I grinned, but didn’t turn around. Someone yelled our name, “Kade!” Looking around, I saw it was Jared Smythe.
He was coming from the bonfire, a case of beer hanging from his hand. With a wid
e smile, he was shaking his head as he got closer. He tossed each of us a beer, then pounded me on the chest. “Hey, man. We made it through the year. Me in college and you in school.” He pointed at Logan. “You. I remember when you were a little shit. I thought you got my brother into drugs.”
The humor disappeared from Logan’s face and he stood at his tallest height. He was an inch shorter than me, but he had grown so he was Smythe’s equal now. Then he smirked at him. “You should thank me. Because I kicked your brother’s ass, he’s not a stoner this year.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Jared rolled his eyes.
Logan narrowed his. I grinned, feeling proud. Smythe had gotten weak over the last year. He had graduated a year ago so he didn’t know not to mess with Logan anymore. He said now, “You want to say that again?”
“Say what?” Jared looked between us. “Huh?”
Logan moved forward a step, closing the distance between them. He was eye to eye with Jared now. “Be more disrespectful. Please.”
Jared glanced at me. “Kade?”
I did nothing. I shook my head. “Smythe, I did’t help you two years ago. Why would I now?”
His face clouded over and he looked around. People were watching. No one was coming to his aid. Realizing his mistake, he moved back a step and laughed, his tone on edge. “Guess I’m behind on some things. No disrespect meant, Logan.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Logan turned away, gave me a half-grin, and headed off. “I’m going to get my drink-on so I can get my fuck-on later. Bye, bitches.”
I waited. Jared didn’t say anything. He stared at me, half dazed, and then nodded to me. “Okay. Well. I’ll talk to you later. It’s good to see you again, Mason.”
As he left, Nate bypassed him. I looked over and saw Parker heading towards her friends. When Nate got to me, I gestured to her. “I don’t like what they did to Marissa.”
He frowned. “What do you want to do about it?”
“I don’t know.” And that was the truth. There’d been guys who challenged me a year ago. I had been a freshman on the varsity team, and I was a starter. Not a lot of them had taken that lightly, but when they realized they couldn’t beat me, most of them backed off. There’d been no problems this year either, but that was all with guys. Things were different when girls fought. “I have absolutely no idea.”
“They’ll probably do that crap again, but to a different girl.”
“They’re probably doing it now.” I frowned. I didn’t know how I felt about that.
“Mason?”
I had turned to watch Parker and Kate. They had gone to the keg right away and had their cups already. Laughing, talking loudly, I realized they were like us. They were at the top of the social chain. Kate glared at another group of girls and I realized they weren’t. They were the top in our grade. The girls in the grade above us didn’t fear Kate. For some reason, I was happy about that.
“Mason.”
“What?” I turned back to Nate. “What’d you say?”
“What do you want to do about them?”
“I have no idea. I don’t know what we can do.” A gnawing feeling was in my gut. It would be a problem in the future. “Marissa’s transferring.”
“Yeah.” His tone softened. I heard the regret there. “You kind of liked her, didn’t you?”
I shrugged. “Not like that. She was innocent. There was no agenda with her.” Everyone seemed to have an agenda now. “Want to get wasted tonight?”
“No girls. It’s a guys’ night tonight.”
I nodded. “Sounds good to me.” As we headed to find Logan, I caught the look Kate sent my way. I shook my head. Fuck no. She’d hurt my friend. It’d be a long time before I would talk to her again. As she got my message, she rolled her eyes and turned away. Her voice raised and she went back to laughing louder. It was like nothing happened.
As we headed inside, I stopped in my tracks. Tate was draped all over Logan. Her arms were around his neck and her head was nestled against his shoulder. His arms were stuffed in his pockets, but he wasn’t pushing her off him. A growl ripped from my throat and everyone stopped.
Logan stiffened, straightening to his tallest height.
Tate lifted her head, growing cautious.
Someone cut the music and I heard a whisper, “This is going to be good.”
I ignored them as I advanced on Logan and Tate. As I stepped closer, Logan moved away from her. Her arms dropped from him, but she didn’t look at me. She was looking at the corner of the room when I stopped in front of her. Instead of talking to her, I said to my brother, “She wanted to fuck me.”
“I knew it!” someone hissed from the crowd.
Another person muttered, “Yep. Called that shit.”
Logan flinched, but met my gaze. He said, “She’s a good lay.”
She shook her head. “I can’t do this. Not again.”
She started to slip away. I nodded at Nate, who caught her arm and held her in place. She tried to jerk her arm away, scowling at him, but he ignored her. He was waiting for me. I said, “Stop fighting, Tate.”
She did, but glared at me. “What are you going to do to me, Mason? Huh? If your brother wants to spend time with me, what business is it of yours to butt in?”
All I could do was laugh. “Are you fucking with me?” I grinned. “Wait. Wrong choice of words. Do you want to fuck with me? That’s the right way to say it. You wanted to before. You kept trying, even though I gave you no encouragement. Are you going to repeat history?”
“Shut up.” She tried to sound threatening, but she glanced around. Her cheeks were red and her head was lowered. Nate still had her by the arm; it was obvious she wanted to run.
I shook my head. “This is unbelievable.” Turning to Logan, I said, “Really? What are you doing?”
He sighed. “She’s good in bed. What do you want from me?”
“Logan.”
He looked at me and I saw the pain in his gaze. He was still holding onto her. I shook my head. “She left you in bed. She came to my room, and she took her clothes off.” The crowd began to murmur around us. It grew louder as I divulged more details. I added, “She masturbated in front of me. She wanted to turn me on. She thought she was.”
“Slut.”
I glanced at the crowd. No one was even pretending not to listen. We were the entertainment. We were front and center. I shook my head. I looked at Tate and said, “I don’t want to humiliate you.”
Tate laughed. “Not really getting that feeling right now.”
I kept going as if she hadn’t spoken, “But I will. If I have to do that to remind my brother the hell you’ve put him through, I will record myself, telling everything, then play it over the local radio.” I looked at Logan. “You watched the tape.”
“Fuck,” someone cried out. “There was a tape?!”
“She came to me. She touched herself. She was making herself come. She was doing that for me.”
Logan clamped his eyes shut and turned away. “Stop.”
I wouldn’t. “Us against the world? That’s what you just said.”
He shook his head, but a mangled cry tore from his throat. “Stop, Mason.”
I moved closer and lowered my voice. “She said that she thought about me when you were in her.”
“Oh my god.” Tate fell. Her knees folded, but Nate kept her upright.
I studied her. She wasn’t weak. She could handle a lot more. I told Nate, “Don’t let her go anywhere.”
He nodded. “I wasn’t planning on it.”
Then I turned back to my brother. “Logan, don’t do this with