I’m already in a pretty shitty mood. Your sister fucking the man you love in your own bed and leaving your sheets stained with her blood and her words written in black Sharpie will make you irrational. That’s why I’m not proud of the next thing that comes out of my mouth. “Cole read it too.” That fucker outed me that I was the one driving the car. Why the fuck should I keep his secrets?
I turn to face her, giving my sister my back.
Austin stands at the top of the stairs and spins around to glare at me. “What?” she snaps.
“Back at your father’s house. I left him alone in your room to get some trash bags. I was gonna be a nice friend and pack up some of your belongings, and when I returned, he was sitting on your bed reading it.” I was going to have to grab it without Cole questioning me. I figured if I threw some shit in a trash bag, he wouldn’t notice me trying to sneak a journal out.
“Why didn’t you tell me this?” she grinds out.
I cross my arms over my chest. “I think the real question is why hasn’t he told you?”
“Don’t turn this around on him, Becky. I asked you to do one thing for me, and you couldn’t even do it.” She looks down at the journal and then back at me. “I will never forgive you for this.”
The words hurt more than knowing my sister fucked Deke. I can win Deke over. I cheated on him; he paid me back. He got to have a little fun, and now we can move on. But her? Austin was all I had left. “Why is it you forgave him?” I glare down at her journal. “Huh? He can hurt you, fucking blackmail you, and you forgive him so goddamn easily?”
“He never lied to me!” she yells. “He never pretended to be someone he’s not.”
I snort at that sorry excuse for an answer. “Be honest, Austin, it’s just us. It’s because of the money. You let him treat you like shit because he has money?” Her nostrils flare. “You saw a way out and took it. I get it …”
“I couldn’t care less about his fucking money!” she shouts.
I believe her. I do, but I can’t stop. I have to hurt her. She hurt me. She is abandoning me. “So, it’s the fact that he’s the first guy to ever show you any kind of love then? Your mother hated you ’cause her boyfriend wanted to fuck you. Your father didn’t want you, and then Cole Reynolds comes along.” I give her a smile. Our friendship is over, so I might as well go out with a bang. “The devil as you called him in your journal. Girls like you disgust me. A man shows a broken girl a little bit of attention, and you fall in love with them. He can never love you.” I lie. The truth is, he’s beyond in love with her. That man has killed for her. He’d do anything for her, and I’m jealous of that. I want that with Deke. “He’ll only use you. You’ll become a frumpy housewife, and he’ll get bored of you …”
She slaps me across the face, knocking me into the railing of the balcony. The force was so hard it takes my breath away. My hand comes up to touch my tender cheek when she steps into me, pressing my back into the railing. “You bitch …”
“I’d rather be the girl who fell in love with the devil, than the whore who jumps from man to man because she can’t stay faithful.” She growls in my face. “I don’t care if Deke comes to me tonight and tells me that he is taking your sorry ass back and plans on marrying you tomorrow. You are never welcome in my house again.”
My teeth grind at her words and the tears sting my eyes. But I manage to say, “The truth hurts.”
I think she’s going to slap me again, but instead, she laughs in my face. “The truth? The truth is that I’ve always been a fighter. And I would have fought for you, no matter what, but you lied to me and you betrayed me. So you no longer have my loyalty.” Then she turns, and storms down the stairs and exits the house, slamming the door behind her. The sound echoes up the stairs, and it makes me flinch. My chest aches, and my stomach sinks at the loss of my best friend.
“Sucks, doesn’t it? Losing everyone who you thought cared about you?”
I turn to look at my sister leaning up against the doorway to her bedroom. She has a smile on her face and not a care in the world. My eyes go straight to the hickeys on her neck. Deke never gave me any because I wouldn’t let him. I couldn’t chance David seeing them. I told him not to give them to me so many times that even after we were out in the open together, he still didn’t leave any.