Page 9 of Forever Filthy

“My sister’s the reason the three of you fled,” Vox mutters.

“No. We left because once again you and Ezekiel thought we were nothing but sheep the two of you fuckers could lead. He may have blindsided you with the whole marrying Vivi and shit, but everything else was on the both of you. As far as I’m concerned the both of you are dead to me. You got the girl and the ending you wanted but was it worth the price of your twin, best friends and The Brotherhood we created?” I don’t stick around for his answer, I chase after Hayze and catch up to him at the back of the dorms. He ignores me when I call out to him, so I run in front of him and block his path. Anger is burning in his green eyes, his chest is rising and falling in quick pants, his fists clenching at his sides. Out of the four of us, Ez and Vox were always tighter with each other than us but the same can be said for me and Hayze. We’re all brothers but even siblings have favorites. I know Hayze like I know myself, which is why I know he needs to be the one to speak first. If I do it, we will end up throwing hands and that’s not what either of us needs right now.

It takes him a minute to regulate his breathing, eventually sighing and scrubbing a hand down his face and that’s all I need to know we aren’t going to fight.

“Why didn’t you tell me how you felt about Vi?” I say barely above a whisper. In truth, I’m scared of his answer because much like him, I would rather see him happy with the girl and watch from the sidelines than break my best friend's heart by finally getting the girl I’ve always wanted.

Hayze tugs on the strands of his hair and begins to pace around in front of me. Out of the four of us, he is the more approachable and easy going except when it comes to his feelings, he hates talking about how he feels and always closes everyone out. The only person I have ever seen with the power to get him to open up is the girl that apparently both of us want and it would seem Ez wants her too, which makes this whole situation so fucked up!

“How the fuck was I supposed to tell you?” he growls.

My lungs deflate as I shove my hands in my pants pockets and rock back on my heels. “I don’t know, H.”

He stops pacing and faces me, the pained look in his eyes shreds my chest open. “The night of Darion’s party, we went to celebrate after we won the championship game.”

I frown. “What about the party?”

“That was the night I knew I first wanted her.” My brows nearly hit my fucking hairline.

“That was years ago!”

He nods. “That was freshman year.”

“I know!” I snap.

“But even before then, I knew I liked her, I just didn’t realize how much until that night. When she showed up with Vox, I couldn’t take my eyes off her.”

“Why didn’t you fucking say anything?” I shout.

“Because you were fucking looking at her the same way!” he roars. Understanding dawns on me, I remember that night because it was the first time I had even busted a move on Vivi that I couldn’t pass off as an accidental touch or something like that. That night, I kissed her.

“You pulled back because of me,” I mutter.

He throws his hands in the air. “Yes. I was good with it, I swear, but then…” He doesn’t need to finish, I already know what he is going to say.

“Ezekiel went and married her and made her fair game.” A whoosh of air escapes him as he nods.

“Yeah,” he whispers. I run my gaze over my best friend and hate myself for not seeing the signs earlier. For years he hid his feelings, but now, I see them clear as day. He’s hung up on Vivian and it’s scaring the shit out of him. Not only that, I know it's weighing on him that he’s still just as pissed with her as I am but it's the unknown that would be killing him.

Does she feel the same way about him as he does her?

A pit forms in my stomach, a part of me always knew he was different with her but being the selfish bastard I am, I chose to block it out and not see what was right in front of me. For years he stood back and watched me fuck up with Vivian. Every time I hurt her, it was him that would sit with her, cuddle her on the couch and watch her favorite movie to cheer her up.

What the fuck are we going to do now?

Chapter Seven

Vivian

It’s a beautiful Saturday morning and as much as I want to hide out in my dorm room to avoid running into my brother or the others, I don’t want to waste what little time I have here. I force my ass out of bed to shower and change into one of my bathing suits. I throw a shirt over the top—it’s so long it stops just above my knees. I refuse to acknowledge the fact that this shirt is one I stole from Ezekiel last year. I used to steal all of their shirts. I love sleeping in them, just to have their scent wrapped around me as I drifted off, as it always made me feel safe.

I grab my towel and Kindle, then head for the door. Just as I lock it behind me, my phone rings. I frown when I see who is calling but answer the call.

“Drew, how can I help you on a Saturday?” I say. Drew and his friend Ford own Anders and Booth Construction, they are the ones handling the expansion of the high school and building the college since I couldn’t get Brodie to agree until recently.

“Vivian, I don’t have good news.” My stomach sinks as I choose to take the stairs instead of the elevator.

“What happened?” I ask, praying that it isn’t something major that will delay the expansion further. It’s already costing us more than I had hoped thanks to the constant problems we are running into. I swear, I never had this many problems when I had commissioned the contractors for Lividica. The rebuild on that went smooth. I hadn’t worried about a single thing and now I am starting to wonder if I should have just rehired the same team from that build for this one. David urged me to use members of The Brotherhood so it didn’t look like I was trying to ice out their businesses but honestly, I was worried they would purposely fuck up jobs just to get at me and make me look incompetent. Every month we have a meeting and each time more than half a dozen of the brothers make complaints about how I have done this or that and its starting to piss me right off!

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