Page 44 of Merciless

“Cole,” Dylan greeted joyfully. It was clear he was enjoying he was here. Maybe he knew it pushed Lucas’s buttons.

“Williams,” Lucas sounded bored.

Elizabeth and Troy barged in. She shook Dylan’s hand and went straight to Hannah and Tyler.

“How’s track team?” Lucas’s hands were in his front pockets. His posture was relaxed and nothing about his appearance showed he hated Dylan’s presence here. It scared the bejesus out of me.

“Love it,” Dylan smirked, and I squirmed.

“I’m sure you do.”

The three of us were standing a few steps away from each other with me sort of in the middle. I felt like I was in between sliding doors, but couldn’t decide if I was going in or out, so I just stayed there, waiting to be smashed.

I had no idea what Lucas was up to, but I knew he wasn’t trying to be nice or have a chitchat.

“Football eats too much of your time and there is something else I realized is worth pursuing. So, you actually did me a favor,” Dylan snickered. My heart was beating so fast, I thought everyone could hear it hammering inside my chest.

“Should we go eat?” I asked in high pitch that was completely unusual for me. Every head in the room turned towards me except one. Lucas’s gaze was pinned on Dylan’s face.

Tonight is going to be bad.

Hannah came to us and almost pushed Dylan to the dinner table.

“Troy, honey, could you bring me my phone? I want to check on your dad,” Elizabeth brushed his hair backwards with her hand. She was also nervous.

Troy rolled his eyes, but marched to the kitchen. I turned to Lucas.

“Seriously?” I started nagging, trying to keep my voice low, so that no one else could hear us. I didn’t mean to sound like I was begging, but I realized I did sound just like that. For a moment, I thought I saw a hint of understanding on his face. Like he felt my worry and wanted to comfort me. But then his expression went blank.

“What?” he played dumb for a second with an innocent look on his face, then he continued. “It would be in my favor to have an excuse to reshape his face.”

“Please,” I snorted. “Since when do you need an excuse to do anything.”

Lucas grinned.

“So you’re saying that I don’t need an excuse? Should I just go for it? Can I do it now or you want me wait until after the cake? It’s aperfectlygoodcake. I’m the one who told my mother you would love it.”

That was like a slap in my face.

For my twelfth birthday, Sylvia bought me a raspberry cake. It was Madison’s favorite cake. I hated raspberries. She didn’t even apologize. She said it was aperfectly goodcake and screamed at my father he was spoiling me with his constant need to please me. Lucas was there, sitting beside me, while I sobbed for an hour in my room.

Was he that cruel? To pick a painful childhood memory to repeat it on my eighteenth birthday when I was already homeless and living with mynemesisas he loved to call us.

I figured he was. After all, he knew all too well I hated my name and vowed he would never call meClementine, and yet he did. All the time.

Troy returned with Elizabeth’s phone, and my brother joined Hannah and Dylan at the table. Lucas leaned closer to me, changing the subject as if it was insignificant.

“Do you know Hannah wants to bang your brother?”

“Excuse me?” I squealed.

“I said…”

“Stop,” I roared. “He could hear you.”

“You did know then. You’re just full of secrets, aren’t you, nemesis?”

“If we were friends, you would have known my secrets. And would you please not call methatin front of other people?”

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