Page 14 of Wreckage

“Still fighting with Amanda?” I asked lazily. He’d told me this morning she was being a pain in his ass, but he hadn’t elaborated on why.

Troy grunted in response.

I smirked, needing some conversation to clear my head. “That bad?”

Troy muttered something under his breath.

I prodded again, watching him tap the side of his phone with silent irritation.

Finally, he exhaled sharply, whispering, “She’s being a pain about things.”

Yeah. No shit.

Amanda had never been the understanding type. She was pushy, demanding, and always wanted more. I didn’t understand why Troy had even proposed to her in the first place. He was my brother, though, and I supported whatever he felt he needed to do. I’d already told him it was a bad idea, but he had it if he wanted my blessing.

Troy rubbed his jaw and glanced at me. “I pushed some guy at the party.”

I raised an eyebrow. That was entirely unlike Troy. I was the one who pushed people. He was the one who would laugh. “Why?”

He hesitated, then sighed. “He was talking about Elena.”

That caught me off guard. “What kind of talk?”

Troy’s jaw tensed. “The usual. How hot she is. Wondering how many guys she’s been with. Making jokes about how they could ‘fix’ her if she was still a virgin.”

My fingers curled into fists before I could stop them.

Fucking idiots.

Troy leaned back in his seat, staring at the ceiling. “Didn’t feel right. Them talking about her like that.”

I gave a short laugh. “They’re not wrong about a lot of things, though.”

Troy scowled. “What the hell does that mean?”

I shrugged, leaning back with him. “She is quiet. She doesn’t have a lot of friends.”

Troy turned his gaze back to the window, locking his phone screen and refusing to respond.

He knew I was right.

Elena had always been on the outside looking in—keeping herself removed, uninterested in the world we lived in. She didn’t try. She didn’t want to belong.

I told myself I was OK with that.

That I didn’t care.

That it didn’t bother me when she locked herself away from everything, from us, because honestly, we didn’t want her around and never had. This was evident from our childhood together. Hell, even how our adulthood was now.

Before I could keep pressing Troy, the plane lurched.

A brief dip, then a rough shake.

My heart jolted in my chest, and I quickly looked at Elena to see her tense. I wasn’t scared of heights like her, but the idea of plummeting through the air to my death didn’t exactly overjoy me either.

Dean’s voice crackled through the speaker. “Just a little turbulence, guys. We’ve got a storm coming through, but we’re all good up here.”

I barely reacted further, trusting Dean to know what he was doing.

---