Page 82 of My Fault
He got out. It took a long time before my heart felt normal again.
The next day, Jenna picked me up at three in the afternoon to go shopping. According to her, this trip to the Bahamas was the perfect excuse to spruce up our wardrobes. My mother, overjoyed that Nicholas had invited me along, gave me her credit card and begged me to buy something. It was weird to see my mother so happy just because her stepson and I were getting along, especially since from her point of view the whole farce was just him trying to treat me as his sister. I couldn’t even imagine the look on her and Will’s faces if they found out what we’d been doing the past few weeks.
Still wavering about whether I should even go on the trip, I waited for Jenna as she walked in and out of the dressing room with a thousand different designer outfits. She was so thin, so svelte… I was envious. Her dark skin looked beautiful in every single thing she tried on. I still hadn’t picked anything, and I wasn’t even particularly into the idea. I already had way too many clothes I hadn’t even worn.
My phone rang, and I grabbed it out of my back pocket.
“Hello?” I said. No answer. I looked at the screen. Unknown number. “Hello?” I said again, louder. I could hear someone breathing on the other line, and my whole body shivered. I hung up just as Jenna walked out of the dressing room again.
“Who was it?” she asked as I slipped my phone back in my pocket.
“Dunno. Unknown number,” I said, picking up my bag and heading for the door.
“Weird! I got this call from an unknown number once, and itturned out to be this weirdo who was obsessed with me. He called me, like, a million times. I had to change my number and everything. Lion was losing his mind.”
Honestly, though, who was going to stalk me? But then I remembered Nick telling me about Ronnie’s threats and how I needed to take them more seriously. I wasn’t going to let a stupid phone call freak me out, though. I pushed my worries aside and walked with Jenna to the register.
Ten minutes later, we were sitting at a table outside a Starbucks, where I picked apart a blueberry muffin while she drank a strawberry Frappuccino.
“Can I ask you something?” she asked.
I nodded, putting a piece of muffin into my mouth.
“Do you have feelings for Nick?”
I almost choked. I didn’t see that coming. Was it so obvious? I tried to swallow and stop coughing, taking a sip of my OJ and asking myself how the hell I was going to respond.
“Why do you ask?”
“Yesterday at the birthday party… I don’t know… I thought I saw something. Like Nick… He’s never been so happy to see someone, but when you showed up, he was like a completely different guy. I could be imagining things, but your reaction when Anna talked and then his when you kissed Sam, they were almost exactly the same.”
Hmm. Nothing got past her. It was true we’d let ourselves go that night, not stopping to think that people around us might pick up on what was happening between us. But then what was happening between us?
“Jenna, he’s my stepbrother,” I said, trying to change the subject.
She rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, which means he’s not your real brother or anythinglike it, so you can cut the bullshit,” she said. “I know Nick, and he’s changed… There’s something there… Maybe it’s true you’re trying to be friends now…or maybe you actually have feelings for him?” I felt as if I were being placed behind an X-ray machine.
What were my feelings for Nick? I certainly felt something, I had to admit that, at least to myself, but what was it exactly? I had no idea, I only knew that he was managing to drive me completely insane.
“We’re trying to be friends for our parents’ sake,” I said, knowing it was a lie. “And I don’t dislike him, especially now that we’re actually trying to get to know each other.”
Jenna sucked on her straw. “Fine. But don’t tell me it wouldn’t be amazing if y’all hooked up. That doesn’t count as incest, does it?”
Once again, I found myself choking on my muffin.
28
Nick
The Hotel Atlantis in the Bahamas was considered one of the best. I’d been twice, and it really was incredible. There was a huge aquarium where you could see sharks, rare fish, and all kinds of sea creatures as you walked down the hall toward the dining room or the casino. Noah was freaking out, and I was happy to know I’d helped her have this experience. We’d reserved two rooms: one for the guys and one for the girls.
We got to the hotel at five in the afternoon. The girls wanted to go straight to the beach. I was dying to see Noah in her bikini, so in thirty minutes, I made sure we were off. The sun was warm, but I wasn’t one to lie down on a towel and soak up rays. I liked to surf, but even if that wasn’t in the cards, I was content to know I’d have something pretty to look at.
Hence my disappointment when we got to our beach chairs and Noah took off her dress. Unlike Jenna, who was wearing a provocative bikini, Noah was wearing a black one-piece. It was hot, sure, but I wanted to see a little more skin, a little more of that soft, flat stomach, that waist…
Jenna and Lion went straight to the water. She jumped on hisback, and he threatened to throw her in. I turned to Noah, who was busy putting on sunscreen.
