Page 51 of Sweetest Hate

My phone ringingwoke me up, and I blinked into the darkness of Arsen's room. Even after several days had passed since we'd visited the beach, spending each night in Arsen’s bed with the heat of his body warming my back, I startled when a large hand gripped my hip.

"Who the fuck is calling at ass o'clock in the morning?" Arsen rasped, voice heavy with sleep.

"I don't know," I croaked as I reached for my phone, lighting up and buzzing on the nightstand. My throat was dry after Arsen dragged moan after moan from my mouth, so it cracked when I answered the call from an unknown number. "Hello?"

"Can you please come pick up your asshole friend?" a girl's voice snapped, and still groggy I had trouble understanding her, but her sharp tone told me it was a call I needed to take.

Rubbing my eyes, I lifted onto one elbow. "I'm sorry, what?"

She huffed. "Quinn, who came to my party to be with me, got drunk off his ass and fucked some other girl, is currently hurling in my mother's roses. She's going to kill me, by the way. Can you please come get him before he does something else stupid?"

I cursed and tossed my legs over the side of the bed. "Where is he?"

"What's going on?" Arsen asked.

I glanced at him and mouthedQuinn.With a sigh, he sat up and ran his fingers through his messy black hair.

She rattled off an address to a street I was familiar with and gave me a vague description of the house. "Okay, give me fifteen."

She huffed again. "Fine, but I'm not babysitting him until you get here." She hung up, and I stood, stretching as I tried to become fully alert.

"I have to go pick up Quinn. He's drunk and pissed off some girl before he started getting sick," I said and snatched my shorts off the floor and slid them on. I was annoyed that Quinn had put himself, and now us, in the situation and fully intended to lay into him once I got his drunk ass in the car.

Arsen slid from beneath the covers and got out of bed, heading for the closet.

"What are you doing?" I asked while stepping into my shoes.

Arsen pulled a shirt and pair of shorts from their hangers, then he looked at me. "I'm going with you."

I didn't argue. If Quinn was as trashed as it sounded, I could use the help. We finished dressing silently and quickly before heading to the garage for his car since he insisted on driving.

"Where am I going?" Arsen asked as he cranked the engine. I gave him directions, and we drove through the dark, quiet streets until we approached a house with all the lights on, a yard full of cars, and music blasting from speakers. Even without her description, I would have been able to pinpoint exactly where Quinn had been partying.

Arsen pulled down the driveway as close as he could to the house before cutting off the ignition. I called Quinn's phone, but it went straight to voicemail. Blowing out a frustrated breath, I looked at Arsen. "Voicemail, but she said he was outside getting sick in a rose bush or something. I guess we'll start looking for him there."

We hurriedly opened our doors and met at the front of the car before searching for Quinn together. I spotted a pink climbing rose bush growing along a trellis anchored against the side of the house and made a beeline for it, expecting to find him still there if he was as drunk as she claimed. Sitting on his ass in the freshly mowed grass, he leaned against the house, head tipped back as he stared at the sky.

"Quinn," I called as Arsen and I approached.

He lifted his head and groaned as if the effort had really cost him. My nose wrinkled when I stood in front of him. Not even the sweet floral fragrance of the roses could drown out the stench clinging to my drunk best friend.

When he spotted me, he laughed, but it sounded sad. "This is your fault, you know?"

I frowned, unable to understand how I could possibly be responsible for his current condition. "How's that?"

He shook his head, lolling it side to side. "You fucked my stepbrother, and you're still fucking him."

"Quinn," Arsen gritted out. "Get up."

At the sound of Arsen's voice, Quinn snapped his head in Arsen's direction. He snorted and rolled his eyes. "Of course you're here. Why wouldn't you be? You two were together again tonight, right?"

"Quinn," Arsen started again.

"Fuck you, Arsen," Quinn snapped, and my eyebrows shot high. It wasn't a secret Quinn didn't care much for his stepbrother, but the vitriol in that outburst surprised me. "Fuck you," he repeated as if to drive it home. "You actually like Kellan? Or are you just sucking his dick every chance you get to pass time while you're here?"

"That's enough," I interrupted his rant. "Let us take you home." What the fuck was his problem? I was fully aware Quinn wasn't happy about our arrangement. He didn't even know we'd moved beyond that for this very reason. I knew he wouldn't believe me if I told him Arsen wasn't as bad as he'd thought. As both of us had thought. I planned on telling him, just not tonight, and definitely not when he was already drunk and pissed off.

"He doesn't know, does he? You didn't tell him about the first night we met." Quinn flashed Arsen a cocky smile, sloppy because he was hammered, but his words stopped me cold.

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