Page 36 of Psycho

Hmm. I wondered if Mom would get mad if I stayed at Hillcrest for the break. No holiday for me. As long as one of the guys stayed with me, I’d be fine—

“I can try,” Will said.

“It’s not safe for her to go home by herself,” Declan said what we were all thinking. Well, more or less. In that moment, I was thinking less about Ray following me than I was about seeing my best friend whose face I’d seen twisted in pleasure while Sawyer pounded away at her.

“I can stay here, you know. I don’t have to go home for Thanksgiving break,” I informed them. I knew they wanted the dorms empty, but Sawyer’s house was as good a place as any to crash for a week. I’d been doing it since Halloween, so it wasn’t that much of a stretch.

Declan rubbed his neck. “I’m pretty sure Travis is going with Sawyer. Something about his family not celebrating any holiday, or whatever, and there’s no way Dad’ll let either of us stay here over the break.”

“So,” Will spoke, leaning against his car, “that means you’ll just have to celebrate it with us.” His mouth grinned, and inside my chest, my heart sped up.

I knew enough about the brothers to leave it at that; arguing with them was pointless. I also knew enough about Ray to know, somehow, someway he was watching us. Watching me. I couldn’t hug Will right now, couldn’t leap into his arms and kiss him. The only thing I could do was stare at him and wave as he got into his car and drove off.

Declan moved closer to me, and it was as Will’s car disappeared into the busy traffic that he said, “It would be better if you spent the holidays with us. You’d definitely brighten them up.”

I, personally, wasn’t sure about that, but I said nothing as I headed to the side door and entered the large, spacious house. Declan was short on my heel, and we found Travis and Sawyer in the living room. Travis stood near the window, having watched it all, while Sawyer was sprawled out, wearing nothing but athletic shorts, his abs on full display…along with other parts of him that were easily visible against the sheer fabric of the shorts.

Now that he was mostly sober—although none of us trusted him to be left to his own devices yet—it was his usual state. Shirtless, shoeless. Not a care in the world.

Also, his half-smirk was back at full force. Not that I missed that particular thing. Not. At. All.

All in all, he looked better. Just because he looked better though didn’t mean shit. The road to recovery was a bumpy one.

Sawyer’s green eyes darted to me, a half-smirk growing on his lips. “So, did you end up banging Will too? If you did, Travis owes me a grand—”

Scowling, Travis muttered, “I told you to fuck off when you asked me to bet.” Travis wore a white t-shirt, its fabric a startling contrast to the tattoos lining his body. He was sex on two legs, and even though he might not be good for my health, he was my drug all the same. One of my drugs, because apparently I had more than one.

I frowned at him. “No one wants your attitude, Sawyer.” I thought about telling him no one wanted his snarky mouth, but then my mind—still in the gutter, thanks for asking—pictured quite a few different ways I wanted his mouth. Different locations, all that.

Sawyer shrugged. Somehow the bastard managed to shrug while laying down and look good while doing it. The whole abs for days thing helped with that. The faded pink hair? Not so much. “Hey, I’m only trying to make it interesting around here. If you guys had your way, it’d be one huge fuckfest.”

I had thoughts—quick, fleeting thoughts that disappeared as soon as they came—about digging out the knife I’d taken from Ray and stabbing him with it.

Like I said, quick thoughts. I’d never really stab him. He was way too pretty for that.

“You’re just jealous you’re not invited to the fuckfest,” I growled out. Just like always, I was letting Sawyer get the better of me. The asshole knew which buttons to press on me to get me riled up in all the wrong ways.

He laughed. “Even if I was invited, I’d pass. I mean, look at you—” Oh, going to insult me now, was he?

No fucking way.

“Right, look at me,” I said, raising my voice a bit louder than I intended. “I’m just the girl you’ve been obsessed with since day one. You wanted to use me against Declan? Oh, boo hoo, you couldn’t. Then you wanted to fuck me—which you couldn’t do, either, so you grabbed a skank and made her dye her hair pink.”

I was basically yelling at him now, but once I got started, I just couldn’t stop.

“Then when I came and ruined that, you spiraled. You went off the rails because I pushed you off, Sawyer, because I made you realize how shitty your life really is.” My hands clenched into fists at my side; I had everyone’s attention now. “And you know what really ticks me off? The fact that you think your problems are the worst. You’re so egotistical, thinking with the head on your dick and not the one on your shoulders, that you don’t even realize that your problems are nothing.”

Sawyer was slow to sit up, and his blonde eyebrows came together, his mouth opening, but he wasn’t able to say a word. Travis and Declan both knew better than to try to speak right now.

This was my time, baby. My fucking time.

“I watched you fuck my best friend after almost being raped by someone Brooklyn was cheering on. I went home with my serial killer ex because I couldn’t stomach the thought of coming back to Hillcrest after seeing you like that.” I spoke fast now, plowing on like a freaking semi-truck, “And of course that says nothing about the fact that I could’ve died because that bitch hit me with her fucking car.”

“What—” Sawyer tried to speak, but I didn’t let him.

Someone grab me butter, because I was on a roll.Travis and Declan looked a bit upset at that—did I not tell them about Brooklyn and her wonderful penchant for attempted murder? Oops. Guess it just slipped my mind with everything going on.

“You lost your sister, but guess what? Everyone loses someone. Every fucking day someone loses a sister, a daughter, a mother. Do you think that makes you special? Do you think it’s an excuse to act like a whiny rich boy who’ll never grow out of his partying ways? If you think Sabrina is why you’re like this, I have news for you: you’re just a shitty person. You’re not a good guy, and even though I never met Sabrina, I bet she’d hate to see you like this, to know everything that you’ve done.”

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