Chapter Fifty Two

Boston


**Aspen: Happy Birthday!**
**Aspen: I'm so sorry about how everything has turned out but thank you for giving me the space that I need to find myself again after everything. I do still love you, please don't question that and think that by me asking for time, that I don't. I just need to do this...for me. For now, if it's not asking too much, can you just be my friend? It won't be forever, and I will let you know when I'm ready to move past that and be together again. But, I'm also not expecting you to wait for me.**

My first thought upon reading her text is *great, she's friend zoning me.*

**Aspen: And I'm not friend zoning you.**

Her text coming through just then causes a small smile to pull at my mouth. *She knows me so well.* Then I realize that if it's already the twenty first, because I've all but lost time since she and Ashlynn moved out, and that if it's my birthday, that it's hers too.

I quickly type out a response, tacking on those three little very important words at the end, but then think better of it and delete them, then hit send.

*She asked for time*, I remind myself.

**Boston: Thank you. Happy Birthday to you too! I hope that your day is just as amazing as you are.**

Her reply comes through almost immediately.

**Aspen: Thank you.**

Pulling on a pair of athletic shorts, and socks and shoes, I grab my air pods and phone, and leave my room, desperately needing a run to clear my head.

"Hey, where are you going?" Linc asks, meeting up with me at the foot of the stairs, a bottle of water in one hand and his air pods and phone in the other.

"Run," is all that I say, "join me?"

"Sounds good. Let's go."

I stop in the kitchen and down my own bottle of water before heading out the door, meeting Linc on the front stoop. We take off down the drive then take a left, heading towards town. We run without talking, only the sound of the music blasting into our ears blocking out the silence between us. We make it to the school before Linc turns his head my direction, finally breaking the silence.

"Want to talk about it?" He asks, his face bright red from exertion.

"What's there to say, really?" I ask with a shrug, "she said that she needed time. If I don't want to push her even further away and lose her completely, I have to respect that."

Linc nods in understanding, "and what about this shit with Mallory?"

"I'm thinking about just outright asking her," I tell him. At his unsure expression, I elaborate, "the girl is cocky, but dumber than a sack of rocks. I bet if I just ask her, she will tell me, brag about it even."

"You may be right," he says, pointing at me with a smile on his face. "I want to get it on camera though, proof of what she's done. Plus, I don't want you confronting her alone."

"I can work with that. I'll do it later today while we're at school. Witnesses and all." I tell him, a plan forming in my mind.

We turn around and head back home. When we walk through the door, the smell of pancakes, bacon, sausage, and eggs permeate the air.

"Go shower and then get back down here to eat the Birthday breakfast that I made for you four boys." Dad tells us, poking his head out from the kitchen.

Doing as he said, fifteen minutes later I'm sitting at the table with my plate loaded down with food, my brothers on each side of me as we all sing *Happy Birthday* to one another, our pancakes each containing two candles, a one and an eight.

"Make a wish boys!" Dad exclaims after the last *Happy Birthday to you!*

Closing my eyes, I silently make my wish and then open them to blow out the two slightly crooked candles sitting atop my stack of pancakes. Then, after removing them, I tear into my breakfast, devouring the delicious meal, hardly even taking the time to savor the flavors as they cross my tongue.

By the time that I pull into the school parking lot, I'm jittery with nerves, beyond ready to get this over with and out it behind me. When I don't see Mallory before the first bell rings, signaling that it's time to get to class, I can't help the feeling of disappointment that runs through me.

I'm hardly able to pay attention during class, my leg bouncing so badly that Jax finally reaches out, placing his hand on my knee to still it.

"You okay?" he asks, leaning over to whisper the words so that we don't disrupt the lesson.

"Yeah, just ready to get this over with." I tell him, voicing my earlier thoughts.

"You know we have your back, right?" he asks, peering into my eyes, trying to gauge my reaction.

"I do," I tell him, smiling slightly, beyond grateful for their support, "it means a lot."

"You're our brother," he states, as if that alone is reason enough for their support, "besides, we know that you would have our backs too, if we ever needed it."

"In a heartbeat." I agree, thinking about how some people don't have the kind of love and support that my brothers and I share, and realizing how very lucky that I am.

When the bell rings and we leave the classroom, we find just the girl we were hoping to find standing in front of my locker with a smirk on her face.

"You!" I growl, walking up to her, pinning her to the wall of lockers at her back.

"Awe, Boston, baby, did you miss me?" She asks, smiling and batting her lashes as she peers up at me.

"Who do you think you are?" I ask, holding her hips in place against the lockers with my hands so that she will stop trying to grind her pelvis against me.

"I think that I'm the one who you shared a bed with Friday night." She says, biting her lip as her eyes darken with lust.

"You took advantage of me," I say, unable to utter the word *rape*, "You drugged me and took advantage of me."

"Oh, please!" She says, rolling her eyes, "So I spiked your drink, who cares?"

"Are you serious?" I shout, getting pissed, "with the amount of GHB and Rohypnol that was still in my system the *next day*, you could have killed me."

"I needed to make sure you got enough, your bigger than that *slut*, so I needed to use more on you than I did on her." She says smirking. "Although, I guess I did use too much because trust me when I tell you that I tried to get you hard, wanting to feel you inside me *so* badly, but you were a flaccid as a limp noodle." she recalls, sighing dramatically, "I ended up fucking Jimmy Jackson. Then, I snuck back into the bed that you were passed out in once we were done."

*She didn't rape me?* "But the pictures?"

"Oh, those?" she asks, her smirk transforming to a grin as she bites her finger, a twinkle in her eye, "They did look damning didn't they?"

"Wait," I say, her statement from moments ago hitting me, "what *slut* were you talking about, that you'd done *that* to before?"

"Oh, Sabrina. Duh!" she begins cackling and rolls her eyes, "although, I never expected her to go and off herself. I just wanted her out of the way so that I could have you." She begins trailing her hands over my chest, then slides them behind my neck, smiling. "It worked, too. Until Aspen showed up at least."

"You're fucking mental!" I tell her, pulling her hands from my neck and backing up.

"I did it all so that we could be together, we belong together, don't you see?" she asks, sounding hurt as she tries to close the distance between us once more.

"All I see is a girl who desperately needs some help." I tell her, glancing at my brothers behind me. All three of them have their phones out, recording our interaction.

It's only then that I notice the crowd that we've drawn. Several of them have dumbfounded expressions on their faces as they stare at the psycho in front of them.

"Okay. Okay... break it up." An older male voice says as he walks towards us, ”get to class," he tells the students as they stand frozen in the hallway, "you five, come with me."

As I back away from Mallory, I glance at my brothers, "did you get it?" I ask, following after our principal.

"Oh yeah. She's fucked!" Linc says, smiling devilishly.

"Good!" Raising my voice to get Mr. Robinson's attention, I holler, "Go ahead and call the police down here too. I've got something they’re going to want to see.”