Page 60 of Playing By Their Rules

“What do you mean?”

“They stopped teaching the psych courses I’m in. The school found someone else.” I start back toward my bedroom, thinking some distance would be good right now.

“Well, still.” She pauses.

Is she just trying to come up with reasons why I should be unhappy? At this point, it feels like she is.

She goes on, “They’re still so much older. Don’t you see the problem with it all?”

I spin around in the narrow hallway. My heart is pounding with anger and indignation, and all I can feel is outrage that she would say these things about the men I’ve come to love. She has no right.

Words spill out of my mouth faster than I can check them. “Mina. I care about you. We’ve been through a lot, and I’ve listened to your guidance and made allowances for what you want so many times. I hope you can listen to me now. Back off. Please. If you keep pushing this, our friendship won’t survive it. They can spank me and fuck me and love me all that they want, because I love them too, okay?”

“They…they spank you?”

I laugh. “I didn’t mean to say that, and of course it’s the one thing you focus on.”

Her mouth is open like she wants to speak, but apparently I’ve shocked her out of a response. Spanking isn’t all that kinky, is it? Not to me, but maybe to Mina.

And then her expression crumples. She turns away, setting her smoothie glass on the counter and leaning over it, her face hidden from my view.

“Mina,” I say. “Hey, talk to me.”

“No, it’s pathetic.” Her shoulders shake, but there’s no sound. Is she laughing or crying?

“Please?” I say. “I won’t think you’re pathetic. We’ve been through a lot, we tell each other everything.”

She looks so small standing there, her shoulders heaving up and down, her hands braced on the counter’s edge. The oversized sweatshirt she wears is twin to one of mine, and her vulnerability strikes my heart.

“Please talk to me?” I say again, my voice gentle.

“I just—I just thought it would always be the two of us,” she sobs.

Well, now I feel like an asshole. She’s always viewed me as a sister, and I never quite reciprocated, but she’s been nothing but nice to me for years. I can be nice, too. “Hey. I’m sorry. Mina, please. I’m sorry. It will be the two of us, but we also need our own lives, outside of each other. Right?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry.” She turns around and uses her sleeves to wipe away her tears. “I’m just having a rough week.”

I had no idea she was struggling. Probably because I haven’t been around much, and when I am, I’m mooning around about Chance and Ethan.

I should be a better friend. She used to always cheer up at the abandoned cabin, and she just asked to go there with me. Maybe bringing a couple of fruity wine coolers and playing some music, checking the place out, could be fun after all.

“Okay, you know what?” I say. “Classes can wait. My date with the guys can wait. Let’s go to the cabin.”

“No—it’s all right. I don’t want you to cancel a date or stress about school.”

I shake my head, firm. “My sister needs me and I’m stepping up.”

The misery on her face fades somewhat and her shoulders straighten. “You mean it?”

“Yep. Just give me a second.”

Disappointment weighs on me, but I take out my phone and text Chance and Ethan together. Can’t make it tonight after all. Mina needs me. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

“Okay,” I say, tucking my phone into my pocket. “Let’s go check out the cabin.”

18

THE CABIN

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