Kicking Reality

“It’s okay, your sorry ass is probably grateful,” he responds without emotion, matching my game.

I stand up, pushing the stool back under the counter. I needed to clear my head. This was not how I intended to spend my time at home.

“Come hang with us today, Emmy. Sandy is out running but she’ll be back soon. We’re flying out at midnight so we need to be outta here by eight.”

Perfect. All I have to do is avoid them for thirteen hours and then I won’t be seeing Logan for a very long time.

Maybe never.

“I’d love to, but I promised a friend I would visit her today.”

“What friend?” Ash questions, arms folded as if he’s called my bluff. “The hot one, Audrey-or-something, with the perky rack?”

Logan’s reaction to the ‘perky rack’ comment says it all. With his grin fixed and eyes dancing with excitement, it’s easy to see that he’s moved past last night. Another notch on his belt.

“No,” I reply with haste. “None of your business.”

Leaving the kitchen, I quickly make my way down the hall and up the stairs towards my room. Turning the corner, and just a few meters from my door, I feel my body being held back and the grip on my arm tight and rigid.

“You can’t avoid me forever.”

I keep my back towards him, not wanting to deal with this right now. “I’m not another notch. It was a mistake, okay? Just a poor reaction to some bad news.”

“Excuse me?” He turns me around to face him. Thank God his shirt is back on. My focus moves towards the picture hanging in the background. It’s my entire family—including Logan and Aunty Reese.

They had been in our lives forever. Even Logan’s older sister, Laura, was standing beside me holding my hand because that’s what she always did. A protector who looked out for me until she left to study in Japan with her grandparents.

In just that one picture, you could see how tight our bond was. We were family—irrelevant of the blood flowing through our veins.

And then we both do this. It was wrong. So very wrong.

“What notch?” Logan growls, keeping his voice and temper unheard by the rest of the house.

“Notch on your belt. I was upset last night. You were there. Kinda like lover’s revenge.”

The minute I said it—his expression changed. His heaving chest from his angered state remains oddly calm. His mouths opens as if he is just about to speak, yet no words come out.

I take one last look at him, ready to terminate this conversation and walk away.

“Thankfully, I got a long belt. Another notch ain’t nothing to me,” he brags, winking back at me with an air of arrogance.

With just one step, his back is towards me and quickly disappears around the hall. The quick footsteps echo against the dark chocolate floorboards until they completely disappear.

Suddenly, the door to my sister’s room opens and she’s standing against the frame in a pair of oversized sweats and a T-shirt that matched its size. Sitting on top of her head is a messy bun with two pencils placed like a cross. It must be the latest fad or something.

“Ouch,” she adds with a sympathetic smile before losing attention and directing it to the cell that sits in her hand.

“Please don’t say anything,” I beg. “It was a mistake.”

Yeah. A big fucking mistake.

“I won’t,” she promises. “But only if you don’t tell Mum about this.” She pulls her sweats down and reveals a tattoo of a rose that took up most of her upper thigh. It’s quite pretty; shaded in colors of pink and blue.

“Oh. You’re dead meat,” I whistle.

“Not as much as you would be if she found out about you being a notch on Logan’s belt.”

I ignore her comment and enter her room. There’s a white plush sofa near the window where I throw myself on and think of my next move.