I nod a few times, letting this sink in, accepting it as the truth. “Okay.” I pass him his phone. “I believe you.”
Don’t believe him.
I’m going to.
Because he’s my brother, and he won’t hurt me like that.
And if he betrays me—then it’s my fault for letting him in.
5
0 years : 02 months
October
LILY CALLOWAY
I lie on my stomach, my canopy net draped around my bed. Too Cute! Puppies on Animal Planet plays, and I try not to flip open the stack of tabloids beside me. Rose told me to burn the picture of me eating a hot dog, but it’s still inside one of those magazines.
Burning one won’t rid them all. Anyway, I think Rose just likes fire.
The door suddenly swings open, and I frantically swipe the tabloids off the mattress. They tangle in the net and hang midair. Uhh…
Lo hesitates in the door frame, his face sharpening as he looks from me to the magazines to the television puppies and back to me. “Okay, this has got to end.” He slams the door and dials a number in his phone.
“What?” I kneel. “It’s not p**n !”
He walks further into the room and then slips his phone back in his pocket.
“Who’d you text? I thought we decided that we didn’t need anyone else to deal with our problems.”
“This isn’t about sex,” Lo says, climbing onto the bed and taking a seat beside me. He combs my hair out of my face. “This is about you, frightened to go outside, scared of the f**king paparazzi. You can’t live like this. Christ, I can’t live like this.”
“It’s getting worse,” I tell Lo honestly. “I feel like every time I go outside with you, there’s another article about how I’m a lying, cheating slut who’s with Ryke.” I shrug. “I figure it’s easier for everyone else if I just stay here.” My eyes flicker to the television. “And plus, the puppies…”
“You can watch your puppies in a park.” Lo searches for the remote underneath decorative pillows.
“Hey,” I say, tackling him to stop. “Baby sloths are coming on next.”
“Then we can go to the zoo. Anything but staying cooped up here, Lil.” He grabs my arms and pushes me back.
I climb on him, channeling my inner-monkey (it helps that Chimps was on prior to Too Cute!) “You can’t…” I wrap my thighs around his waist, his back against the mattress now. And I try to press his arms above his head.
He rolls on top of me, basically pinning me much better than I pinned him. “Look at me,” he says forcefully.
I do. I stare right into his amber eyes that seem to pull my very soul into his heart. It’s so deep, so intoxicating, that I go utterly still and quiet.
“I won’t lose you to anything.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I whisper.
“Clearly,” he says. “You can handle this. I know you can. You know you can. You just have to start believing in yourself.”
I breathe in his words. “Okay.” I pause. “But just after the sloths…”
Someone knocks on the door. “Is she in there?” I hear Poppy, my oldest sister.
Lo takes the time to reach above my head, grab the remote, and switch off the television.
“Don’t knock,” Rose says. “Just walk in.” And that’s when Rose barrels into our room as she normally does. She barely even acknowledges the fact that Lo is pinning me on the bed.
My cheeks start turning red. Even though we weren’t even close to making out…I think. Who knows where this would’ve ended up after ten more minutes?
Poppy strolls in next but freezes a couple steps inside. “Oh sorry.” She shields her eyes with her hand. To Rose, she says, “I told you we should have knocked again.”
“Why? They’re not screwing. They can’t. It’s the middle of the day. Right, Loren?” Rose asks. Lo slowly crawls off my body and lies next to me, propping himself on his elbows.
“Sure,” he says with a sardonic smile. “You can drop your hand, Poppy. My dick isn’t anywhere near your sister.”
“Okay, but I still feel bad about barging into your room,” Poppy says softly, lowering her hand. She gives me a warm smile. I haven’t seen her much since the media crisis with the scandal. I can only imagine it’s affecting her about as well as everyone else. Her brown hair is still long against her chest, her skin still sun-kissed and she still has that Monroe mole above her lip (not that she can really get rid of that).
At least these parts of her haven’t changed. I can’t imagine what else I’ve missed.
“Have you told her yet?” Rose asks Lo.
I perk up. “Told me what?” And since when do Lo and Rose conspire against me?
“We’ve been talking,” Lo admits.
“What?” I frown and scrunch my nose. “What have you done with Loren Hale?” Although they do sort through the mail some mornings together.
“It hasn’t been fun,” Rose adds.
“For either of us,” Lo chimes in.
Okaaay. “Someone better spill soon.”
Rose stands in the center of the room, hands on her hips. Anyone can tell the difference between my older sisters by their wardrobe alone. Rose wears a black pleated dress while Poppy’s in a bohemian maroon shirt and skinny jeans.
Poppy is probably easier to get along with, pretty laid-back, but I always gravitate towards my fiercest sister. She’d be a lioness on Animal Planet, for sure.
Lo slides off the bed and shuts the cracked door.
I scoot closer to Poppy, who stands by the mattress, and she actually starts braiding my hair.
“You need out of this house,” Rose says.
I can’t refute. I know I’ve been a hermit. Lucky’s Diner was really my last real outing. It just got so crazy after that—and the magazines went wild with theories about Ryke and me and Lo.
As though I summoned the angel to Lo’s devil—Ryke Meadows opens the door and enters the room, dressed in only track pants and what looks like a sweaty shirt thrown over his shoulder.
“What are you doing here?” I ask him, forcing my eyes to stay on his face and not his six-pack.
“I was invited to this meeting.”
Meeting?
“I sent a mass text,” Lo admits.
“Connor is in class,” Rose tells me. “He can’t come.” And Daisy is in prep school. Okay…so that means: This is it.
“Does no one knock around here?” Poppy asks.
Ryke shrugs. “They shouldn’t be f**king. It’s the afternoon.”
Rose pulls back her shoulders. “That’s what I said.”
Poppy stares between Lo and me with a little more concern and then she addresses Rose and Ryke. “You both realize that they have no privacy outside and inside their relationship, right?”
“You tell ‘em, Poppy,” Lo says, leaning against our dresser with crossed arms. He’s smiling in amusement. Our other two siblings look like they could tear out his jugular.
“He’s an addict,” Rose says. “I don’t trust him with our sister.”
“And she’s an addict,” Ryke retorts. “I don’t trust her with my brother.”
Poppy raises her hands, coming in peace. I stay quiet. This is my role in my loud family. “It just seems, to me, that you both have trust issues…and maybe you need to have a little more faith in them.”