Alec made a move to get up. I reached out and stopped him. “Just let him, Alec. If this is how he wants to deal with the past few months, then let him.”
Alec did not look convinced. In fact, it looked like he wanted to murder someone. He pulled out his cell and in very clipped, scary tones ordered one of the security team to give Demetri aid. Like that was going to help, what was he going to do, castrate him?
Sure enough, Bob moved very swiftly through the gathering crowds and whispered something in Demetri’s ear as he assaulted the girl in his chair.
He leaned back, just enough to make eye contact with me, and then with his eyes opened kissed the girl again, alternating between licking her face and tugging her lower lip.
It was like watching porn.
If p*rn took place in high school.
And the lead was a rock star.
“Sometimes I hate my brother.” Alec cursed. “Now do you wonder why we need to take a year off touring? Clearly we’ve got issues.”
“We?” I lifted my eyebrow.
“Yeah, we.” Alec looked down and cursed again.
Within minutes Demetri’s little show was over, and wonder of all wonders as he walked away from the girl who was now pouting in the corner, he grabbed another. Yes, another girl, and began to kiss her.
What type of girl kisses another guy when they still have remnants of a previous kiss plastered across their face?
She pulled back after a few minutes. And I watched Demetri stagger behind Bob as he was escorted out of the cafeteria.
“Is he drunk?”
Alec was silent.
“Alec?”
“Probably.” He looked away. “He doesn’t handle rejection well.”
“He did this!” I pointed at the door, angry that Alec would again take the blame for choices someone else was making. “Not us!”
Alec looked like he wanted to scream; he shook his head and then ran his fingers through his hair. “I know, Nat. It’s just hard to watch this again.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ll tell you, just not now.”
I nodded, but didn’t trust his word. Both guys had been ridiculously secretive about whatever incident happened between them two years ago. It was stupid vain hope that kept me trusting that he would keep to his promise and actually say something.
The bell rang. “Come on, I’ll walk you to class.” He threw my bag over his shoulder and grabbed my hand.
The rest of the day went by smoothly. Two girls asked me if I was dating the other brother in AD2 now that Demetri was clearly occupied. I glared, and briefly contemplated giving them the finger.
Needing to calm my temper. I stomped over to my locker and threw my books inside. Escape… I needed to escape before I said something that would make me more of a target.
I pushed through the front doors of my school, a hand reached out and jerked me back just as my feet touched the curb.
It was Demetri.
“Nat,” he groaned, pulling me against him, his head dipping down as if he wanted to kiss me. He smelled like whiskey, I pushed away from him but he held me fast. “Nat, I didn’t mean it.”
“Demetri, stop, you’re drunk.” Frantic, I looked around for Alec, but he wasn’t anywhere near us. Kids continued to trickle out of the school. Please hurry, Alec.
“I’m not that drunk.” He swayed on his feet. Really? He was completely and totally wasted. “I just need to talk to you I just want to tell you why!”
Okay, no shouting. I patted him on the arm. “Okay, why?”
“I love you.”
Oh no.
“I love you so much and I know you love him! I know you do! I saw you two, the way you looked at each other! I didn’t want to be second.” Here we go again with this second crap.
“Listen, Demetri. You really need to get your crap together. I’m sorry we didn’t work out. I’m also sorry that you didn’t have the balls to say it to my face before you stormed out and hooked up with the first girl in L.A. you could find.”
“We didn’t.” He looked down and shoved his hands in his pockets. “We didn’t hook up, I kept thinking about you. Saw your texts.” He swayed again then braced himself against the brick wall backing me up against it.
“I saw them, Nat. I wanted to respond so bad, but I needed time to think. And then Alec does what he does best.”
“What’s that?”
“Steals the only girl I love.”
“Oh, so he makes a habit of that?” I sneered, angry that he would again blame Alec for his obvious poor choices.
“You have no idea how messed up we are.”
“I’m beginning to understand,” I answered, teeth clenched.
“He stole her.”
“Okay, Demetri.” I patted him on the arm and stepped around him.
He reached out and tugged me against him. “No, you don’t understand. My girlfriend. He slept with her, got her pregnant, abandoned her.”
Nausea rolled over me. “He said it was a one night stand.”
“With my girlfriend.” Demetri scowled. “Who was too much of a good girl to even think about sleeping with me. She slept with him.”
I gulped. I wanted to throw my hands over my ears and tell him to stop talking, that I couldn’t listen anymore, but I was frozen, unable to move as he stepped closer and continued.
“She was mine!” Demetri’s voice cracked. “And he knew it! He was such a cocky son of a bitch. We were drunk. He said I needed to seal the deal. I told him it was impossible, so we made a bet.”
I didn’t like where this was going.
