Scarred: A New Adult Romance (The Anderson Brothers Series Book 1) by Marie Long

Take it like a man and move on.
    I
flop on the bed and lay back, staring up at the still paddles of the ceiling
fan. Maybe I should just give up the chivalry shit. It’s only brought pain. Be
a bad boy like all these bitches like and take what I fucking want—her.
    No!
    My
left eye twitches.
    God, no. Did I just think that? I
hate thinking like that. He would
love that. Love that I’d become just like him by thinking that shit. No. I’m
not going to give that son of a bitch the pleasure.
    You’ll never win. You hear
me? Burn in Hell you piece of shit. Tears sting my eyes. I just want to be a normal guy,
meet a great girl, and spend the rest of my life with her.
    I
just want to be happy, but fuck those thoughts.
    Fuck my life.
    I
hop out of bed, return downstairs, and retrieve the discarded phone. I pop the
battery back in, and once I snap the cover shut, the phone turns on, no
problem. The thing’s been dropped, smashed, and even run over by a car, and the
only damage was a tiny little crack on the upper corner of the screen. And the
thing still works. I call Kevin. It’s still a few hours yet before he’d go to a
club if he’s working tonight.
    “’Lo?”
    I
sigh, relieved to hear his voice. “Hey, bro. You working tonight?”
    “Yeah,
gonna head out to Blue Xscape around nine. Something up?”
    I
slowly walk up the stairs. “I need to talk, to vent.”
    He
stays silent, though I can faintly hear his breathing, so I continue. “I’ve
been thinking bad shit again. Thinking about hurting people. Thinking about
Pops—”
    “Don’t
you start with that shit, Dom,” he says. “You’re better than that.”
    “I’m
such a screwup.”
    “It’s
about a girl, isn’t it?”
    I
don’t reply.
    “That
girl you told me about … Danielle, right?”
    “Denise,”
I say as I rest my hand on the doorknob to my room. “And yeah.”
    “So
what’s the problem?”
    I
sigh. “I met her piece-of-shit boyfriend. William .”
    “Seriously,
Dom? You’re gonna just let him take her from you?”
    “She
can like whoever she wants, Kev. I just wish it wasn’t that guy.”
    “She
likes him, huh?”
    “Yeah.”
I think back to that night I took her home. She looked unsure of herself, about
to say something, but she didn’t. Could it have been about him? “I don’t know
what to do, man,” I say, heading into my room. I plop down on the bed with a
solid bounce. “Worst of all, I have to work with William, and today, all he
talked about was her.”
    “If
she don’t want you, then you need to find yourself a new girl. Come to the club
tonight, li’l bro.”
    My
throat tightens. I was afraid he’d say that.
    “Dom?”
    “Yeah,
I’m here. I—”
    “Hey.
You wanna forget about her? Then get your ass to Club Xscape tonight.”
    “But,
Kev—”
    “No
‘buts’ unless they’re attached to cute girls.”
    With
a long sigh, I nod. “Fine. I’ll be there around ten.”
    “Don’t
bullshit me, either, or I swear, I’ll never let you live this down.”
    “All
right, damn it. I told you I’d come!” I snap through clenched teeth. Kevin can
be persistent sometimes, but I can’t help but love him for it.
    We
both hang up, and I toss the phone next to me on the bed. I’m too exhausted to
think clearly any more, so I shut my eyes and take a nap. Even in my dreams,
all I keep seeing is Denise’s smiling face, and I can’t get the smell of pears
out of my mind.
     
    * * *
     
    Club
Xscape is nearly as crowded as Club 88 was last night. On stage, Kevin is set
up, doing his thing. It’s always great to watch my brother do what he loves.
    I
head to the bar and get my usual. Leaning with my back against the high
countertop, I scan the crowd of mostly college students and recognize a few
from my engineering classes. I’m supposed to be forgetting about Denise, but I
can’t help but hope that she’s here.
    Familiar
girlish giggling breaks me out of my thoughts. Taking a long swig of my drink,
I look over to a