I Dare You by Lylah James

Hate is a strong word. But I hated my father. I loathed my mother.

And Lila? I hated her as much as I loved her.

It ate at me, that all-consuming feeling. Like little bugs eating at my flesh, cutting me open, as my blood poured out. No fucking mercy.

I wondered if I’d ever stop feeling numb. The alcohol helped, most of the time. But when I was sober again, I just felt shittier. So I’d drink again. And again. Until I was drunk, day and night. Numb to everything, everyone, every fucked-up emotion brewing inside of me.

Except, the taste of betrayal lingered. Heavy and bitter.

Lila fucked with my head, and I let her in, gave her the power to do this to me. Turned me into the 17-year-old Maddox, who was bitter and enraged. She promised she’d be there when I needed her. But she wasn’t. And that – that betrayal cut me worse than my father’s disappointment or my mother’s lack of care.

A pounding headache woke me up, and I glanced around the bare room. The clock said it was past one in the afternoon. Shit, I slept the whole morning away. My head hurt; my body ached. I needed a drink, again. To forget. To go back to being numb.

There was a commotion outside, before the bedroom door slammed open. I groaned, pulling a pillow over my head. “Get the fuck out, Colton.”

“No.”

My muscles tensed, and my heart skipped.

That stubborn voice.

That beautiful, stubborn voice.

Goddamn it. What was she doing here?

The memories of last night came back to me, flashing behind my closed lids, like black and white polaroid photos. Lila was here last night.

The kiss.

The fucking kiss that I could still taste on my lips.

Her dreamcatcher.

The pounding in my temples grew worse.

“Get up,” she said, in her sweet, sing-song voice. A voice that haunted me in my dreams and in my reality.

I kept the pillow over my face, refusing to look at her. She was my one weakness, and I couldn’t afford to look at her and… feel. “And you can fuck right off, Garcia.”

There was a small growl, a kitten growl. “Don’t test me, Coulter.”

Oh, so we were back to being Garcia and Coulter.

Lila was silent for a minute. I heard her footsteps moving away, and I breathed out. She was leaving? Giving up already? My ears perked up, when I heard the water running from the bathroom. What…?

Seconds later, her footsteps approached my bed again. I didn’t have time to react, before I was hit with the unexpected.

Freezing cold water. I gasped, threw the pillow off my face, only to have more water dumped over my head.

“Holy fucking shit!” I sat up on the wet mattress and wiped the cold water off my chest and face. “What is wrong with you? Jesus Christ, you’re such a fucking bitch.”

Lila dropped the pitcher on the floor, her eyes blazing with fury. “Listen to me, Coulter. Call me a bitch again, and I will make you eat that word.”

“Bitch,” I hissed under my breath.

Her eyes narrowed on me and then she smiled. A sweet smile that should have warned me of what was coming, but I fell for it. Fell for that beautiful smile that owned me.

I didn’t see it coming. And when I did, it was too late.

Lila marched to the closet, rummaged inside, looking for something. Thirty seconds later, she came back out with a… baseball bat.

Woah. Woah, hold-the-fuck-up.

Her eyes glistened with something unrecognizable. There was anger and frustration there. And more. Lila stalked to my window, raised the bat and…

BAM!

My heart jumped to my throat. I scrambled off the bed, gaping at my window. Lila lifted the bat again and brought it against the window in one hard swing, shattering whatever was left of it, after her first hit.

“I’m nobody’s bitch. Good luck sleeping without a window, Coulter.”

I gaped at Lila. Her Latina side was obviously showing. I looked at the shattered window and then back at her grinning face – although there was nothing warm about her smile. “You’re a psycho.”

But was I surprised? No, I wasn’t. Lila Garcia might be midget-sized, but she was a dragon. A little, red dragon who was capable of doing the most damage.

She dropped the bat and stared, waiting. My eyes ran over her figure, taking in the tempting sight of her. Today, she wore faded blue jeans, ripped across her knees, a black long-sleeve shirt tucked inside her waistband and black combat boots. Her hair was in a messy braid and her throat…

It was bare.

