Page 26 of A Little Bit Reckless
He wasn’t the only one confused by what Wells said. Everyone in the room was looking at each other, exchanging glances.
Wells’s attention pivoted to Bow, and she blinked again. Wells’s jaw moved. “It was my beef with her. I gave her a hard time like I do and took things too far. It was my fault, and I take full responsibility for what she did tonight. She was drinking and partying and wasn’t acting like herself.”
Silence blanketed the room, and Bow went completely white.
Wells wet his lips. “She was doing that because of our beef, but it’s squashed now. It’s all over now, right, Squeak?”
Bow’s mouth parted in his direction. Blinking once more, she faced the group before redirecting her sight back to Wells. Her face glowed red. “I guess I was dumb.”
“Dumb because of me,” Wells said. Wells apparently had beef with Bow, and, though I didn’t know what that entailed, he’d obviously covered for her just now. At least, it felt like he had.
He’d said he hadn’t even seen her today. She hadn’t shown up for their tutoring session.
“That beef shit better be over, man. I’ve told you for years how stupid that shit is,” Thatcher said. He stepped over to Bow. He placed a hand on her arm before looking over at Wells. His jaw tightened. “My sister could have died, bro.”
Those words played over Wells’s face. I once again noticed a flash of something before he schooled his features. Wells nodded. “I know, man. It’s over now. I promise.”
I was so confused. There were a lot of things going on here, and I didn’t seem to be the only one in the dark. Right away, Sloane made eye contact with me. She was beside Bow and, when she eyed me, I shrugged my shoulders. What was this beef and why, for years, had Thatcher not agreed with it?
Those answers obviously wouldn’t be coming to light now. Not in that moment.
Wells said he needed a smoke, so he left, and Sloane advised Bow to get some sleep. It was too late for Bow to go back to her place tonight, but I didn’t think any of us would allow her to go there anyway.
“Come on. I’ll get you set up in a guest room,” Sloane said, putting her arm around Bow. She and Bow left and Fawn, Ares’s fiancée, went with the pair. That didn’t surprise me since Fawn and Bow were pretty good friends too.
“I’m going to make sure she’s good and settled,” Thatcher said, then followed. He was immediately going into big-brother mode and any of us would have done the same thing if that’d been our sister. Our friend circle was incredibly close.
The text messages were still flooding in about the events tonight. I received several texts of the same video and each one that came in made me cringe. People wanted to know if I knew what happened, like it was any of their business, and Dorian and Ares were getting the same.
“Looks like phones are going off tonight,” Dorian said, pocketing his. He was a huge blond and currently lounged on the couch. He, Ares, and I headed to the living room after everything settled. Dorian shook his head. “It’ll be by the grace of God if we can keep our parents from finding out about this shit.”
It was probably only a matter of time. I didn’t know how word or that video would get back to our parents, but people liked to get into our business. All our parents were powerful people, not only in our small town of Maywood Heights, but onthis campus. Word would most likely travel back home, but my friends and I might be able to do damage control.
I wasn’t thinking about that right now. I was thinking about Bow and everything that happened tonight. I was thinking about how she looked on that ledge and what I would have done if she’d fallen. I didn’t even want to entertain that shit.
“What beef were Wells and Thatcher talking about?” A lot of frickin’ stuff happened tonight, but one thing that never made sense was how Wells treated Bow.
Nor why she seemed to have a visceral reaction to him tonight.
She also called him by a name I’d never heard, and both Dorian and Ares exchanged glances after what I said.
My brother, Ares, sat back on the couch. We all called him Wolf because of how crazy he was when he played for Pembroke on the football field, and he was grizzly like one. His hair was wild with shaggy curls, and the guy definitely resembled a werewolf with his five o’clock shadow. He sighed. “It’s not really our place.”
My brow popped up at the same time Fawn and my sister entered the room.
“I want to know too,” Sloane said. She started to take her own seat, but Dorian got an arm around her waist. He made a seat right on his lap for her, and when he asked her how Bow was doing, her lips turned down. She messed with her hands. “She seems okay. She and Thatcher are talking right now.”
“We decided to give them a moment,” Fawn said. If Wolf was a werewolf, Fawn was his princess with her edgy look and her miraculous ability to tame him. She was getting so many tattoos these days and nearly had full sleeves on both her arms. Wolf didn’t have nearly as many as her, but the two complemented each other. Fawn was also one of my really good friends, and we’ve known each other for a while.
I loved that both my siblings were happy and had found someone. Though, I wouldn’t lie, it was hard sometimes being around them. Especially when our parents were equally as happy. It was lonely sometimes.
“Like Wolf said, it’s really not our place, little fighter,” Dorian said to Sloane. That was his nickname for her since high school. Sloane eyed him though, and he laughed. His head cocked at her. “What are the odds either of you guys let this go?”
“How about slim to none,” Sloane said, then faced me.
I nodded. This not only concerned Bow, but Wells too. Ineededto know.
I needed to know about both of them.
