Page 19 of My Brother's Best Friend

“No.”

He grabbed my shoulder and squeezedplayfully. “Come on. I’ve been gone all weekend. I want to know what went down.” He guided me toward the kitchen. “You score any chicks? When I was your age, I’d get all the?—”

Mom pulled out a plate from the microwave, twirled around, and narrowed her gaze at Dad. “You’d better not finish that sentence, Wolfe.” She walked over to the kitchen island and placed the plate on the counter. “Here you go, sweetheart.”

“I’m not hungry,” I said. “I have homework to finish.”

“Is there something wrong?” she asked before I could slip out the door. “You’re always hungry after practice. Did you eat at Oliver’s?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, well, if you want anything to eat, I’ll wrap this and put it in the fridge for you,” she started, but then her gaze dropped to my neck. Her eyes widened, and she hurried over. “Alec, what’s that on your neck?”

I pulled up my collar to hide my body from her. I didn’t want her touching me.

Yet she pushed my hand away and rolled my collar down anyway.

“Hives?” she asked, brow furrowed.

“It’s not hives.” Lie. “Just roughhousing at practice.”

Dad swished whiskey around in a glass, one brow arched. “Looks more like a hickey to me.”

I dropped my gaze and headed for the stairs, dragging my hockey equipment to my bedroom. Before Mom could ask me more about the fucking hives on my neck or Dad could tell me more about how he used to snag all the girls in high school—like I fucking thought it was cool—I slammed my door closed and pulled out my phone.

I really needed to talk to someone, but Maddie still hadn’t texted back.

I doubted that she ever would.

CHAPTER11

MADDIE

“What’s wrong?” I asked Oliver after he parked his car next to mine in the student parking lot early Monday morning.

Vera zipped up her thin fall jacket, tugged on her backpack straps, and leaned against my car, watching Oliver with wide eyes. Standing next to her, I crossed my arms and arched a brow at my brother, who tore his backpack out of the passenger seat and gritted his teeth.

“We’re going to have a shit game tonight,” he said.

“You have another game tonight?” Vera asked. “Didn’t you have one on Friday?”

“Yeah, they did,” I said to her, then returned to my brother. “Why? You have Alec.”

Just his name on my tongue tasted like venom. I hated any and all things that had to do with him, especially after he had fucked some random chick after he fucked me. But that was my fault for stupidly allowing him into my bedroom.

“He skipped practice yesterday. Can’t play tonight.”

“Alec skipped practice?” I asked. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” Oliver growled. “I haven’t been able to get ahold of him.”

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. Well, he had messaged me last night …

“It’s too cold!” Vera said, looping her arm around mine and tugging me toward the entrance of Redwood Academy. She bounced up and down on her toes, her teeth chattering. “Why is it always so cold in the fall? I want summer back!”

“So you can wear skimpy little dresses for Blaise?” I hummed, smirking.

She cut her gaze to me. “No … maybe.”

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