Page 10 of Caged Heart
Dissatisfaction plowed his brow at my words.
“Are you serious, Ares? I’m trying. Don’t patronize me by calling me that.” Mars shot up from his relaxed state of leaning against the elevator wall.
“You want to fight me now? You don’t like me calling you that? Then stop looking for a reaction from me.”
“I said I was sorry. What more can I say to you?”
Mars looked pained, but I didn’t care.
“I don’t need you to say anything to me, Mars. I didn’t ask you to apologize to me for the shit you did. That was what you wanted to do, so you did it. Own that shit and leave it alone.”
Mars says nothing as we quietly ride the elevator to the parking lot level.
“You should come to my sessions with me,” Mars announced before the elevator opened to the floor. “I just…I want my brother back. I want a chance at something normal.”
I stepped off the elevator and faced Mars.
“There isn’t shit someone like you does that makes you normal. You’re flirting with a girl you don’t like to get a rise out of me.”
An amused expression quirked up his mouth as he studied me.
“But you’re talking, aren’t you? Maybe I’ll fuck her before you so you can finally snap.”
“Does big sister still pop up when you’re fucking other girls, and their faces morph into hers?”
Mars’s face morphed into what mine was regularly set on, anger and shame. Shame because he was just as fucked as I was.
“Fuck you, Ares.”
I ate up his harsh words as if they were sweet candy.
He knew that I didn’t care if he did. He was betting on the wrong thing.
The corners of my mouth curled upwards into a smile because I knew that would trigger him, and his face fell the slightest bit.
“The difference between you and me, Mars, is that the only person you’re fucking over is her. You still won’t have my undivided attention if you jumped off a fucking building and face-planted but survived.”
“How many times have you tried and haven’t died yet? If anyone is looking for attention, it’s you.”
Neither of us said anything else as the elevator doors tried to shut, but Mars punched the button hard as he glared at me. He’s just as angry as I naturally am.
The silence broke when I broke into hysterical laughter, a half chuckle, half splutter.
“Don’t be late for practice, big brother.”
* * *
Later on, Monica let us know in the group chat that since it was the first for classes, we had to meet up for drinks to celebrate at the campus bar.
I didn’t have to search for anyone because they must’ve been here for hours already. I stayed back and practiced longer, needing extra work to tire me out, so I don’t black out again.
Carmen was the first one I noticed because she was dancing on the bar in a tight olive-green dress that wrapped around her body, and it was backless. She wasn’t petite or skinny. Instead, her body was shapely. Pear-shaped was the only word that came to mind, and an ass in the shape of a peach.
Her hair was straightened and down her back as she danced with Lily, who was much more petite. Lily was an Asian girl, Korean to be specific, and Monica who was just as shapely, even more, curvaceous than her friends, was an African-American girl, skin brown like chocolate. She glowed like a fucking treasure that needed to be plucked. I’ve seen men break their necks trying to get Monica’s attention, but she had eyes for only one man, her high school boyfriend, Travis.
He played football at another university, but they went steadily and well. My eyes returned to Carmen as an achingly lonely bead of sweat skittered down her spine until it disappeared against the snug waist of her dress.
The thought of grabbing her from up there and fucking her rang so bone-deep that I had to shut my eyes, remembering what the fuck I was here for.
