Page 14 of Collateral Damage
Well, shit. The last thing I want to see is Sybil cry.
I’ve shoved my romantic feelings toward her into the pits of hell where they belong, but that doesn’t mean I want her to suffer. Perry is ready to go, but Ethan is staring at us like we’re being dramatic. We’re not. We need a fucking break.
“Listen, this semester has been like preparing for a long-distance marathon, and next week is the big race. We know it’s important—that’s why we’ve been training for it for months—but even marathon runners take breaks, don’t they?”
Ethan rolls his eyes. “This is academics we’re talking about here.”
“Yeah, and we’re also young and in college. It can’t be study, study, studyall the time. We need balance.”
Sybil turns on him with the sweetest grin, and I’m sure she’s going to get him to see our side. “Please? Let’s have a few hours of fun, go to bed early, and then study all day tomorrow. That’s what Sundays are for.”
The fucker has the audacity to shake his head.
My fingers curl into fists under the table. Doesn’t he see that she needs this? Doesn’t she see he’s controlling her? They’re already so fucking codependent they might as well get surgically attached at the hip.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Ethan turns on me with narrowed eyes. “I’m not going to apologize for being responsible. We’ve had our fun this semester, but it’s time to buckle down. There are different ways to approach education here. We’ve talked about this, Cooper. You know what Dad said.”
Off at college and our father still controls our lives.
The lectures have been endless, so I can see exactly where Ethan is getting this from. Truth is, like us, a lot of our peers know they are going to be set for life either way. Most of those kids don’t worry about their grades so long as they pass their classes.
And then there are the kids who need Harvard as a steppingstone. They don’t have connections, and they’re not necessarily going to find them easily, not like they probably thought they would. They have to do everything right to leverage this education into something great. Honestly, more power to them. I’d do the same thing if I was in their shoes.
But as for us? Our father expects perfection. He expects the Dean’s list. He expects high honors. Heespeciallyexpects us to make it into the master’s program at the business school, a feat that won’t be easy whatsoever. It doesn’t matter that we arerequired to work for King Media or forgo our trust funds; we must impress our father.
And our father has a way of getting exactly what he wants.
But Sybil? Her father babies her. She doesn’t have to get perfect grades or anything even close to them. She’s going to work for the family company when it’s all over, same as us, but she’s not required to graduate. But Sybil has a type-A personality with high standards for herself. She wants to succeed, make her family proud, andearnher place with Laurence International. She’s got something to prove, and she will.
It’s obvious her family members aren’t the only ones she wants to make proud. Now that she has Ethan, she’s not willing to lose him, even if it means disagreeing about how much studying is an appropriate amount. It’s infuriating how quickly she’s needed his approval. This is not the girl I knew for eighteen years.
I can’t sit here and watch this.
I get up, packing my things. “Last chance. Are you guys coming?” I look at Sybil. “You don’t have to do everything Ethan does just because you’re a couple now.”
“Oh, fuck off. It’s not like that,” Ethan says, putting his arm around his girl, proving my damn point.
She hesitates before she says what I know she’s going to. “I’m staying with Ethan. You guys have fun.”
Doesn’t matter if I call her out. Doesn’t matter if I try to talk to him about it. They’retogetherand won’t listen to anybody when it comes to their relationship, which—in my opinion—has quickly become unhealthy.
But nobody asked for my opinion.
“Let’s go,” I say to Perry, and after dropping our bags at the dorm, we spend the next few hours getting shitfaced at the bar with our fake IDs and hitting on pretty girls who aren’t obsessed with my brother.
I wouldn’t mind finding one to sleep with. It’s the only thing that helps get the thought of Ethan and Sybil out of my head. They’ve been doing it since August when she gave him her virginity after a few months of dating. I didn’t know she was still a virgin, but Ethan told me all about it. He tells me everything. Even the things that keep me up at night, sick to my stomach.
“Ready to go?” Perry asks after finishing his beer. The girls we were flirting with went to the bathroom, and he’s obviously not feeling it anymore. “Everyone’s too fucking stressed tonight.”
He’s right. I’m not into it tonight, either. I’m so ready for this semester to be over. So I agree to leave, but when I stand, I wobble, and Perry has to catch me. Shit. I’m way more inebriated than I thought.
“I got you,” Perry says, practically holding me up as we make our way to our dorm building. “Damn, I didn’t realize you had so much. You really need to lay off the alcohol.”
I nod, but I’m not listening. I’m thinking aboutthem.
“It sucks now that Ethan and I are sharing a dorm room,” I say, slurring my words.
“And why is that?”
