Page 86 of Deceit

I plan on getting buzzed tonight.

I intend to forget Bishop’s words and how he can say them but not explainwhy.

I need the why before the what.

I fucking need to know how he feels about me before I turn into a shrew because I can’t seem to fully get over him. Not even with Alexander trying. He only takes the edge off.

“There she is, little sister.” The taunting tone immediately tenses my shoulders and has me slowly turning my head to find my brother, Adler, striding my way with a glass of dark liquid and a shit-eating grin on his face.

I don’t respond to his greeting—I can’t.

All I can remember is that day I came home from cheerleading practice and what I found waiting for me there.

“Happy Birthday.” He wraps his free arm around my shoulders, and I give him two seconds before I’m shrugging him off me.

“Thanks,” I mutter.

“Mom got you to come, huh?”

“Yep.” I down the rest of the bubbly champagne and move for another when Adler reaches out to stop me.

“Hold on, let me get the low down. What’s been new with you? You’re like a stranger to me these days.”

“Work, sleeping, and work,” I drone, studying the vast crowd of people in our parent’s living room and patio out back.

“What are you like forty now?”

I scoff through my nose, but a prissy little smile forms off my face. “Pretty damn close. You still fucking high school twats, or did you grow up a little bit since the last time I saw you?”

Adler releases a deep chuckle as if I’m joking, but then again, he did like older women didn’t he? The whole younger woman thing was just a ploy, a cover-up from what he really used to do after school.

“Not sure why you’re pissed at me, Ems, but chill. I’m not going to start an argument on your special day.”

I slant my focus back to him, resenting how similar we look and how we’re actually related while being so different.

His light blonde hair that’s perfectly styled to the side, mild brown eyes, and the faint sprinkle of freckles along his cheeks.

“Then piss off,” I voice with steel in my tone. “I’m not gonna chill when I know what you fucking did.”

He has the audacity to lift a brow at me, playing stupid as if I’d imagined things. “And what was that?”

“You don’t want to get into that with me, Al.” He cringes at the nickname, always hating it for as long as I can remember. His face begins to scrunch up in a disgusting expression.

“Right—“ He huffs then redirects his gaze onto something else that isn’t me. “—well, have a great fucking night. I’m sure we’ll be stuck somewhere together soon enough.”

“You better hope we aren’t.”

Adler narrows his eyes at me. “You don’t know what you saw.”

“No?” The smell of the room mixed with different colognes and perfumes makes my stomach twist. That along with my brother’s body less than three feet from mine.

“No,” he replies flatly.

“Then I guess my walking in on you fucking mom on the kitchen island was my imagination then.”

He steps closer, causing my chin to rise. My older brother, by two years, looks like he wants to strangle me, except he doesn’t have the stomach for brute force.

I do.

---