Page 29 of Sins of a Rebel

“It looks like you already did,” I say. Stepping back into the house, I let the screen door slam shut behind me.

Brix reaches for the door handle, quick to try to stop me.

“Please, wait.”

“What the hell do you want from me? I told you; she’s gone.”

“Will you please call her? Talk to her, convince her to give me a chance to explain.”

“No.”

“No? Why?”

“I’m not certain you deserve a chance to explain, Brix. Even if you did, it’s her decision, and I’m not going to convince her of anything. If you want to prove you’re sorry, you’ll have to go about it a different way. Because it won’t be through me.”

He squeezes his eyes shut and tilts his head back, accepting defeat.

“Hey, Brix,” I say, just before I shut the door.

He gazes back down at me.

I hate to kick a man when he’s down, but my loyalty isn’t to him. It’s to Ivy.

“You’re an asshole.” I raise my middle finger in the air and slam the door in his face.

Chapter Ten

Kyla

Everything has turned to shit.

Brix hasn’t stopped blowing up my phone incessantly about Ivy.

She refuses to speak with him, and rightfully so, but he’s going out of his mind. He’s holding out hope I’ll give in and relay a message to her for him.

It’s no secret there was animosity between Brix and Ivy when she first came into town. He was her childhood enemy turned stepbrother. The hatred between them was enough to fuel a freight train.

No one expected him to bet he could make her fall in love with him, only to break her heart. He hadn’t expected to fall in love with her in the process.

To top it all off, I’m on day five of no word from Tysin. Every one of my texts and calls have gone unanswered, taking the knife and twisting it deeper and deeper.

I’ve lain in bed every night staring at the same picture hanging on the wall in my bedroom, the anxiety eating away at me. Why couldn’t Tysin talk to me? All I wanted was for him to say something, anything to put to rest all the thoughts racing through my mind.

The stifling humidity hangs thick in the air. I stare blankly at the television, listening to the meteorologist drone on about a storm rolling up the Eastern Seaboard. Carolina Beach was expected to get hit hard.

If the weather was any indication, I should’ve listened to the bad feeling twisting in my stomach about what was to come, but I didn’t let it stop me.

Word had gotten around about a party Tysin was throwing at his place. I have to get to the bottom of things and figure out what’s going on between us. I just hope it won’t end up where I fear this is going.

I don’t bother turning on any music on the drive over to Tysin's. Instead, I imagine what I could be walking into, picturing the look on his face when he first sees me.

I replay everything I want to say to him, praying this is all a big misunderstanding.

A line of cars leads from the front of his house, wrapping around the corner of the block. Music blares, reverberating through the house so loud you can hear it from where I parked across the street. People spill out onto the patio, stumbling and standing in small groups smoking cigarettes with beers in their hands. Bottles and cans litter the front yard, and I begin to wonder if he’s had this same party more than once this week.

My eyes flash to the dashboard, the time on the clock reading 11:11. My chest seizes, recognizing the significance before taking a quick look in the rearview mirror.

I drag my fingers through my dark chocolate-brown hair. I decided on a whim to make a change, dying it myself from the lavender color I’ve rocked for years. I glance down at the deep purple and black lace corset I’m wearing and the choker around my neck.

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