Page 54 of Protect

Sorry, Jacob.

“Let me explain.” I nod my head toward the sofa. “Sit.”

AGE 18

Max’s house, the shit show.

“Don’t you want to hear my proposition, King?” Kyleigh bats her false eyelashes at me, smiling sweetly.

I flex my fists, looking from Jacob and Max back to Kyleigh. I’m still standing on Max’s front porch.

Jacob is in trouble, I can tell just by looking at him, and he’s definitely fucking high again. He promised me after last weekend, when I had to pick him up and drive him home from a bush party, that he was gonna cut that shit out. He was all fucked up on Molly and booze. Him and two guys from the team thought it was smart to try to rope swing into the shallow river.He sliced his leg up real bad, I still think he should’ve gotten stitches.

All this shit has just gotten out of control over our senior year. It started with weed, we all smoked it once in a while at parties when we started high school, it was harmless, but he’s taken it too far.

Especially since he’s been hanging around Max. Now, it’s not just weed, more often it’s Molly or Percocet, I’m sure it’s been coke a few times too. It’s been changing him, and I’m worried about him.

“Please, just come in, I—fuck. Please, King,” Jacob begs, still bouncing his knee.

I push past Kyleigh and enter Max's small living room. Their house has always been a little on the messy side, they don’t have much. His mother works a factory job, mostly nights, and his stepdad works the night shift at the lumber yard. They’ve both been known to drink a lot, so Max is just turning into a chip off the old block.

The Sports Network is playing on the TV, and a floor lamp from sometime in the eighties is the only light in the room. I take in the smell of cigarettes and some sort of air freshener as I sit down on the dingy old sofa across from Jacob.

“The fuck did you do?” I ask him only, blocking out the rest of the room when my eyes meet his. I hate this, feeling like his big brother instead of his friend.

His short brown hair is messy and his eyes are bloodshot. He leans back on the sofa and blows out a breath.

“They’re trying to get you here so you can agree to my terms. I knew you’d never come to see me if I called,” Kyleigh quips, sitting down right beside me.

I move so her leg isn’t touching mine. I made the mistake of touching her once. I won’t do it again.

“If you do, I’ll keep quiet about what they did.” She looks at them. “I found them in the math wing at school trying to steal the answers to their final—caught them red-handed, actually.” She holds her phone up. “Got it on video.”Jesus Jacob.“Wanna hear the best part?”

I look at her and wait. She’s enjoying this way too much and it’s pissing me off.

“They broke in, well technically I guess they wereletin. They used your newgirlfriend’sstudent ID fob to get into the building.” She holds it up. I snatch it from her hand.

“It’s pretty convenient for them that she has access to the school after hours, giving the card to her brother so he could steal, though.” She makes a tsking noise.

“Breaking and entering with intent to steal school—well, technically, government—property when you’re eighteen. I’m pretty sure of the rules, since my dad’s the deputy sheriff. Ithinkthe county would charge them both as adults.” She blows out a breath “Not the best look for a future WSU rugby star on a scholarship,” she says smugly. “Also, not a good look for your girl, King.”

“She would never and the school would know that,” I fire back. She shrugs.

“Maybe. Sure would suck for her either way. Not the best for her college career either.”

I stand up. “What the fuck, Jacob? You implicatedViolettein this bullshit? Fuck’s sake!” My voice is loud, and he knows I’m fucking pissed.How could he? Oh, right, because he was high, that’s how.

“Oh, and add onto that, they’ve definitely been drinking and they’re high, and he drove them both there.” She points to Max with a scoff.

Fucking idiots.

I turn to her. “This is funny to you? Just fucking stop, Kyleigh, and let me talk to them.Alone.”

Kyleigh smiles. “Sure thing, King, it’s fine, I’m gonna text my dad. He’s coming to pick me up anyway. I’ll be right back, boys, talk amongst yourselves.” She looks pointedly at Jacob. “When they’re done telling you about their piss poor life choices”—she glances back up at me and smiles—“come find me, we can talk about what I want to keep this quiet. For him and his loser sister.”

I grit my molars to stop myself from shooting a slew of cuss words at her as she ventures out of the house, and I watch her through the window as she takes a seat on an old lawn chair on the porch, pulling her phone out.

I turn back to Jacob and sit down across from him.

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