Page 92 of Foolish Games

Looking back on it, though, I realize the guys working the ball that night weren’t just football players who didn’t make the guest list. They were the rougher side of the team—the ones he hangs out with all the time. Ones who could probably use the money and weren’t volunteering at all. They were working.

When he joked about living on the other side of the tracks, I thought he was just teasing because I’m a founding daughter, the way he does when he calls me Princess. Robert mentioned once that Sebastian doesn’t even have a car, though. It’s not like we go on real dates where he comes to pick me up, and I like driving, so it doesn’t bother me. I never even really noticed that when we hang out with his friends, we always ride in their cars. But now I notice—and it hurts.

Not because he doesn’t have money, but because I realize how little he’s shared with me.

We’ve been together for months, and he’s barely shared the first thing about his personal life, and I had to pry the information out of him. Unlike with Chaz, when I cared about what kind of family he came from, Sebastian’s family situation hasn’t mattered to me. His lack of a car hasn’t mattered. I was having so much fun I didn’t care, and both of us knew from the start that it was temporary. If it wasn’t going to last, what did it matter if he lived on the other side of the tracks, or his friends ran with gangs, or he didn’t have a dad?

But I can see in every line of his face, from his clenched jaw to his brows drawn together in fury, in every muscle of his tensed body that it matters to him—a lot.

“You know what, I don’t need this,” Sebastian says suddenly, stepping back. “I’m out of here.”

I grab his arm. “Where are you going?”

“To a party on my side of town where the only kind of assholes are the ones I can stick my dick in.” He turns to walk away, leaving my heart torn down the middle. Did it really mean so little to him that he’d go find some girl at a party the same night he leaves me here?

“Hey,” Robert barks, shoving Sebastian in the back. “You think I’m going to let you walk away after you disrespect my sister like that?”

Sebastian stumbles forward onto the dance floor, and a collective swell of excited voices rises in the crowd. I glance around for someone to put a stop to this, but everyone’s watching with rapt attention. The music cuts off with the sound of a record scratch, and the room falls silent as Sebastian slowly turns back. His hands are balled into fists, and his face is red with anger, his breath coming quick.

“You gonna hit me when my back is turned?” he asks, like he’s clarifying what just happened to himself as well as Rob.

“I guess I am,” Rob says. “Just like you’ve been hitting it when my back is turned.”

“We told you what was up,” Sebastian grits out.

“Yeah, but see, I think you’re full of shit,” Robert says. “I don’t believe your little arrangement for one second. You may have said you were pretending to date to make her look good, but I think you’re really pretending it’s fake so you could nail my sister without me kicking your ass.”

I can’t breathe.

Before I can even comprehend that my own brother just outed us in his anger, Sebastian swings. His fist connects with Robert’s jaw, and my brother stumbles backwards. A roar of excitement goes up as people start pushing to get closer, egging on the two as Robert takes a shot back at Sebastian.

“I knew it,” Krissy crows behind me. “I knew you couldn’t land a football player!”

I cringe, refusing to turn and acknowledge her. It doesn’t stop her.

“The fact that you’d fake it just to try to steal my boyfriend is the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” she howls, braying like a donkey.

I fight to swallow, turning slowly to face her at last. Dread sinks inside me before I even see that Chaz is right beside her.

“Really, Viv?” he asks, shaking his head and looking at me like he’s never been so disappointed. “I severely overestimated you.”

A thud sounds, and I turn back just in time to see my brother gain the upper hand as the two roll onto the dance floor. Robert slams his fist into Sebastian’s face, and Billy jumps in and knocks him off. A scream sounds, and it takes me a second to realize it came from me. Sebastian after a half dozen too many drinks may be an even match for my brother, but Billy’s a gang member. He probably has a weapon, and if not, he’s still been in dozens of fights, while my brother has maybe been in two fist fights in his entire life.

“No,” I cry, running toward them. Before I can get there, Joseph Darling jumps in to aid my brother.

Someone grabs my arm, stopping me from breaking through the circle of spectators to where the boys are trading blows. “Let them work it out,” Theo says. “You’re just going to get yourself hurt.”

“Who the fuck are these kids?” Justin Darling bellows beside me, shoving through the crowd.

“I think that’s Billy Gunn,” Jacob says, staying on his brother’s heel. “The pool boy.”

“Billy Gunn who fucked your mom,” Billy yells, laughing and stumbling to his feet, blood pouring down his face from a cut in his eyebrow.

I sway on my feet, but Theo catches my elbow. “Want to go sit down?” he asks. “I can grab you a drink on the way.”

“That’s my brother,” I say, pulling away. “And my—Sebastian.”

More Darlings join the two shoving their way through, and they break into the center just as the Dolces force through on the other side of the circle. They stare across the fighters at each other.

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