Page 28 of Myself

We walk through the entrance of the rooftop bar, and I place my hand on Becca’s back. She tenses, but Ryder doesn’t seem to mind. The fact that our old high school friend is looking her up and down as if she’s his flavor of the week has him glaring, so it works in my favor. Makes it look like she’s here with me and no one else can have her. Conner was right; I do take advantage of situations with her.

Becca and I go straight to the bar and get everyone drinks. She looks up at me. “You have to be careful.”

“I am,” I say, reaching for my wallet to pay for them.

“You’re not.”

I look at the bartender and give him the money after he sets the drinks down. I don’t say anything else to her because she’s right. I’m not being careful. We make our way over to them standing by the ledge. “We got you guys drinks.”

“Thank you,” Ashlyn says, moving away from Ryder and taking her drink from Becca.

Becca takes a drink from her straw and is smiling, but then it drops off. And she lowers her drink. “What’s wrong?” Ashlyn asks her.

She doesn’t answer, but we all turn to look where she is staring, and there sits fuck face with some bitch. I grip my glass. “Is he still messaging you?” Ashlyn demands, and I look over at her. She nods, and I frown. Why didn’t she tell me she is still talking to him? “When was the last time he messaged you?”

“Earlier today.”

“What did he say?” she demands, getting just as pissed as I am. I know why he’s still contacting her. Because I bet he hasn’t told her mother about their split. I bet he wants to get back with her so he can continue to get paid.

“That he wanted to have dinner tonight. I ignored it like all the others.”

“He’s such a fucking player,” Ashlyn growls.

“Fuck.” I can’t help but hiss out loud. “I’ll take care of it.” This fucker just likes to push me to my limits. I go to walk off, but Ashlyn grabs my arm.

“You had last time. Now, it’s my turn.”

“What do you mean last time?” Becca asks, and no one responds. She looks up at me with those bright green eyes, and for once, I look back over at Conner. He doesn’t look bad for a guy I just beat ten days ago. It’s a little dark up here on the rooftop. That’s part of their atmosphere. It’s not covered in bright lights. That way you can see the lights of the city and the stars. For those who don’t know I touched him, they probably wouldn’t even notice it.

I take a drink from my glass, and it’s hard to swallow. I’ve always been protective of Becca. She was my best friend’s little sister. Ryder and I both had to look after her. My sister was older than me, and it wasn’t cool for an older sister to hang out with her younger brother. I knew what it felt like to feel left out, so we let Becca come along and hang with us quite often. Even to places we probably shouldn’t have. My girlfriend hated it. She always felt threatened by Becca, and I always told her she was crazy, that she was just my little sister, and she had nothing to worry about. I guess she saw something I didn’t. Then on Becca’s eighteenth birthday, shit hit the fan in the worse way.

I stand back over by the table, drinking my beer in the pool house. Jasmine stands beside me. I can hear her laughing, but I’m not sure what about. My attention is elsewhere.

“Jaycent?” A hand hits my chest.

“Hmm?” I pry my eyes away from Becca to look down at Jasmine. Her blue eyes are narrowed on me, her hands on her narrow hips.

“Were you even listening to me?” she snaps.

“Yes,” I lie.

“Then what was I saying?” she asks, challenging me.

“Something about wanting another drink.” I take a crappy guess.

She huffs and then turns to face the woman who has had all my attention for the night. Becca. She turned eighteen last week. Ryder came to me and said he wanted to throw her a surprise birthday party, so I help him set it up.

From the moment she walked in the door, I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. She’s wearing this black sparkly dress that is tight around her stomach and chest, showing off her tits. When did she get those? Has she always had bigger breasts, or have I just never paid attention? The black sparkly material stops at her waist, and then the rest is black tulle that flares out and stops high on her thighs.

Just as I look over it, she leans over a table where she plays beer pong. The tulle rises, and I get a sneak peek at the curve of her ass. I grip my cup tighter.

“Jaycent,” Jasmine snaps.

“What?” I ask, quickly looking away from Becca. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. This is Becca. My best friend’s little sister. She’s eighteen, and I’m twenty-five. What am I thinking?

I’m thinking she’s legal ... Fuck! I have to stop that.

I look back over at her as I hear her laughing. She has her arms up in the air, pulling the already short dress higher. Her head is back as she laughs, and then Conner walks up to her. He picks up a red Solo cup and hands it to her. She takes it without thought and tosses it back. I watch as she swallows whatever is in the cup and some runs down her chin. When she slams it down, he leans in and kisses her neck. His hand goes to her thigh, and I watch him slide up her creamy leg until he cups her ass. My anger rises that he’s touching her like that for all to see.

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