Page 38 of Forever Yours

“In your backyard.”

“Bullshit. I just checked. Get your ass back here. Now.”

David touched my shoulder and silently mouthed, “Is everything okay?”

I nodded and started walking briskly back to the house.

“I’m near the tennis court,” I said to Fallon.

“Don’t you fucking move.”

I came to an abrupt halt. “But you said to get my ass there.”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” he snapped.

I was getting pissed. “Why are you yelling at me?”

“I’m not yelling at you,” he yelled.

“You literally just did.”

Fallon made an angry grunt in his throat. “Just come get your boyfriend.”

I started walking again, my stride increasing as worry took over. “Why? What’s going on?”

In the background, there was a bunch of noise and raised voices, one of them was Ryder’s.

My brisk walk turned into a fast jog when Fallon said, “Jules and his fucktwin just got into a fight.”

CHAPTER 12

Hip-hop played as people streamed out of the house in various states of intoxication, complaining animatedly and looking very unhappy.

David spotted Lamar and Shawn standing in the backyard by the patio steps. They were looking around but hadn’t seen us yet.

“Hold up,” David said and got in step with me. “Need me to stick around?”

Yes, because I might kill my boyfriend and his brother.

“Thanks, but I need to handle this.”Whatever it was.“I’ll catch up with you later.”

“Tomorrow, or I’ll hunt you down,” he said with finality and went to join his friends.

My heart thrashed inside my chest as I pushed against the crowd to get inside. From the kitchen entryway, I spotted Julien’s dark, disheveled head of hair in the adjoining living room.

I didn’t know what to expect but I was leaning toward worst case on the spectrum of all’s-good to total fubar. Entering, I carefully scanned the room. No broken furniture or punched holes in the wall that I could see. Hopefully, Fallon’s ire was exaggerated. That hope sank faster than a lead weight in water when I locked my sights on Julien. He was holding something that looked like a bag of frozen peas to his face. On the other side of the sofa, Jayson sat transfixed. His lip was swollen and bloodied. I didn’t see Fallon anywhere. But the person who caught my attention the most was the teary-eyed, blotched-face girl Ryder was consoling in the corner of the room.

Un-fucking-believable.

It was the girl I saw earlier. The one who resembled Liz from afar. And as much as I hated to admit it, I could guess exactly what had happened.

I ignored Julien’s regret-filled eyes and went straight to Ryder and the girl. When she saw me, she shrank back farther into the corner, trying to hide behind him.

“E,” Julien said from his seat on the sofa.

Nope. He would wait his damn turn while I found out exactly what the hell happened. I was quickly going from mildly ticked off to livid. I just wanted one goddamn night for there not to be drama. It had felt like that was all my life had been for the last couple of years. My mother. Marshall. Fights. Hiding my relationship with Julien from everyone. The Liz-Julien-Ryder-Jayson love quadrangle. College.

The blaring music suddenly cut off. Fallon walked into the room and threw something at Jayson. A sandwich bag filled with crushed ice hit him in the chest and landed with a sad plop in his lap.

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