Page 49 of Honest With You

Frantic, I ease her arms out. I pull her sleeves up, gasping and tearing up as I find more bruises on both her arms. Every single one is still kind of red, which tells me these were fresh. This happened recently.

Which… explains the change of costume.

I’m about to wake her up when the glass door behind me slides open, and Ryder steps out.

His eyes widen at the sight of Vanessa’s arms, and then they slide over to me.

“A-Ava?” He swallows. “Is she okay?”

My rage finds its temporary target and I glare at Ryder.

“Obviously not!” I snap, rising from my seat. “Watch her while I go kick your best friend’s ass!” I attempt to storm into the house but he latches onto my arm, attempting to pull me back to face him.

“Ava, wait–”

“Let go, Ryder, or I swear to God–”

“I don’t think that’s a good–”

“Ryder! LET ME GO!”

We’re in a standoff and I try to pull my arm back but he keeps his hold on me, frantically shaking his head.

“Get your hands off her!”

I turn my head in time to see Jesse crossing the backyard back to me in a rage, Matt hot on his heels.

This time I pull back my arm successfully, running past Ryder, not bothering to wait for my boyfriend.

I’m too angry. Too fucking guilty about not being a better friend to Vanessa.

In the back of my mind, I know I need to get Vanessa out of here, but the need to seek Dean out is consuming me.

He hurt her.

Hehurther.

I stop in between the beer pong tables, where he was a mere two hours ago, but he’s not there. I shove past the stragglers in the hallway and search for him upstairs. I check every room until I make it to the last one that’s open just an inch.

I hear giggling inside, and then the sound of Dean’s voice.

I whip the door open and nearly scream at what I find. A girl wearing a cheerleading uniform is straddling a bare chested Dean, who has his hands on her thong-clad ass.

He grins at me from over her shoulder. “Join us. We have room for one more.”

“Fuck you, Dean!” I snarl, pointing at the girl who’s now looking over her shoulder at me with her mouth slack and widened eyes. “Leave. Trust me, I’m doing you a favor.”

She doesn’t even spare Dean a look, holding up her hands like she wants no part of the drama and leaps off the bed. She runs out of the room without so much as a backwards glance.

Meanwhile, I’m staring at Dean and he’s staring at my chest. I look down and almost curse. The knot I tied on my shirt came undone in my haste to get through the crowd downstairs, and all I have underneath is a bra. I cross my arms in an attempt to cover myself.

He licks his lips before his eyes climb back up to mine. “If you wanted me so badly, all you had to do was ask, Torres.”

“Not even if you paid me to do it, you narcissistic, abusive piece of shit.”

Dean’s face transforms. The simmering heat in his gaze bursts into flames. He shoves himself off the bed to stand in front of me. His lip curls and the look on his face can only be described as violent.

I swallow, realizing way too late that I should have gotten Vanessa out of here first. Or at the very least, brought Jesse with me.

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