Page 116 of The Dollhouse

I couldn’t say how much time passed while Wyatt and I talked, but it had to be a while. The moon journeyed across the sky amongst the stars, and I spent more time staring up at it than looking at Wyatt, fearing the more I looked at him, the softer my heart would feel toward him. The more I’d want to stop this plan.

Ugh, I hated feeling bad. I was petty. I wanted to fuck shit up. The only reason I felt bad was because Wyatt was an innocent in all this—and that was hard to find in Hillcrest, trust me.

“Wyatt, is that you?” A girl’s voice cut through the air, so sharp and piercing both Wyatt and I had to turn our heads to see who it was who’d spoken. Although, the moment I heard the voice, I knew who it belonged to. “Isshewhy you’re not answering my texts?”

The one girl I didn’t know would show up tonight.

“Willow,” Wyatt said, giving her a weird expression. “I’m sorry, but—but I’m busy. I told you I had plans tonight.” He sounded completely innocent, like he had no idea who she was to me. I had the feeling that would change shortly. He was about to discover just how messed up this all was.

“Withher?” Willow sounded aghast, like she couldn’t believe he’d chosen to hang out with me over her tonight. I had to hold back my smile when I heard the shrillness of her voice. She wasn’t doing herself any favors with how she acted.

Wyatt’s eyebrows creased, and he glanced between Willow and me, as if knowing there was more to this. He had no idea, but he was about to find out.

I pretended not to know Willow and Wyatt knew each other, saying to Wyatt, “You know my sister?” My question caused Wyatt’s eyes to nearly bug out of his head, and as if to further hit the nail on the head, I added quietly, “Willow’s my sister.”

“No,” Willow hissed, folding her arms over her chest. “Zoey’smysister. I knew you first, Wyatt, in case you forgot.” Wyatt was speechless in the face of her wrath, and she decided to take advantage of that by saying, “Come on, we need to talk.” Her eyes flicked to me, the wind tousling her blond hair. “Away from Zoey.” She uncrossed her arms, holding out a hand to him, waiting for him to take it, to choose her over me.

Neither I nor Wyatt got up right away, and I would’ve laughed if I’d been alone here. But, the whole point was to play it cool, so I tried to look like a deer in headlights, like a chicken that just got its head cut off: surprised, wide-eyed, and unable to speak.

Finally, when he realized my sister was serious and wasn’t going away until she spoke with him somewhere more private, Wyatt looked at me, his emerald gaze pleading, like he wanted me to tell him what to do, like he didn’t know what the hell he should do. He’d probably never been caught in such an awkward position in his life.

Sorry, buddy.

I gave him a nod, wordlessly telling him to go ahead. I wouldn’t ask him not to; I wanted to seem like the more level-headed sister here, and I could only hope that I’d wormed my way into Wyatt’s heart enough that nothing my sister could do or say would matter.

Then again, he was a guy, so if she came onto him, would he really push her away? Bryan sure as shit didn’t, although I’d never heard the story of who came onto who first. Didn’t need to. They were both guilty as shit, and my sister might act like she’d changed her ways, but she hadn’t. She was still a bitch.

Wyatt was slow to get up, moving toward my sister, although he did not go to take her hand. She let out a noiseless sigh as she dropped her hand to her side, though she did toss me an aggravated, irate look before she and Wyatt disappeared into the house. I watched them go, my back twisted so I could see them both leave me, and once I was alone on the patio, I let out a loud breath. Well, alone, save for the smokers hanging around the bushes, munching on whatever snacks they’d taken from the kitchen before coming outside.

As I nestled back into the wicker chair, someone tall and strong came from the shadows around the other side of the house. “Thatwas your sister?” A gruff, low voice spoke, and the second I heard it, I rolled my eyes and turned my head toward the approaching man. “Pretty, but kind of a bitch.”

I glared at him, not bothering to get up. “Don’t call her pretty, Carter.” It was my turn to hiss out words, grinding my jaw. “If you think she’s that pretty, why don’t you date her instead of me?” I said that without thinking, old jealousies flaring up the very moment he’d called her attractive.

Carter’s hands were in his pockets, and he strolled up to my side, standing beside me and staring out at the backyard of the house. It wasn’t too large, but the fraternities were on the outer edges of campus, so they had more room than most other buildings, especially the dormitories.

“You know I don’t want anyone else,” he muttered, sounding unhappy. “You, on the other hand, were very fucking chummy with that Wyatt kid. Is that who you like? Weirdos like Lake?” Carter sounded jealous now, and I groaned.

“Why do you hate Lake so much?” I asked. “You didn’t seem to hate him when we came over to Roman’s place that night you—” I stopped when Carter started to growl, yes,growllike an animal, as if he hated the mere mention of the fact that he’d gotten busy with me at the same time as Lake. A threesome I was always down for happening again. “And, anyway, don’t worry about Wyatt. I said you could trust me, and I meant it. You, on the other hand, stalked me here when I strictly told you not to.”

I got up, angling my head at Carter, giving him a mock glare, to which Carter simply harrumphed and frowned at me in return.

“I’m going to go see if I can eavesdrop,” I told him in a whisper. “Don’t go inside. You’ll stick out like a sore thumb.” And that was the truth. As ridiculously sexy as Carter was, he was obviously way older than any partier here, including me. He was more the age of a grad student than an actual student, and grad students probably didn’t go to undergrad parties.

Plus, he’d be a magnet for the horny drunk chicks, and the last thing I wanted to do was fight off dozens of girls who wanted to get in Carter’s pants and ride his dick until the sun rose. The only girl that had the pleasure of riding that dick was me—although Carter was usually the one doing the riding, if you know what I mean.

I didn’t give Carter a chance to say anything, turning to head inside the house. I poked my head through the door before walking in just to make sure they weren’t nearby, and they weren’t. I had to do a little sneaking around to find out where they went, and as it turned out, Willow had taken Wyatt to the stairwell. It was the only place that was vacant, apparently, and it allowed me to stand on the side of it on the first floor and hear everything they were saying. Some of it was a little hard to hear over the music pounding away in the living room, but I managed to put most of it together.

Willow must’ve reamed into him while I was outside with Carter, for Wyatt was busy saying, “I didn’t know she was your sister, Willow. I didn’t. I know you don’t believe me, and that’s fine, but I don’t get why you’re so upset. If anything, Zoey—”

“Zoey what?” I could imagine my sister frowning as she spoke my name. “What exactly did she tell you?”

There was a pause before Wyatt said, “Enough.”

“I highly doubt she—”

“She said last year she found out her sister and her ex-boyfriend were sleeping together, and her parents tried to tell her it was no big deal. They wanted her to get over it and act like it never happened,” Wyatt rattled off. “She never said you were her sister.” There was a pause before he questioned, “Is it true? Did you do that to her?”

Willow swore, “That bitch.” She did not confess, nor did she deny what he’d said, which was more than enough of a confession in Wyatt’s eyes, based on what he said next.

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