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I’d never told my brother a bigger lie than that. Fine was pretty far off from where I was. I’m not sure why I thought he’d buy it.
“Bullshit. Now are you going to tell me what’s going on, or do I have to come home and drag it out of you?”
The scary thing was that I knew he’d do it. To say my brother didn’t like the Kessler’s would be an understatement. Even when we were kids before everything went sour, Sean didn’t like them. Though I think that was mostly because Mason broke his favorite truck. If he found out Mason took me to his house… One of them would end up dead.
I glanced back down the hall. Mason was whispering something in Tiffany’s ear while she giggled and fluttered her eyelashes up at him. Maybe he did like what she was doing? He didn’t have that same angry glint in his eyes that he always did with me.
Sean barked out one last warning. “Harper!”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I sighed and fell back behind my locker door.
“You can talk to me about anything, Bug. You know that.”
There were plenty of things I couldn’t talk to him about, but was this one of them? My brother was experienced. He’d been with a lot of girls. Like a lot, a lot. His high school life might’ve been easier if he installed a revolving door on his bedroom. Would it really be so bad to ask him a few things? There wasn’t anyone else in the world I trusted more.
Before I could lose my nerve, I blurted out, “Do guys like it when girl’s stick their tongues in their mouths?”
“What?! No. We hate it. Don’t fucking do it.” I could practically see his hand waving through the air in a stern point. “Just a quick peck on the cheek, after you’re married. That’s all we like.”
My brow arched. He didn’t really expect me to believe that.
“You forget I lived in the same house as you.” I couldn’t count how many girls I’d seen shove their tongues down my brother’s throat.
“That’s because I’m a slut and a bad guy. You don’t want to go out with someone like me. Date Robbie Peterson.”
Robbie Peterson? “I weigh more than him.”
“Exactly,” Sean said. “You can kick his ass if he gets too handsy.”
Maybe I liked handsy? I found myself once again peeking around my locker door. This time, though, Mason’s eyes met mine. Two glittering green orbs that stole my breath and caused me to freeze. That is, until a smirk curled the corner of his mouth. Then I ducked back, slamming my back against the wall.
“What the hell was that?” Sean asked as some of my books fell on the floor.
“Nothing.” I shook my head and told myself to snap out of it. “Look, I don’t want to date anyone. I’m just trying to figure out why I got all hot and achy the other day.”
Dead silence was the only thing that came across the other end.
“Sean?”
Still nothing.
“You there?”
I was about to look at my phone to see if I lost the signal when his voice came through.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “I’m just trying to wrap my head around the fact that someone turned my baby sister on.”
Was that what that was? I got turned on by Mason Kessler violating me? I suppose it made sense. Why would I dream about something some part of me didn’t like? Then again, I had nightmares all the time, but those made me wake up in a cold sweat. Not a hot one. At least Sean understood what was happening. The only question now was…
“How do I make it stop?”
Sean’s tone picked up an octave this time. “What?”
“How do I make it stop?” I repeated. I didn’t like this tension I was feeling. It had me wound up and more jittery than normal. “There’s got to be a way to release it.”
The phone went quiet again.
I waited in silence as the minutes ticked by for what seemed like forever, before saying, “Sean, there is a way to stop this feeling, right?”
