Page 20 of Fracture

“Yeah, real nice.” The dark mood from before settles over me again, as I can’t help but glance at Levi’s abs, the tattoos that snake across his pecs. His jeans hang even lower now as we move through the crowd, and the deep V over his hips…

I tear my eyes away. What the fuck is wrong with me? Losing my mind over Stella and her date, and now ogling my best friend? Fuck. Maybe Zee was right. Maybe I do need to go and get laid, get this shit out of my system.

I force my attention back on to the beach, the people around us, trying to spot Stella’s shiny blonde head of hair. Levi and I make it down to the water, to some rocks that line the beach, and he throws himself down, leaning back on his hands.

“Maybe she didn’t come after all.” He looks up at me, his gaze wandering down my body. “You look hot, pretty boy.”

“Excuse me?”

Levi gestures to my black pants and shirt. “You, dressed like that. Strip off for god’s sake, cool off a little.”

“Oh, right.” I grab a handful of shirt behind my head and pull it off. Just as I do, I hear Stella laughing. I look out over the water, and a flash of pink catches my eye.

It’s Stella, thrown over Jared fucking Marshall’s shoulder as he runs through the water with her. Her ass is right by his head, barely covered in a tiny triangle of pink.

“Jared!” She cries playfully. “Put me down!”

Levi lets out a low laugh from the ground beside me. “There’s our girl.”

“We gonna go get her?”

Levi raises a hand languidly. “Just wait.”

I watch as Jared dumps Stella in the water, his face lit up in a brilliant smile. I can’t help but judge the tribal tattoo across his shoulders.Basic ass fucking bitch. The closest Jared fucking Marshall has ever come to anything tribal is Spring Break in fucking Cancun. Every Spanish and Polish expletive I can think of bubbles up in my brain as I watch this milk toast fucking white boy prance around in the water with my girl.

Uncultured asshole dares to get himself a tribal tattoo. Fuck that.

“You should see your face,” Levi says with a laugh, rising to his feet. “If looks could kill, that bitch would be fucking dead right now.”

“Just looking at his ink.” My face pulls into a sneer I can’t even help. “Bet he cried like a fucking baby when he got it.”

“He used the numbing cream.” Levi chuckles, and bites his lip as he looks at me. “We should go say hi.” He peels off his jeans, stripping down to his dark blue boxers, and dumps his clothes on the rock beside us. I follow suit, and we climb down off the rocks and into the cool water.

It laps at our calves as we make our way towards Stella and Jared.

“Hey sis,” Levi drawls once he’s at Jared’s back.

Stella’s face instantly drops into a scowl as she pushes wet tendrils of hair from her face. Jared turns around slowly, appraising us both with a somewhat surprised expression, before his stupid preppy face bursts into a wide smile.

“Levi!” He holds out a hand, which Levi takes. “Good to see you man.” His gaze shifts to me, the friendly hand extended again. “Dylan, how are you?”

“Just fine.” I cross my arms over my chest, ignoring the extended hand, and I can’t help the twinge of satisfaction as Jared’s smile falters a little.

“Good for you remembering his name,” Levi says, his lips curving into a grin. “In high school it was, what was it again?” He turns to me. “I know Zee was Freak, but you? You were?”

I meet Jared’s paling face. “I was Homo.”

Levi wags his finger and turns back to Jared. “That’s right, Homo.”

Stella’s face changes from a scowl to sheer fury, her brows pulled down as she gets to her feet.

Jared holds up his hands, and he shrugs. “Hey man, I’m sorry. I was an asshole kid who went to an asshole church. It was wrong of me to ever say anything like that.”

“Yeah it was.” Stella’s voice is sharp as a whip, and all three of us turn to look at her. She crosses her arms over her chest, and fixes Jared with a look of pure poison. “How dare you.”

“Stella, that was years ago.”

She huffs out a breath and raises her eyebrows. “Oh, so ten years ago in the year of our lordtwenty-fucking-fourteenyou thought it was OK to call a bisexual manhomo?”

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