Page 52 of Sweetest Hate

Arsen growled, "That's enough. Let's go before you make any more of a scene."

I glanced around, witnessing what Arsen was saying. Several people were now looking our way, eavesdropping on the situation and likely hoping for a fight or, at the very least, maybe some drama they could whisper about later. In a small town like Holloway, gossip spread fast, and the last thing I wanted was for us to be at the center of tomorrow's juicy news. I wasn't sure what Quinn was talking about, but I imagined it wasn't something I wanted everyone to hear.

"Seriously, Quinn, let's get out of here," I urged, reaching out for him to take my hand, so I could pull him to his feet.

"No, you need to hear this." He slapped my hand away, and I took a deep breath to calm down.

"You want to tell him,brother, or do I get the pleasure?" He turned his all-teeth grin toward Arsen, and I tensed for the blow he was ready to deliver.

Arsen folded his arms over his chest. "Why don't you do it,stepbrother? Don't forget about the best parts. Remember your part of the conversation?"

Suddenly what Arsen had told me the night I'd been painting the sky, about the first time he'd seen me, came back in a rush. I had a sinking feeling that there was much more to the story. "I'm confused and feel like I need to be filled in, but not here. Quinn, please get up. Let's take this somewhere else."

"No can do, bestie." He glanced at Arsen. "Do you remember the night we went to the art gallery over Christmas break?"

"Of course I do, but Arsen already told me he saw me that night." I wasn't sure now was the time to ask Quinn why he hadn't mentioned it that night. At this point, I wasn't sure that was necessary anyway.

Quinn chuckled as if he had a secret, and judging by the tension between the two, I didn't doubt the gut feeling. "Yeah? He told you, huh? Did Arsen happen to mention that when you two fucked at the lake house, that he did it just to piss me off?"

My back stiffened because Arsen definitely hadn't mentioned that part. I glanced at him, where he stood grinding his teeth.

"Is that true?" I couldn't mask the shake in my voice. It made sense. The comment he'd made to Quinn about bringing the snacks came back in a rush. Fuck, it made total sense. "Did you hook up with me because of some bullshit rivalry?"

Arsen's stare swung toward me, gaze filled with fury, but I knew it wasn't over anything I said. "No, I didn't. Yes, I said that to him the night I saw you for the first time, but it was just to piss him off. I would never do something like that because of Quinn. It was you, and if you really think about it, you know I'm telling you the truth. Did it feel fake? Did it feel like Quinn had jack shit to do with it? The night I saw you hanging lights, that Quinn is so quick to twist into something it wasn't, I was already interested. He knew it and made sure we didn't meet." He turned to face Quinn. "Tell him the rest."

I wasn't sure I could handle anymore new information because I was still processing everything I'd learned. Which stepbrother did I believe? The evidence supporting Quinn's claim was strong, but so was Arsen's. The chemistry that had burned between us the night we met couldn't be manufactured to even some score. There was also the fact that Quinn had kept us from meeting in the first place. I looked at my best friend, feeling the sting of betrayal at the sudden clarity I had, that he'd been keeping secrets from me for months. I couldn't forget my part. I'd kept a huge secret from him as well most of our lives, but it just didn't feel the same, and I wasn't sure if I was in the wrong as well or if it had been the right thing to do.

"Tell him why you did it, Quinn," Arsen continued. "Why didn't you want us to meet?"

Quinn shut his mouth for once, and I studied him. "Just tell me already. You started this, so now you finish it."

"Please do," Arsen agreed. "Tell him my mother ran out on me when I was seven fucking years old because I wasn't good enough, because I was just an unwanted piece of trash to her. That was why you decided I wasn't good enough for him, right?"

Quinn swallowed hard. I'd never taken my eyes off him as I heard Arsen's words. How could someone say that about a seven-year-old kid? I watched Quinn, waiting for him to deny he'd said that at all, but he didn't. No one deserved to be told their mother didn't want them and that it was their fault. I stared in disbelief the longer he didn't speak.

"Maybe it was for a different reason, yeah?" Arsen suggested cryptically, and for the first time, Quinn glanced around us, seeing all the eyes trained on the scene he'd created.

"I…" He glanced back at me and sighed. "I don't even care anymore if he or anyone else knows." He blinked, and I steeled myself for whatever was big enough to cause the widening gap growing between us. "Jesus, Kellan. Why was it never me? You fucked around, but I was right fucking there."

Confused, I tried to piece together what he was trying to tell me. "I don't understand."

"All you had to do was see me, the way you see my asshole stepbrother. I never would have touched anyone else. But you didn't, and every day I had to ignore it, force it away by drowning myself in pussy when I just wanted you to want me back."

I cringed at his crass words, but they made no sense. "You aren't even gay. You said you met a girl at work and that she could be the one. I don't understand," I repeated.

"Tell me the truth. Did you ever think about it? Being with me?" His eyes pleaded with me to come clean, but Arsen was standing right next to me, and I was pretty sure he was waiting on the answer too.

I wasn't sure what to do. I'd been wrong about my feelings for Quinn. I knew that now because it didn't even come close to the way I felt about Arsen. It wasn't even in the same universe, but yes, at one time, I'd thought I had been in love with Quinn. Was it worth telling him the truth? Would it cause more damage by lying or confessing? I honestly didn't care about telling Quinn, but Arsen was different. After everything he'd been through, especially now that I had learned about his mom. My best friend had actually used that painful part of Arsen's life as ammunition to purposefully hurt him. Would telling Arsen that I'd thought I'd had feelings for Quinn before I met him spare his feelings, or would it ruin our relationship, starting it with lies?

Struck with indecision, I cleared my throat. "Quinn, we need to leave."

"Fine. You know what? It doesn't even fucking matter anymore. You two are so far up each other's asses, nothing would come of it anyway." He attempted to stand but promptly collapsed back onto the ground.

Quinn was wrong. It did matter. The question was out there now, and Arsen had to be thinking about what my answer would be, though he seemed to be brooding over my non-answer.

Stepping closer to the drunken asshole, I gripped his arm and attempted to pull him to his feet. Still, he was bigger and heavier than I could manage, especially when he provided no help with his dead weight. "Arsen? Some help here?"

Without uttering a word, he went to Quinn's other side and pulled him off the ground. With stiff movements, Arsen led him back to his car while I followed, staring at his back. Had I just ruined everything between us before it had even really started? That wasn't true. It had started, and I was so invested in the growing relationship that a sinking feeling set heavily in my gut. How could I make this right?

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