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!”