Page 30 of Toxic Hope
She’s still searching for something to say by the time I pull up in front of her house. “Here you go. Don’t let me see you around school tomorrow.”
“No offense, but maybe get out of my car and give me the keys before I go in the house.” She even holds out her hand.
“Right. Because I’m dying to steal your car. I’ve always dreamed about cruising around town in a rust bucket like this.” I hand her the keys after getting out of the car, pulling my phone out while I do. There’s a text from Preston, no big surprise.Where the hell are you? You were supposed to meet me after class.
At Emma’s. Drove her home, need a ride.And now he can ask himself the whole way how I ended up here. Let him guess. I actually hope he tries to give me shit about it, because I didn’t forget what Emma said in the parking lot about the blowjob. I only chose not to dig any deeper.
“Well… bye, I guess. And…” Standing at her front door, her hand on the knob, she glances at me before looking away. “Thank you for having my back.”
“Don’t forget, I’m getting something out of it.”
“Could you go, like, five minutes without being a dick?” She storms into the house and slams the door closed a split second before I laugh at how easy it is to piss her off. The porch swing is perfect for waiting—I even feel a little calmer by the time Preston pulls up after speeding down the street. What was he expectingto find? Since I know he’s in a hurry, I take my time getting up from the swing, then walk slowly down the concrete path and make a big deal of closing the gate behind me and making sure the latch locks.
“Hurry up!” Preston barks from inside the truck after rolling the window down. “What are you even doing here?”
“She needed a ride,” I tell him, climbing into the truck and closing the door before adding, “Somebody wiped her out when they forced her to blow them back at school.” I might be guessing on that, but something tells me I’m not wrong.
And I’m not, either, since he blows out a deep sigh. “She told you about that? She can’t keep anything quiet, can she?”
“Is that seriously what you think the problem is?”
“What is the problem?” he counters while his hands tighten around the wheel until his knuckles stand out bright white against his skin. “Don’t tell me you care all of a sudden.”
“How did it even happen?”
“You know how it is. Sometimes one thing leads to another…” When all I can do is groan, he continues, “I told her we know she’s hiding something. I told her if she doesn’t want us to go to Grandma Lois and tell her she’s secretly meeting somebody at the hospital, she would suck me off. Right there in one of the science labs, too.” There’s pride in his voice. I don’t know if I’m jealous or disappointed. We never talked about doing that, or even going to her grandma to start trouble. He just went ahead and made all these decisions on his own.
“How was it?” I finally have to ask.
“Fucking amazing. She didn’t know what she was doing, obviously, but she’s a quick learner. It was definitely worth the time I spent teaching her.”
And now I can’t look at him, because all I’ll be able to imagine is Emma on her knees for him, not for me. Not the way she’sbeen in my mind so many times. Why did it have to be him? Why did he have to fuck with her when I wasn’t around?
“You’re not pissed, are you?” He’s not screwing around anymore. No more laughter. “I didn’t mean to step on your toes or anything like that.”
My pride doesn’t like the sound of it. “Who’s stepping on anybody’s toes? No, it’s just I kind of wish I knew you were going to do that.”
“I didn’t even know I was going to do it until I was in the middle of doing it,” he admits. “What, do you wish you were there? Do you wish you could’ve gotten in on that?”
Yes. I do. If I couldn’t be the first or the only, I at least would have liked to be there. “Do you see yourself doing it again? Getting her that way, if you know what I mean?”
There’s no hesitation. “I want to try. Believe me, get those lips wrapped around you, and you would understand.”
I’m getting thicker just thinking about it. She might have gotten on her knees for my brother, but at least now I know it’s possible. “From now on,” I decide, “if we’re going to fuck around with her, we do it together. No one-on-one stuff.”
“Yeah. That makes sense to me.” He didn’t even take a second to think about it. He must really be looking forward to the next time with her.
Which makes me look forward to it, too. Because now it’s more than a fantasy. Now there’s a chance of making it real.
15
PRESTON
“I knew she wouldn’t be here today. I told her not to come in.” Easton looks proud of himself after making that announcement once we’ve met up after class, even folding his arms and everything the way Dad does when he is feeling full of himself.
I don’t know what irritates me more. That resemblance to Dad, or the way he talks, like he’s got something special with Emma now. Because he drove her home yesterday. Big fucking deal. She sucked my dick yesterday, but I’m not walking around acting like we have some special connection now.
“Maybe she really is sick.” Which makes me wonder if spending time with her was such a good idea—but if she was contagious, we would probably have symptoms by now, right?
