Page 50 of A Little Bit Reckless
It didn’t look like it bothered her. In fact, it very much looked like she’d enjoyed it.
“It didn’t,” she said, but her voice was so small. She didn’t look like she wanted to admit it and maybe even felt some shame. She shouldn’t. There was nothing wrong with being into watching two people together, and it was definitely possible to be into more than one person.
My thoughts went back to earlier that night, when the three of us had been dancing. It feltright,and I didn’t think I was the only one who felt that way. I’d seen how Bow looked at Wells the night he talked her down off that ledge.
It’d been the same way he looked at her.
I didn’t get to respond to what Bow said. I was grabbed from behind, and, in the next breath, I was on the ground. A fist came out of nowhere and slammed into my cheek so hard I tasted metal. A second fist hit my head and an amplified ringing hit my ears.
It wasn’t as loud as Bow’s scream.
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
Bow
Wells came out of nowhere…
And he was hitting Bru.
Wells shot a direct hit into Bru’s jaw. His second punch narrowly missed Bru’s eye, and I screamed so hard my throat burned. A crazy look was in Wells Ambrose’s eyes as he reared back to hit Bru for a third time. But Bru caught Wells’s fist this time and used the momentum to roll both boys. That didn’t stop Wells, whose face was ten degrees of red and whose fists were moving so fast he ended up getting Bru in his gut. Bru gasped, the wind clearly knocked out of him, and I screamed again.
“It was you!” Wells shot before throwing an upper cut that caused Bru’s jaw to click upon impact. Bru hadn’t guarded his face, but this time he did when Wells quickly moved into raining fists down on him. Wells growled. “How could you! How fuckingcould you, dude? She’s Thatcher’s sister. How could you!”
By now, we were gaining a crowd. People were running behind the tree and pulling out their phones. They were recording, but all the attention was fading into the background for me. I just kept hearing what Wells said. He mentionedme.
“What are you talking about!” Bru shouted. He got Wells’s fist and flipped them both again. He’d done so with a skill of someone who’d obviously fought before. He’d gotten kicked out of his old university for illegal fighting. He got Wells’s arms. “Stop it, man.Stop!”
Wells wouldn’t stop. It didn’t matter that Bru was bigger. Wells shot his knee into Bru’s gut, and it caught Bru off guard enough that Wells was able to hit him again. Wells had gotten Bru in his side and both guys tumbled again.
“How could you?” There was an ache this time in Wells’s voice, and his face had managed to go even redder. I’d never seen him this way. A pain lassoed across his handsome face as he hit one of his best friends again and again. Bru was a friend who said he loved him, but there was no love coming from Wells. There was just pain anchored across Wells’s expression, anguish. At some point, he ripped Bru’s sweatshirt. The neck was wide and both guys were dirty from the grass on the quad. Wells cringed. “You’re supposed to bemy friend.You’re supposed to be one of my best friends, you asshole!”
Wells hit Bru again, and, for some reason, Bru was taking it. I mean, Bru was guarding himself this time. Wells wasn’t getting any good hits in now that Bru was aware he was being attacked. Even still, Bru wasn’t trying to physically restrain Wells. He just kept dodging. As if he was trying to listen to the friend who rained fists down on him.
Bru shook Wells’s shirt. “What are you talking about, bro?”
“How could you?” Wells said again, his nostrils flaring. He sounded tired, but he wouldn’t stop punching, even though he was clearly getting nowhere now that Bru had his guard up. Wells threw a lazy punch. “How could you? You’re my friend, and she’s my?—”
Wells didn’t get to finish. Big hands got underneath his arms. They tugged him away from Bru. Wells kicked. “You fucker!”
I didn’t know if he was saying that to Bru or my brother, who was the one who had his hands on Wells. Using his burly arms, Thatcher braced Wells to his chest and shook him. “Stop it, dude. What the fuck are you doing?”
Wells fought my brother as Bru lay on the ground. Bruises had already started to form on Bru’s face, and when he touched his mouth, he and I both saw the blood.
Oh, God.
My stomach turned. I immediately headed over to Bru, and the crowd parted as Dorian Prinze entered the circle. Clearly, Thatcher had just gotten here first because here came Dorian, Ares, Fawn, and Sloane.
Everyone’s here.
Everyone was here, all my friends. Seeing her brother on the ground, Sloane blinked. She hunkered at my side with Bru and both Ares and Dorian immediately started shoving the crowd of onlookers away.
“Get the fuck out of here, you fucks!” Dorian barked, and it only took seconds for the crowd to disperse. Dorian acted as the leader and voice of reason in my brother’s friend group. He was also really intimidating. Dorian growled. “And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll delete whatever video you guys were taking.”
“You’ll regret that shit if you don’t,” Ares added, and the fear that pushed across the dispersing crowd was evident. Ares wasn’t calledWolfon Pembroke’s football field for nothing. Right away, people started pressing buttons on their phones.
Some even lifted them for the guys to see.
