Page 65 of Unspoken Words
I’d lost her.
“Connor! Get dressed. You’re running out of time.” My bedroom door swung open and Mum stormed into my room. “What are you doing? You have less than thirty minutes before you pick that Lilah girl up. Come on, hurry up.” Her tiny fingers took hold of my shirt and wrenched it over my head. “Get in the shower, now!”
“I’m not going.” I placed my guitar down. I don’t even know why I picked it up in the first place. I couldn’t play it. Not without Ellie.
“You will put on your suit and you will enjoy your formal. You’ve been through so much and worked so hard. You’re going.”
“Mum!”
Her eyes bore into mine. “One word, Connor Bourke: car.”
“Mum, I’m eighteen. You can’t confiscate my car.”
“Try me!”
“Argh! Fine. I’ll go.”
“Good.”
She blinked.
I blinked.
We both blinked.
“I can’t get dressed with you standing here.”
“Right. I’ll wait downstairs. The clock is ticking.”
Mum left my room, but not before laying my suit on the bed and pointing to her watch. I groaned. The last thing I wanted was to see Ellie with that scumbag while having to fend off Lilah’s relentless flirting. She’d stepped it up a notch ever since Mum forced me to ask someone to go to the formal with me, even though Lilah knew me asking her was nothing more than us being friends … and because I didn’t want to lose my car. I’d made that clear.
Pride was a hard thing to swallow, but I forced it down, showered, and suited up. I also grabbed a small bottle of Bourbon I’d received as a birthday present and hid it in my jacket pocket. All my life, I’d done the right thing, been the voice of reason, never put a foot wrong. But, tonight, if I was going to have to endure seeing Ellie with another guy, then good ol’ Jim Beam was going to help me do it.
*
“What have you got thatfor?”Lilah asked as she unlatched her seat belt.
I cut the engine to my car and glanced out the window toward Eastside Reception Centre before passing her the bottle of bourbon. “To drink, of course.”
“What? Tonight?”
“Yep.”
She unscrewed the lid, inhaled the liquor, and smiled. “Is there an after-party or something?”
“No, not that I know of.”
“But you’re driving. You can’t drink and drive.”
I swiped the bottle from her hands. “One swig won’t hurt.”
Lilah clamped her teeth down on her ruby red lip, her black pencil-rimmed eyes gleaming mischievously. “Such a naughty boy, Connor Bourke.”
Chugging down a mouthful, my eyes raked her appearance as I welcomed the sweet burn sliding down my throat. In true Lilah fashion, she’d gone for a tight, low-cut, long black dress with a leg split the size of the Grand Canyon. Her tits were spilling out of her bra, and she was showing more skin than not. Her face was artfully painted, her hair down and curled, and if her heels were any fucking higher she’d be the one towering over me. I wouldn’t exactly say she looked trashy, but elegant definitely wasn’t a word that came to mind either.
“Like what you see?” she drawled, playfully.
I didn’t have the heart to say ‘not exactly’, because I wasn’t an arsehole, so I let slip a little white lie instead. “You look beautiful.”
