Page 63 of My Ex's Roommates
56.
***Silas***
“This feels like a pretty stupid idea now that we’re standing here.” Dylan looked up at the prison’s visitor center and wiped sweat from his face. “This is the most fucked up version of meeting the family ever. Hey, good to meet you, I seriously fucked up and hurt your sister and now she hates me, but how’s life?”
I wasn’t exactly feeling all that great, either. No matter how much Dylan insisted on taking responsibility for what happened, Carter and I had been there, too. We’d been just as ready to hit send as he was. We’d all fucked up.
Carter ran his hand over his head and shrugged. “If they decide to murder us, it’s going to make the conversation I had with Dad this morning pretty awkward.”
“She’s not talking to them. The least we can do is come here and explain why face to face. Maybe they’ll have advice for us.” I groaned. “Besides telling us to fuck off.”
Dylan stood up taller and nodded. “Let’s do it. The faster we do this, the faster we get back home to keep an eye on Harper. If we’re not dead.”
I led the way through the check-in process and, in what felt like not enough time, we were sitting at a table waiting for Harper’s brothers to come out. I sat between Carter and Dylan and forced my hand to rest on my knees without fidgeting. We were grown men. We’d fucked up. We deserved whatever her brothers threw at us.
I felt Carter stiffen and looked up to see Danny, Jay, and Matt coming our way. They looked even bigger than I remembered and I felt like I could see even more ink creeping down their arms and up the collars of their jumpsuits as they sat in front of us.
Danny sat across from me and tilted his head as he studied each of us. “What’d you do?”
Jay sat forward. “Harper has never refused to talk to us before and the little spitfire that keeps calling us to give us updates about Harper won’t spill more than to say the three of you are idiots. And now you’re here so I’m going to need one of you to open your mouths to tell us what you did to our sister that’s made her shut down.”
“It was me.” Dylan looked at each of them as he explained what happened with the picture and how Jake had sent it out to everyone with all of Harper’s information. “I let the win go to my head. I felt like a fucking god after taking Jake down and proving everyone wrong and I wanted to take him down one more peg. That picture was private and special between the four of us and I wanted to use it to hurt him. I caught myself before I did but Istill somehow hit send. It was a mistake but I did it. I caused all the shit that Harper’s having to deal with.”
I gripped his shoulder and shook my head. “It wasn’t just you. We all got caught up in beating Jake. We all thought about it but you just had your phone first. It could’ve been any one of us. We all fucked up. Not just you.”
“Where is she now?” Danny’s hands were fisted on the table, his face hard.
Carter made a frustrated sound. “At our house. Where she’s been for four days straight without leaving her room except to go to the bathroom. The rest of the guys on the football team know and respect Harper so they’ve been staying at the house when we can’t. When she starts going to classes again, she’ll have someone with her at all times. With Jake giving her information out…things got ugly fast. We’re prepared now.”
Matt tapped the table in the direction of Carter’s knuckles. “How ugly?”
“If Casey hadn’t called to tell me Harper was walking to class by herself I don’t know what would’ve happened.” Carter’s jaw clenched and his whole body shuddered. “They had her trapped in a circle of them. They ripped her backpack up and broke her laptop. One of them had his arm… He had his arm around her chest, pinning her to his chest when we got there. She sounded so goddamn scared…”
Danny watched as Carter quickly wiped his eyes and scowled. “What’d you do?”
Carter sat up straighter. “What do you mean?”
“I mean what’d you do when you got there and heard my baby sister sounding so goddamn scared?”
“The same fucking thing you did but with more money.” Carter shrugged and leaned in. “They’ll never have another day on this earth without feeling the consequences of their actions.”
“The one who had her pinned?” Jay growled out the words.
Dylan met his hard gaze. “Broken arm in two places. Nasty breaks. Even with surgery his arm will never be one hundred perfect again.”
“Daddy’s money kept you out of jail?” Danny was still focused on Carter, his anger palpable.
Carter didn’t budge. “Yep. You shouldn’t judge that too harshly because it’s going to get you out of here, too.”
“Casey’s your sister?” Shaking his head, Danny grunted. “Crazy must run in your family.”
“Deep and strong but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong. You can expect to be called before the parole board any day.”
I watched an array of emotions flash across their faces. Disbelief, shock, hope, and then anger. I held up my hands to stop whatever they were thinking. “None of us expect you to suddenly feel warm and cozy towards us. You don’t owe us shit. Casey did most of the work and the three of you have perfect records here. It would’ve happened eventually.”
“You don’t expect us to suddenly sing your praises and forget what you did?” Jay’s eyes were full of suspicion. “A tit for a tat?”
Dylan splayed his hands out on the table and ground his teeth together before speaking. “No. You should fucking hate me and I don’t expect this to make a difference. Harper won’t let us in and she’s avoiding your calls. She couldn’t do that in person. She needs someone and if she won’t let it be us, then it’ll have to be you.”