“He said if he got into her pants that I owed him a new car.” Demetri looked away from me, tears blurring his large blue eyes. “I laughed it off. Alec was always the player. I knew he’d try, but she loved me. I knew she loved me. Just like I knew you loved me. And now…” Demetri cursed and punched the wall with his fist, blood trickled down his knuckles. “Now she’s dead.”
The wall where we stood began to spin. I tried to balance myself, tried to lean on Demetri but he had already walked off, leaving splatters of blood in his wake. I fell to my knees.
“Nat!” Alec called my name, but it hurt too much to breathe let alone speak. “Nat!”
I swallowed, air whooshed by my ears. My eyes began to feel heavy as tunnel vision took over.
“Nat!” His voice was closer, and then I was moving through the air. “Damn it, Nat. Don’t you dare pass out on me!” Alec’s hand was warm against my face. My eyes flickered and then focused on him.
He half-carried me, half-walked me to his SUV and helped me inside. Too shocked to say anything, all I could do was stare at the heating vents in front of me. The slam of the car door jolted me back from my current state. I looked at Alec and gasped.
Blood trickled from his lip.
“You lose a fight?” I asked weakly.
“Not funny.” Alec hit his hands against the steering wheel. “You scared the crap out of me, Nat! Are you okay? Did you eat today?”
I looked down at my trembling hands. “No.”
He cursed again and pulled out of the parking lot. I tried to sit up to buckle my seatbelt, but by the time I fumbled with the lock, he had already driven into the McDonald’s driveway.
He ordered me fries, ice cream, and a Coke.
“Sugar, salt, carbs, and caffeine.” Alec parked in a nearby lot and turned off the car. He pushed the food towards me and nearly growled when he said, “Eat. Now.”
“No.”
“Nat, I’m not in the mood to argue with you.”
“And I’m not in the mood to hear about your entire sordid history with Demetri, but that’s what happened about fifteen minutes ago!”
Alec’s eyes widened, he looked away and didn’t say anything for a very long time.
“He told you everything.”
I nodded even though he wasn’t looking at me. “Tell me it isn’t’ true.”
Alec laughed bitterly. “I can’t do that.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
After a heavy sigh, Alec looked at me his eyes full of sadness. “I can’t deny the truth. I did everything he said, and what’s probably worse is I got her hooked on drugs in the process.”
I closed my eyes.
“Nat…” His voice was a whisper.
“Just take me home.”
We rode home in silence. My brain tried to put together the pieces of the puzzle. Alec had single-handedly destroyed a woman’s life, all because of his cocky attitude and rock star ways. He hurt his brother so much that I’m surprised they still spoke to one another. And now it all made sense.
Being first and second.
The way they had switched roles.
Demetri dealt with pain the way Alec had originally dealt with life. Drink, have sex, and numb yourself to everything around you. Alec shied away, like a turtle in a shell, continuing to punish himself for the crappy decisions he made.
When the car pulled up to my house I didn’t move.
“Nat…”
I closed my eyes, unable to believe I was about to utter the words that I was thinking. “Tell me everything.”
“It’s complicated. I don’t think...”
“Tell me. Now.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Alec’s story was worse than Demetri’s account. The only difference was what he had already admitted to. He was a cocky piece of work and was pissed at his brother for messing up a huge deal for them with a new TV show that was supposed to document their entire tour.
He was also, as he admitted, jealous that Demetri had a girl who loved him so completely, so when Demetri made the bet out of humor, Alec took him seriously.
“Heroin.” He laughed humorlessly. “I told her it would help her relax.” Alec refused to look at me. “We had been partying all weekend and Demetri was already in bed. She was drunk.”
I wiped some stray tears from my eyes. And kept listening.
“It was all over within twenty minutes. Neither of us was really thinking. Had I been thinking, I wouldn’t have gone through with it. But alcohol? Drugs? They have a way of messing with you. I knew what I was doing, I just didn’t care. I knew it was wrong, but I felt so good — it felt so good — that I refused to acknowledge there would be any consequences.” He cursed and shook his head. “Demetri found us in bed together.”
My heart was in my throat.
“I’ve never seen that look on his face before. They had a huge fight, broke up, and we didn’t hear from her again until we found out she was pregnant. By then we also found out she was hooked on everything under the sun, made easy by yours truly, considering I paid her off to keep her mouth shut.”
We sent her into rehab. Our little boy, whom I never met, went to his grandma’s. The next we heard from her, she was released from rehab and sounded really happy. I apologized again and told her how sorry I was. She and Demetri talked on the phone and got in a fight. She, um… She went to pick up Gabe and was hit in a head on collision. She went the wrong way on the freeway.”
I closed my eyes and spoke, my voice hoarse from trying to keep my emotions in check. “So the canceled concert tour this year? The time off?”