The Bonds We Break by Becca Steele
FIFTEEN
“The summer’s going way too fast.” West flopped back on the grass, flinging his arm over his head. The football we’d been kicking around rolled to a stop at my feet, and I took the chance to drop onto the ground next to my best mate.
“Yeah.” Staring out at the tree line, I had an idea. “Beach party?”
“When?” West tilted his head to glance over at me.
“Dunno. Friday?”
He nodded. “Sounds good to me. I’m surprised you haven’t planned anything sooner than this, mate. I know how much you love any excuse for a party.”
“Yeah…well…I haven’t been in the mood for it. You know.” I shrugged. That was changing, now. We were halfway through the summer break already, and before we knew it, we’d be back at uni for our final year—well, West had another year to go. Then we’d be out in the real world, working for a living, and long summer breaks like this would be a distant dream.
So, yeah. We needed to make the most of it. Right now.
“Invite as many single girls as possible. I wanna make the most of it.” Flipping onto my stomach, I rested my head on my arms. “This is our last chance. Summer of fun, trademark.”
“Did you just say ‘trademark’? You can’t trademark that sentence.”
“I can.”
“You can’t.”
“I can.”
“You can’t.”
I sat up and grabbed the football and threw it at his head. That was the end of the conversation.
“Wanna play?” Caiden jogged over to us, followed by Zayde, and started showing off doing keepy-uppies with a smug grin on his face. He knew I was shit at them. Just had to rub it in, didn’t he? I jumped to my feet and swiped the ball from him, running down to the small AstroTurf pitch we had in the garden. I laughed when I heard his shout, but he caught up with me within a few seconds.
“Fuck you,” he said, grinning. “Two on two. Losers have to man the BBQ later.”
Returning his grin, I nodded. “Me and Cade against West and Z,” I called over my shoulder.
* * *
“What’s wrong with you?” Winter stared at me over the top of her joint. We’d been relaxing on the deck after our BBQ, although the others had ended up in the hot tub, so Winter and I were the only ones remaining in the seating area.
“Me? Nothing. Why?” I raised a brow at her, reclining back on my chair. “Pass it over.”
She handed me the blunt, and I took a long drag, my eyes falling shut.
“You don’t seem as happy as normal.” Curling her legs under her, she twisted to face me. “Anything you wanna talk about?”
“Nope.”
After staring at me intently for way too long, she sat back with a sigh. “Spoken to Jessa lately?”
“Nope.”
It was true. I hadn’t, except for sending her a few texts checking in with her. I’d done a drive-by of her apartment block once or twice, and okay, I had West intermittently checking the feeds from the security cameras outside her apartment, but that was because her brother had asked me to keep an eye on her.
Maybe I also had a feeling…concern for her safety. Littlefinger had seemed almost too easy to get rid of, in my opinion.
Still, I didn’t miss her or anything. She’d only been staying with us for a short time, and yeah, we’d slept together, but I had the feeling that Winter thought it meant more than it did.
You’re in denial.
Shut the fuck up.
I shook my head with a growl, and Winter stared at me. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, fine.” Rubbing my hand over my face, I sighed. “Sorry, babe. Think I’m just tired.”
She shuffled closer to me, resting her head on my shoulder. “I love you, you know that, right?”
“I know.” Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, I slid my arm around her. “Wanna ditch Cade and get with me instead?”
“I heard that!” came from the hot tub, but there was no anger behind Caiden’s words. Still, I threw up my middle finger just because, and Winter huffed out a laugh.
“Seriously, though, Cass.” Tilting her head up, she met my eyes. “Don’t hold yourself back because you think you need to act a certain way.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means…” Pausing, she frowned. “I guess what I’m trying to say is, be open to new things. Possibilities. Maybe—” Cutting herself off, she bit her lip. “No. That’s all I wanted to say. I want you to be happy.”
“I am happy,” I reassured her. “I’m always happy. Most of the time. You know nothing gets me down for long.”
Taking another long drag of the blunt, she let the smoke curl through the air between us, then passed it over to me. “So, this party. Who’s invited?”
A smile curved over my lips. “Everyone. It’s gonna be a party to remember.”
“I’d better come shopping for it with you, then. Someone needs to keep you in check.”
“You’re probably right.”
“I always am.”
* * *
The following morning, I somehow ended up in the computer room. It was Weston’s domain, and now my sister had taken over part of it, too. Between them, they had a huge bank of monitors and a load of other computer shit. I didn’t even know what half of it was for, and didn’t really want to, but the important thing was that West had connected one of the computers to the security feeds around the Alstone College campus. Including the university accommodation where Jessa lived.
Sliding into Weston’s seat, I woke up the screen and input the password. The mouse cursor hovered over the internet browser icon for a few seconds before I gave in to the inevitable and moved it to the icon for the security feeds. I managed to get sidetracked from my mission by the first feed that popped up, watching a pair of seagulls fighting over what looked like half a hot dog, although it was hard to tell.
But once they’d flown away, I clicked into the feed of the camera facing Jessa’s apartment building. There was no sign of her, not that I expected there to be, but I checked the feed for the car park, too, spotting her car parked in its usual place.
I stared at the feed for a while longer before I sat back with a frown. What was I actually doing here?
“Ready to go party shopping?”
With the best timing in the world, Winter stuck her head around the door, followed by Kinslee.
When we were in my SUV, Winter in the front and Kinslee in the back, I cranked up the music, throwing them both a grin. “Let’s do this.”
“Wait, Lena’s—” Kinslee pointed towards the house, where the front door was wide open. Before I had a chance to respond, Lena came running down the driveway and threw herself into the back next to Kinslee.
“Can you drop me at Raine’s house on the way?”
“Do I look like your personal taxi service?” I shook my head, meeting her gaze in the rear-view mirror.
“Yep.” She gave me a wide smile, and I sighed loudly.
“I suppose I can go out of my way just this once.”
I’d been driving for about ten minutes when I realised we were going in the wrong direction. And when a certain Georgian apartment building came into view and my foot automatically eased off the accelerator, slowing us down to a crawl, I groaned under my breath.
Maybe no one had noticed.
“Ahem.” My sister gave a loud, fake cough from behind me, and I glared at her in the mirror. Next to her, Kinslee raised a knowing brow, smirking, and I could feel the weight of Winter’s stare boring into the side of my head.
“Stop it, all three of you.” I spun the wheel, speeding up as I manoeuvred us back onto the main road.
“We didn’t say anything.” Winter’s voice was far too innocent, and I scratched the side of my face with my middle finger, right where she could see it, which just caused them all to start laughing.
“Cassius and Jessa, sitting in a tree—”
“I will throw you out of my fucking car,” I growled at Lena. Meeting Kinslee’s amused gaze, I gave her a hard look. “Don’t even think about saying anything.”
She clamped her mouth shut, but her eyes were still dancing with amusement. Despite myself, I found a smile appearing on my lips.
I could handle a bit of harassment from the three of them. When the party came and they saw that I was my usual self, taking my pick of hot, willing women, they’d forget all about teasing me about Jessa.
Everyone would.