
“It was nothing. Just a dare.”
I know. Not the best solution to the problem, but it’s the best idea I could come up with on the fly.
“A dare?” she asks, clearly skeptical.
I nod. “Yeah, the guys and I have an ongoing game of truth or dare. Lev just dared me to kiss Chance. If I didn’t do it, I would have had to shave the sides of my head.”
Luckily, Heather believes me. “Oh my God,” she covers her mouth with her hands. “I’m so glad you went through with it. Even I wouldn’t have been able to fix a disaster like that one. I swear, those guys are crazy. They used to dare each other to do the craziest things when we were kids. And Ares and Atlas were the worst. They always came up with the hardest dares. I’m glad they’re playing that game again. We stopped two years ago,for obvious reasons. Maybe I could get back into the game too? I miss how close we all used to be. And with you and I being besties, it could be a lot of fun. As you can imagine, the guys used to always gang up on me.”
Her eager expression makes me feel like the worst piece of shit who ever lived.
“Sure.” I beam, confident that there’s a place in hell for me for lying to Heather. “I’ll tell Lev. He’s coming over to hang out with me later.”
She smiles. “Ooh, does he want to hang out or hang out?”
I giggle, relieved that Heather is back to her usual, bubbly self. “I don’t know. I’m not going to say no if he wants to… hang out.”
Heather goes immediately into planning mode. “If you have a hot date, can we go shopping for something sexy for you to wear? And then I’m gonna do your hair. No offense, sweetie, but it looks like you let it air dry. It’s frizzy as hell.”
Maybe that’s because I did let it air dry after I took a shower with Chance last night. “No offense taken.” I reassure her. “And I would love your help to look pretty for Lev.” And Chance.
Heather jumps up and down, clapping her hands. I can totally see why she’s so good at cheering. “Perfect. Let’s go shopping and then we’ll go to my house and I’ll make you look so hot. Lev won’t know what hit him.”
I relax just a little, pushing the guilt about lying to her as deep down as I can. Chance and I aren’t related and Lev knows I care about his best friend. I would never cheat on either of them.
As if she could read my mind, Heather stops in her tracks and squeezes my hand. “Hey, I hope I didn’t overstep before about that kiss. I wouldn’t blame you if you found Chance attractive. Every girl at school had a crush on him and I’m sure it isn’t going to be any different now in college. I’m sure Chance liked you back when we met, but aside from your parents’ marriagecomplicating things, you’re with Lev now. And he’s such a great guy, Zara. He doesn’t deserve to get hurt.”
My next words are totally honest. “I would never ever hurt him, I promise. Lev is fun and kind and so hot. Things with him aren’t just physical. We’re becoming really good friends. So I hope you know I would never do anything to hurt him. At least not intentionally.”
Heather nods. “Good. It’s what I wanted to hear. I’m sorry, but I’ve been friends with the guys since we were all babies. I can get a little over protective.”
I can’t relate to her friendship with the guys, because I’ve never had any friendships that lasted a lifetime. Not because I didn’t want them, but circumstances made it really hard. When my parents were married, we moved around a lot because of Dad’s racing career. After they divorced, Mom uprooted us to come to California. Wren and DJ are my oldest friends, but it’s nothing compared to the bond I see between Lev, Chance, and Ares.
“It’s ok.” I say. “I’m glad Lev and Chance have a friend like you to look out for them.”
Heather’s smile fades, replaced by a sad look in her eyes. “Yeah. I wish being protective had been enough to keep Atlas safe. But it wasn’t.”
I wrap my arms around her. I can’t even imagine what Heather must have gone through losing her sweetheart. “You’re not responsible for what happened that day in Bridgeport, Heath. No one could have predicted that a stolen bike would get onto the racetrack.”
Like Chance and Ares, Heather looks uncomfortable talking about that day. “I know. But that doesn’t change the reality that I get a little anxious about my loved ones.”
It isn’t hard to relate to that.
“I understand. Just know that I care about Lev and I’ll treat him the way I would like to be treated.”
Heather returns my hug, squeezing me tight. “Good. I think you make a gorgeous couple and you deserve an amazing boyfriend like him. Way more than Angie.” Her expression sours when she mentions her other friend.
My senses are on high alert. Does Heather know where Angela was last night? She looked really chummy with Cal, and that worries me; even if I don’t know Angela that well and we certainly aren’t on our way to becoming friends, I wouldn’t wish getting involved with a creep like my ex on my worst enemy.
I need to tread carefully here. I don’t want to make Heather suspicious. “Is something wrong with Angela? I didn’t see her last night at the game.”