No necklace. No dreamcatcher.

“Put your dick away, Maddox.”

“You are in my room,” I retorted, but still grabbed my boxers off the floor. “And if I remember correctly, you like my dick. A few weeks ago, you were choking on it.”

Lila narrowed her eyes on my face; she avoided looking below my waist, as I pulled my boxers on. “Do you have to be so crass?”

My lips curled. “That’s my charm, Garcia.”

I sauntered over to the nightstand and grabbed the joint I had left there. The necklace on the surface caught my attention. Lila’s gaze, as if she could read my mind, followed mine. Her hand came up to her bare throat, as if to grab her dreamcatcher, but it wasn’t there.

I lit the end of the joint, rolling it in my fingers, before taking a long drag. I held it in, for as long as I could, before I slowly breathed the smoke back out.

I held it out to Lila. “Don’t be shy. It’s not like we haven’t shared one before, Sweet Cheeks.”

She crossed her arms, her lips thinning into a tight line. “What are you doing, Maddox? Just look at yourself.”

I took another drag, running my fingers through my hair. “Oh, I do. I look in the mirror and I see the effect of Lila Garcia.”

Her cheeks reddened, and she stalked toward me, until we stood a mere breath away. Her chest brushed against mine. “I don’t want to be here,” she hissed in my face. “But I am, because I care–”

I scoffed, exhaling a cloud of smoke into her face. She blinked, her nose wrinkling. “Believe what you want, Maddox, but our friendship didn’t end with our relationship.”

“You want to act like an asshole, go right ahead.” Lila poked me in the chest, pushing me back a step. “But I’m here because I know you need your best friend, right now. Not a girlfriend.”

“I needed you before. I don’t need you now,” I barked in her face.

Her neck flushed pink, and Lila looked at me with such heartbreaking eyes… Fuck.

Her fingers circled my wrist, and she brought my hand up. Her thumb brushed over my swollen, bruised knuckles. “You promised that you wouldn’t ever stop being my friend, and I vowed that no matter what, we wouldn’t let our fuckedupness get in the way of our friendship. I’m not here as your ex. I’m here as your friend. So, either you shower, get dressed and eat breakfast like a normal person, or I will drag you. Got it?”

Lila let my hand go, and she stalked away, only pausing at the door. She cocked her head to the side, looking at me over her shoulders. “And trust me, I can, and I will. You might be a hundred pounds heavier than me, but, remember, you trained me in how to use my weight against someone heavier than me.”

Goddamn it.

An hour later, I found myself shoveling breakfast in my mouth. Colton tapped his fingers over the countertop, looking everywhere but my face. “Why did you let her in?” I said, around a mouthful.

Colton cleared his throat. “I didn’t. I tried to close the door, but she kicked it open.”

I dropped the fork on my plate. He was kidding, he had to be. “You’re telling me, that you couldn’t stop a hundred-pound woman from entering your home?”

“She threatened my dick, man.” His voice lowered to a whisper. “She’s legit a psychopath. No wonder you two suited each other so well.”

Fuck that. I shoved another forkful in my mouth.

“Your mom called me again,” Colton said, slowly.

“Same shit?”

“Your father is sick, Maddox.”

“Yeah. So? This is probably another trick of his to get me more involved in his business. Not that I have any plans to take over.”

“I don’t think–”

I kept my face blank. “If he dies, thank fuck. Good riddance.” My chest tightened, even as I said those words. Real, fucking pain sliced through me, and I clenched my jaw.

Colton winced at my choice of words. “You know Lila is not going to give up, until you go see your father in the hospital.”

I knew that and to stop her from bothering me again, I was going to play along. Go to the hospital, visit my father, listen to what they had to say and walk away.

“Where is she?”

Colton nodded toward the door. “Outside.”

“Let’s get this over with.”