Chapter 199
Lucy was out, talking and gesturing with her hands, as Jason came around to join her and Emma lagged behind. Luce saw me and waved, even though she didn’t stop talking, and a few seconds later, they joined us on the sidewalk in front of Holt’s house. Some other kids circled, like they really wanted to talk to Brandon, but he literally waved them away and they backed up quickly like a startled murder of crows.
“Hey, aren’t you freezing, standing out here in just a jacket?” Lucy asked, huddling her arms around herself.
I hadn’t notice the cold. At all. “Were you cold at the game?”
“No, but at the game I was cheering.”
“I wasn’t cold at the game,” Emma chimed in. “But then… I was surrounded by hot guys.”
“What?” Lucy and I both asked at the same time.
“Yes, their body temperatures are higher than normal.”
“Oh,” I said, knowing what she meant. She was surrounded by literally hot guys—and girls. From LIGHTS. I shook my head at her. And I almost thought we had a breakthrough. “You can go in if you want.”
“Where’s Liam?” Lucy asked.
“I don’t know. Not here yet, I guess.”
“Well, since his mom’s minivan is right there,” she said, gesturing down the street, “I’m guessing he is somewhere.”
I hadn’t noticed. “Maybe he’s downstairs?”
“Maybe he’s in the closet,” Emma suggested. We both stared at her. “I may not attend these parties, but I know what goes on at them. Some of them.”
Once again, I was shaking my head at her. “I guess I should go find him then. If I’m going to wave Brandon in his face, I can’t do it from out here.”
“Wave me in his face?” Brandon asked as I turned around. “You know I’m confronting that joker, right?”
I turned and looked at him. “Say what now?”
“Yeah. He can’t talk about you like that.”
“Brandon, if you so much as lay a finger on him, you’ll crumple him. Like a paper doll.”
“He should’ve thought about that before he decided to spread rumors about you.”
I stopped him, putting both of my hands on his chest, just below his shoulders. I noticed how unbelievably muscular he was but shook my head to clear my thoughts. “Promise me you won’t hurt him, okay? The last thing I need is a reputation for having a boyfriend who beats guys up who hit on me.”
“Why is that the last thing you need?” he asked, his forehead crinkled.
It was a valid question. “Okay, maybe not the last thing…. But… I don’t need it. Please?”
He inhaled deeply. “Fine. I won’t start anything. But I can’t promise I won’t finish it.”
I wanted to say more, to argue with him, but there wasn’t much I could say. I had brought him here, after all, and now I’d have to do my best to prevent Liam from having his face torn off and handed to him. I walked inside with Brandon. Somehow, he just seemed to know how to find his way to the stairs that led to the basement. I turned to glance over my shoulder and saw Lucy, Emma, and Jason following. Jason, who was a friend of Liam’s on most days, had a goofy grin on his face, like he knew what was about to happen.
It wasn’t as crowded in the basement as it was upstairs, which was unexpected. Maybe kids just hadn’t found their way down here yet. There was a stereo playing the radio and some Rihanna song was on. A quick glance around and we saw Liam off in the corner, a few kids standing around him. He had his arm around Jessica’s shoulders as he told a story. It looked to me like she’d been a little too quick to get her face back on after her shower as her eyeliner was all crooked and her lipstick was smeared. Or maybe that was from something else, something I didn’t care to know about. I didn’t have feelings for Liam anymore, that was for sure, but it made me sick to think of him using Jessica when he didn’t really like her.
He looked up as we approached and a cocky smirk spread across his face. “Well, if it isn’t Cassidy’s cousin I’ve been hearing so much about. It true you borrowed your dad’s Lamborghini to get here? Or did you steal it from some other rich doctor who thinks they’re too good for us all of a sudden?”
Brandon looked confused, as did I. “What are you talking about?” he asked. “Are you of the opinion my dad just stopped coming out here because he knows how lame this town is?”
Liam shrugged, which almost choked Jessica. “I’ve heard the rumors. I don’t buy it.”
“Okay,” Brandon said, looking at the four other football players and their girlfriends huddled around Liam. Two of the girls were on my squad. “I didn’t come here to talk about my deceased father. I came here to tell you to stop talking badly about Cassidy, who is definitely not my cousin. I didn’t know Iowa was one of the states where they think it’s okay to kiss your cousin, but I assure you, in Kansas City, we frown upon those things.”
That elicited a giggle from the rest of the group, and Liam stood up straighter, glaring at them, like his dirty look could make them shut up. Eventually, it worked, but it took a moment. “Whatever. I really don’t care who Cassidy is kissing, as long as she isn’t hitting on me anymore. You can say whatever you want to, but your chick was all over me today.”
Anger began to well up inside of me. Brandon reached out and grabbed my hand, and I felt Lucy bump up against me, like she was dying to get into this. She didn’t say anything, though. We were both content to let Brandon handle it. For now.
“No one believes that, Liam,” Brandon said, in the even tone I’d heard his father use so many times. “Everyone here knows that Cassidy did not hit on you, and that you asked her out. When she said no, you got mad and threw a hissy fit. The only reason Jessica is even here with you tonight is because you’re trying to save face. You don’t even like her.”
Jessica’s mouth dropped open, and she turned and stared at Liam. “Is that true?”
“No, of course not,” he protested. But she unwrapped his arm from around her neck and slapped him hard in the face before storming away. The other girls ran after her, and the guys all shook their heads at Liam. “What?” he asked, gaping after her. He turned to his friends. “You guys don’t believe that do you?”
“That’s really low, Liam,” the biggest guy, who everyone calls by his nickname, Bubba, replied.
“You’re pathetic,” Robby agreed.
“What? NO! It’s not true. Why would you believe him over me?”
Shaking their heads, his friends turned to go after their girls, leaving Liam to face us alone. Even though I knew Brandon had manipulated their thinking, as his dad would’ve if he had been there, I was glad for it since what he’d made them believe was the truth. “What kind of crazy voodoo magic are you doing here anyhow?” Liam asked, stepping into Brandon’s face.
“What are you talking about?” Brandon tipped his head to the side to inspect Liam closely.
“You think I didn’t notice when your dad used to do it, huh?” How he happened to catch on to this was beyond me. “I know you’re some kinda of a brainwasher, just like your dad.”
Brandon laughed. “No, you don’t.”
I could see the idea cross Liam’s mind. Like he suddenly didn’t. He switched horses midstream. “All right. I think we should take this outside. You might be bigger than me, but I guarantee, I can kick your rear end all the way back to Kansas.”
“Missouri,” Brandon corrected. “Kansas City, Missouri.”
“Now who’s an idiot?” Liam scoffed, rolling his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll beat the crap out of you, and then your hideously ugly girlfriend who will never be half as pretty as her sister can roll you up and shove you back into your flashy sportscar and drag your sorry behind home.”
Liam’s words cut right through me. He, of all people, would know how I compared myself to Cadence, how I always thought she was prettier than me, smarter than me, better than me. He’d known us since elementary school. The fact that he would say that now broke my heart at first. But then that emotion morphed into something else. I realized he wasn’t saying that because it was true—he was saying it to hurt me and to make Brandon angry. It had worked on both counts. Until I wasn’t hurt anymore. Now, I was angry. And I wanted to literally rip his head off.
