Page 40 of The Venom We Bleed

Nolan drops his shit next to the couch and practically sags into the already weak cushions that damn near go concave under his weight. Coming in last, Lex circles me and collapses next to him.

“I’m fucking dead, man.” I lean my head to one side, putting my hand on my neck, trying to crack it.

Each damn bone in my body feels as if it’s been put through the wringer. Maybe it’s because we’re set to go up against Silverwood Prep in a few weeks, but our team had been hyped today. Even with the pads on, I’d felt each and every slam from our defense.

“My bruises have bruises,” I mutter.

“Same,” Nolan agrees before he sits up straighter and nods toward the back hallway. “Mind if I use your shower before I head off to work?”

I know why he avoids using the showers at the school, but I don’t comment. Slipping in and out of clothes is one thing, but walking around naked in front of a bunch of guys when he’s sporting those scars of his is another matter entirely. Not everyone is as discreet as they should be and the fewer people remember he ever had a father who beat the shit out of him, the better.

I wave him towards the back of the house. “Fuck if I care. Go on.”

Nolan is up and off the couch as if he hadn’t just been acting like he could hardly move a minute ago. As he disappears down the hall, I grab the remote that controls the ceiling fan and take his place on the couch. I hit the button that’ll start the rotation and hopefully get some air going as the sweat on my skin starts to dry. Several moments pass in near silence. Slowly, I let my gaze drift to the man next to me. Lex has his shaggy dark hair pulled back and away from his face, tied in a knot at the back of his skull. His phone is already out and sitting in his palm as he flips through various security feeds. When he pauses over a familiar face, I let loose a long-annoyed sigh. Lex looks up at me as I scowl at him.

“I’ve never understood why you’re so hung up on that girl,” I gripe, nodding down at the black and white still of Juliet Donovan standing in The Dionysus Lounge parking lot talking to Roquel Lee. “Just because she was nice when we were kids doesn’t mean she’s going to be okay when she finds out you’ve been secretly watching her for years. She’ll be creeped out, man. You should really fix your sights on someone better. There are plenty of Public girls that’d suck your dick like a vacuum just to wear your jersey for a night.”

Lex’s eyes cut my way, but he doesn’t turn his head. “I don’t want those girls,” he states. “Besides, are there any Public girls who’d suck my dick that haven’t sucked yours too?”

My lips twitch and a grin forms. “Probably not,” I admit. “But that didn’t seem to bug you before.” My grin eases a bit and I gesture to his phone. “Not that you’ve touched anyone since Prep Girl fell from grace. You hoping she’ll give you a chance now that she’s in the gutter too?”

“Nolan said I could bring her with us.”

The reminder of that long-ago promise makes me frown. “Are you seriously still planning on her coming?” I shake my head. “Come on, man. You know Nolan only said that shit so you’d chill. There’s no way she’s going to agree to follow us. Besides, why the hell would we want a spoiled needy little girl to weigh us down? We’re trying to get out of this dump, not bring it with us.”

Lex bares his teeth at me, his upper lip pulling back over the top row of shiny whites. “She’s important to me,” he snaps, “and she’s not spoiled—not anymore.”

I blow out a long breath. Talking to him about Juliet Donovan is as pointless as ever. “Yeah, yeah.” I wave a hand. “Sorry, I didn’t mean any insult or nothing—I just … I’ve never understood what you see in her.”

Those gray eyes of his, the color of smoke and burning ashes, go back to the screen. “She’s different,” he murmurs. “She cared about me when no one else did.”

I punch him in the shoulder. “I care about you, you fucker,” I snap. I wouldn’t put up with his weird stalkerish tendencies if I didn’t. “You aren’t obsessed with me like that.” Not that I’d want him to be, but if that’s all it is drawing him to her then he’s whacked out. I mean … he’s already whacked out, but he’s Lex. That’s his normal state of being.

Still, no man should ever be this caught up on some pussy.

“She was the one who reported my dad.” The words are so quiet, I almost don’t hear them. Almost.

My head whips back around and I gape at him. “What?”

Lex stares down at Juliet’s picture, her face turned to give a smooth profile of her jawline and the delicate curve of her ear. He strokes it with a thumb. “She saw the bruises, and when the teacher ignored them, she threw a fit. She said that someone was being mean to me and that it wasn’t okay. She told the teacher and when the teacher tried to calm her down, to tell her to be quiet, she refused.” He doesn’t lift his head from his phone as he stares at the nearly adult Juliet Donovan, though I’m sure he’s thinking of her as the little blonde five-year-old she was back then.

“A lot of the teachers knew how shitty my parents were, but they didn’t want to risk pissing off my dad,” he continues. “He was a dick, but he donated to the school before Prep was built. They thought they needed the money. Juliet didn’t care. She made such a big stink about my bruises that it would’ve looked bad if multiple teachers ignored her. It was because of her that they finally opened a case and then they found out all of the bullshit he was pulling behind closed doors—the gambling, the drugs.”

I don’t say a word as he tells the story I already know. When he lifts his gaze away from her image and looks me in the eye, I feel my chest cave in just the slightest bit. Parents always fuck up their kids, no matter if they’re perfectly lovely and kind. Every kid grows up just a little messed up because that’s just the way of society. Parents like Lex’s though … they are the reason psychopaths exist. If I believed in my mama’s god, I’d thank the fucker every day that Nolan and I got to Lex before that happened.

“I might’ve died if she didn’t tell,” he admits. “Or I might’ve been in the house with him when he shot Mom and killed himself.”

“Fuck.” I sag onto the couch, forgetting about the television entirely. “Sorry, man. I didn’t realize that’s how it happened. I mean I knew about your ma and dad, but…” I let my words trail off, not entirely sure what to say.

Lex shrugs but then lowers his phone as the screen times out and goes black. “No need to say anything, but if you could do something for me?”

“What?” I glance his way.

“Don’t hate her so much,” he says. “I know Nolan didn’t really mean it when he said if I could convince her to leave with us, he’d let her come—but I’m holding him to it. I want her.”

My lips pinch together. Letting go of my hate towards her, I might be able to do. The idea of her coming with us when we leave Silverwood, though? It’s still foreign to me. “What about us?” I ask him.

Lex tilts his head to the side. “Whataboutus?”

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