Page 47 of Triple Pucked
He wrapped his arms around me. “Other people like surprises. They’re exciting, Dee. I loved the way my heart wentallthump-thump, real fast, when our friends jumped out and yelledsurprise!”
“Yourfriends.” I sniffed.
“Are you coming back down to join us? I saw a cake shaped like a star with candles and everything in the kitchen.”
I shook my head. “Your cake.”
“Both of ours.”
“Your cake. Your friends. Your surprise.”
Now, Cody’s face lights up. “Ryn will love chocolates. She’s even more of a chocoholic than I am. Her asshole ex never made her anything. You’re onto a winner by taking the time to make her something, rather than simply throwing money at it.”
I don’t have money to throw at anything. I can’t compete with either D’Angelo or even my brother anymore.
Robyn has told me that she doesn’t care about that. I still wish that I could provide better for her.
She earns more than I do.
I am proud of how talented she is. How independent.
Yet I don’t feelsafebecause I’m the only one who wouldn’t be able to survive by myself.
I’m still not more than a shadow.
I grit my teeth. “The fans are already throwing enough money at Shay and D’Angelo for Valentine’s. In fact, at all the team.”
Cody’s face instantly becomes serious. “Is this the fans or those stalkers, the Misfits?”
“I don’t know. Robyn and I are trying to shield the team from the worst of the obsessional messages and gifts, but they saw one of the cards on the night that we moved in. Why do people think that they’re in relationships with people who they’ve never met?”
“Hey, I hold my hands up to passionately believing, when I was in college, that the actor Kit Connor and I were going to hook up in a three way relationship with Zachary Quinto.I mean, part of me still believes it. Don’t tell Mike. He’s so possessive that he’d probably be jealous of my lonely younger self’s daydreams.”
I cock my head. “Did you ever message Connor:if I can’t have you, no one can?”
Cody’s face falls. “Ehm, nope.”
I think about the stream of messages on the comments section of the Bay Rebels website from RebelLover22. I forwarded them to the cops, but the cops said that since they weren’t direct threats, they couldn’t do anything.
“Did you tell Quinto:I can’t sleep because I think about you every second of every day?”
“When I was eighteen, accurate. But I didn’t tell him that or I bet that he’d be the one who wouldn’t have been able to sleep.”
That message was from KillaStar, a newbie to the Misfits but the most active member. She posts at least a dozen messages across different sites a day.
Perhaps, I should pass her name to D’Angelo.
Eden wanders across the kitchen, absentmindedly rubbing his hand across his favorite surfboard, which matches his blue boardshorts.
Why has he gone quiet?
“Valentine’s Day is scary for my sis and not only because of these freaky stalkers.” Cody’s eyes are glassy. “I’ve always been fierce in the protection of Ryn. After our mom died, I guess that I also lost control. I only had her to cling to and I couldn’t deal with seeing her hurt at high school. She’d warn me that the bullies hurt us both more because I gave them a reaction.”
I shove my hands into my pockets, studying him intently.
That’s bullshit.
I never reacted to the bullies. It didn’t stop them hurting me.
