Page 96 of Daring You

“That’s the kicker. One thing about you, Ben, is your honor. You were right there beside me to defend Astor. You treated women with respect, even your one-nighters. It made no sense to me that you’d sleep with my sister, not tell me about it, and laugh behind my and her backs. It didn’t fucking compute.”

“Locke, I—”

“Why didn’t you come to me yourself? Why not be a man about the whole thing? The two of you, you kept this as your secret, despite the snapshot. You stopped talking to each other. Began hating one another, and still, you didn’t talk to me about it. As smart as you two think you are...how can you not see the amount of tension you bring into any room? Anyone with a single functioning cell can see the history between you two. Carter did within about ten minutes of meeting you both.”

“Astor and me, we weren’t thinking,” I admit. “We were both so hurt over the whole thing—”

“And here I am, waiting to be let in on it, six fucking years later. My twin sister and my best friend. Anytime now, guys.”

“She thinks I slept with her on a dare,” I blurt.

Locke goes quiet. “Come again?”

“We had that stupid game, you, me, Ash and East.”

“I know what the fuck we did.”

“Well…Astor figured she was made a part of it. When I, when we…”

Locke says, slow, lethal, “And why would she think that?”

Ah, fuck. I’m really in it, now. “Dodge. Dodge had something on me, and he said if I didn’t sleep with Astor, he’d tell everyone.”

“Wait a minute—“ Locke holds up a hand, his brows shadowing his eyes almost completely. “Dodge dared you to sleep with Astor?”

“More like blackmailed.”

“And you did it?” Locke stalks forward and throws an arm out with the viper reflexes he was known for on the field. “YOU FUCKING DID IT?”

My head slams into the lockers behind us as Locke grabs me by the neck.

Telling him to calm down is about as futile as telling me to shut up. I leave my arms limp at my sides, though every instinct tells me to fight him. But this is my friend. “No. No, man, not in the least. I denied him right then.”

Locke’s grip won’t leave my throat, and if I don’t get the truth out in the next three seconds, my nose and jaw will never look the same again.

“Locke, you gotta stop. Pull up, man. Because if you throw a punch, I have to defend myself, too.”

“You have two seconds.” Locke is breathing hard through his nose.

I don’t waste time and speak through his strangle-hold. “I had to go to Astor’s that night, after our game. To finish studying for finals. She was helping me. You know that. So I drive there—my right hand cracked and bleeding from punching Dodge’s face in, by the way—and go to her door, and when she opens it, she’s in…”

Oh, man. Not a good segue.

“In what, Ben.”

“In her…” I clear my throat as much as I’m able. “Unmentionables.”

Locke’s upper lip lifts in a snarl.

“Dude, she had a crush on me, okay? And I had one on her. And when she asked me—when she wanted…ah, fuck. It’s like talking to her father right now.”

“Our father’s a bastard. So, it’s actually worse, talking to me.”

“The timing wasn’t excellent, I give you that.”

“You think?”

“But it was real, all right? My night with her was real.”

---