Page 31 of Strictly Curious
When we finally pulled into the driveway and parked, Garrett got out and shot around the car to help me inside. I leaned on him as I hopped up the stairs to my room. He got me situated on the bed with a bunch of pillows and even helped me elevate my foot, which was still wrapped tightly in the ace bandage from yesterday.
“I’m going to bring our camping stuff in and I’ll be back, okay?” It was cute how he doted on me the way he was. I really was fine, although I appreciated the help up the stairs.
“I’ll just catch up on my phone while you’re gone.” I pulled it out of my pocket and reached for the charging cord when Garrett shot around the bed to hand it to me. I gave him a warm smile before I plugged it in. The battery had died completely on our trip and as soon as my phone had enough juice, it pinged with a bunch of notifications.
“Alright, I’ll be back shortly.” Garrett walked out of the room while I looked through my notifications.
Most were pretty insignificant. Mostly just random tags to see memes, but my heart stopped when I saw a notification from Toby Andrews. What the hell had he tagged me in?
Against my better judgment, I clicked one of the notifications and I started to sweat. It was an article on incest. It was ridiculous because no one really knew that Garrett and I were a thing and we weren’t biological brothers. What was more unsettling was that the article was posted to Toby’s social media wall and several of our classmates were commenting on the post asking why the hell we were tagged in such an article.
I vibrated with anger. Who the hell did this guy think he was, starting nasty rumors. The article had been posted the day we’d left for the trip so it had been up for at least two days. There was no telling how many people had seen it. If Toby was trying to win over Garrett, this certainly wasn’t the way to do it.
When Garrett came back to the room, I was still staring in shock at my phone. He crawled onto the bed next to me and grabbed it.
“Did you try to call mom ye…” The words died as he saw what was on my screen. “Son of a…” He tossed my phone on the bed and grabbed me by the shoulders forcing me to face him.
“He’s just an asshole, Ty. I never should have fucked around with him and I’m sorry he’s being a jealous dick to you.” His words were meant to be a comfort, but they only made me feel a little sick. Was this what I was up against now?
Garrett
FuckingToby.Thiswasn’teven slightly okay. I never dreamed that he’d become this attached after fucking around a few times. To be fair, Gabriel had tried to warn me about Toby being a little clingy. A curse slipped out of my mouth that my so-called friends all slept around with each other.
“What the hell did I do to him? Turn him down?” Tyler’s questions were spoken so softly that I could tell he was freaking out about the article.
“Don’t stress too much. After reading some of the comments, everyone is simply just confused about what he was implying. But, Ty, this is also what I tried to warn you about.” I knew he didn’t want to hear that right now. But I had! I had attempted to warn him at the get-go what people would think of us being together. It wasn’t fair, and it wasn’t right. We had to be ready to tackle things like this together.
His phone pinged on the bed again, and I lifted it to see a new text from Maisy. I knew she and Ty still talked from time to time, though they weren’t as close as they used to be. Of course, there was a screenshot of the article attached to her text message.
What is this? Why would he tag you in this?
I ignored her message and tossed the phone on the bed and instead pulled Tyler into my side. He was still trembling. I couldn’t place if it was in anger or if he was scared. This was such a freaking mess. God damn Toby.
“Why did I think he was a nice guy?” he asked, wrapping his arms around my waist. I held him against me and kissed the top of his head.
“Because neither of us knew this would happen.”
“Oh, God, your mom is friends with him. We have to get him to take that article down before they come home and see it.”
His panic was palpable, and I didn’t know how to calm him down. He shook against me as I tried to formulate a plan to get Toby to take down the damn article. I could threaten him, but that wasn’t entirely my style either. It was probably as simple as asking him to, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t cut it either. Regardless we were on a countdown until Mom saw the article and had some serious questions for us.
“I’ll think of what to do.” The phone in my pocket felt heavy. It wouldn’t hurt to try it. The only issue right now was getting Tyler to let me go long enough to make the call. He was so shaken.
We lay there for a while with me absently rubbing his back until his breathing evened out. I liked that I could put him at ease enough to fall asleep so easily. Once I was positive he was out, I extricated myself from his grasp and tip-toed out of his room.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and thumbed through my contacts until I found Toby. Forcing myself to take a calming breath, I hit the call button and waited as it rang. Before I was sure it would to go to voicemail, he finally picked up.
“You know, I wondered just how long it would take before I heard from one of you.” Toby’s smug voice made me want to reach through the phone and punch him.
“Hey, asshole, that was a low blow.”
“Was it? I mean, you’re fucking your brother.”
I seethed. Those threats in my head sounded better and better. “I’m not fucking him. And Tyler isn’t my brother. He’s my stepbrother. Even if I was, we aren’t related by blood and you better take that shit down.”
Toby’s laughter made my stomach churn. Tyler was right that he’d come across as a nice guy and outside of Gabriel telling me he was a little clingy, no one had expressed concern that he had this psycho side. “You could have fooled me. No one is this protective of someone they’re not invested in.”
I ran a hand down my face because he was being stupid. “Jesus, Toby. He’s my stepbrother. He’s been in my life since I was ten. If you think I wouldn’t have some sort of attachment at this point…”
