Page 166 of Broken Ties (Rixon High 4)

Aaron

“What the fuckis wrong with you?” Cole shoved me out of Deacon’s house, and I stumbled down the steps.

“She fucked him. She fucking—”

“Wow, man. Just wow. You really think she slept with Eli after she spent half the night waiting for you. Looking for you?”

“She thinks I slept with Zara!” I yelled, the words cracking something vital inside of me.

I still didn’t quite understand how things had gotten so out of hand. One minute I was doing stupid drinking games with the guys, the next they carried—literally carried—me into Deacon’s pool house, tied me to a fucking chair, shoved that stupid plastic crown on my head, and abandoned me with no way out.

“What? What the fuck are you talking about?” Cole said.

“When you all left me in the pool house tied to that fucking chair, Zara came in and…”

“And what?” His brows furrowed.

“Gave me a lap dance, tried to do a whole lot more than that.”

“The fuck?”

“The whole thing was weird and kind of hazy.” Thanks to all the vodka I’d consumed no doubt. “She practically stripped me and then danced for me. Said that the guys wanted to help me out…”

“I am so confused right now.”

“I guess they overheard our conversation that day in the cafeteria about… you know.”

The Raiders captain being a fully-fledged virgin.

“Shit.”

“Yeah, shit. She turned up more than ready to help me out with the situation. She was all over me.”

“She didn’t… touch you, did she? Because that’s some fucked up shit.”

“No, it didn’t go that far. But she did kiss me. I have red fucking lipstick stains all over me.”

“And Poppy saw all this?”

“No, she saw me trying to get free. She didn’t even give me a chance to explain.” A bolt of agony went right through my heart. In all my life, I’d never seen her look so devastated. The pain in her eyes was something I never wanted to witness, ever again.

And fuck if it didn’t cut me up inside knowing I’d been the one to put it there.

“I need to find her,” I said, trying to move around Cole. But he shoved his palms into my chest.

“No, you need to go home, Aaron. I’m not messing around. You hit me and then you beat the shit out of Eli without getting the whole story.”

Guilt slammed into me and I ran a hand down my face. “I didn’t mean—”

“But you did. You messed up tonight, man. Big time.”

“Yeah.” Defeat sat heavy in my chest. “Is Sofia—”

“She’s okay.” He checked his cell phone. “But we need to get out of here. Ezra’s going to take the girls home, but Poppy doesn’t want…” He trailed off.

“She doesn’t want to see me.”

Fuck. That hurt more than anything. I’d scared her just now. I’d scared myself.

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