Rival (Fall Away, #2)(38)

? ? ?

In the span of a few short hours, I’d gone from disgustingly happy and excited about life to looking for a fight.

Fallon hadn’t even taken anything she’d brought with her except the clothes on her back.

It was all a lie, but then what did I expect? We screwed. It’s not like we talked about shit or had a date or had anything in common. There were other women to give me what she did.

But everything felt wrong again. Just like before. The clouds hung too low, the house was too empty, and I wasn’t hungry. Not for food, not for a good time, not for anything except a fight.

I didn’t care why I was mad. Hell, I wasn’t even sure why I was mad. I just knew I had to take it out on someone.

I jumped in my car and sped over to Jared’s house, knowing I wouldn’t get pulled over. Cops never pulled me over. A perk of being my father’s son. My sweaty palms strangled the steering wheel as I jacked up Linkin Park’s “Numb” and hauled ass. My tires screeched to a halt in front of his house, and I jumped out of the car, not caring that Tate and her dad were under the hood of his car with him.

“Your mom is messing around with my dad?” I shouted.

All three of them spun around to face me.

“Dude, what?” Jared looked confused, wiping his hands on a shop cloth.

I stalked across the lawn, sticking my keys in my pocket while Jared met me halfway. “Your slut of a mother has been sleeping with my dad for years,” I snarled. “He’s been giving her money, and they’re like getting married and shit!”

Jared’s eyes flared, and he knew I was looking for a fight. Mr. Brandt and Tate looked at me with wide eyes and open mouths.

Tate looked down, talking more to herself. “I guess it makes sense. She’s been seeing someone and keeping it hush-hush.” She let out a nervous laugh. “Wow.”

I sneered at her. “Yeah, it’s awesome,” I shot back sarcastically. “My mother crying when my dad didn’t come home at night. Me trying to figure out why my dad worked so much instead of making it to my soccer games.” I raised my hands and got in Jared’s face. “When what to my wondering eyes should appear but another gold-digging whore ready to make her career.”

Jared didn’t wait another second. His punch slammed me square in the jaw, and I laughed as I stumbled backward.

“Come on!” I urged him forward, the heat in his eyes full of fire.

He rushed me, and we fell to the ground, scrambling over each other. He hovered over me, his fist missing my jaw. I growled and threw him over, swinging my fist into his face and bringing in my other fist across his jaw.

“Stop!” I heard Tate yell. “Jax! Do something!”

Jax? Oh yeah. He lived here.

“Why?” I heard him ask.

Jared’s hands wrapped around my neck, and he locked his arms as straight as steel bars, holding me as far away from him as he could.

“Asshole!” I coughed.

He barely unclenched his teeth. “Fucking dickhead.”

Freezing water splashed my back, splashing around my arms and hitting Jared in the face.

“What the . . . ?” I barked.

The stream of water hit me in the face, and Jared released my neck to shield his head from the cold attack while I rolled off of him. We wiped the water out of our eyes and sat up, glaring at the hose-man until we noticed it was Mr. Brandt. And he looked pissed. His khaki shorts were splattered with water, and he had grease stains on his White Sox T-shirt.

“Your parents are seeing each other.” He spoke low, a hundred-pound weight in every word. “Worst case scenario they break up. Best-case scenario, you’re stepbrothers.”

“So?” I blurted without the good sense to shut up.

He threw down the hose and yelled, “So what are you fighting about?”

I swallowed, my mouth gone dry.

Yeah, I forgot about that part. Jared and Jax were already my brothers as far as I was concerned, but having our families connected like that might be pretty cool.

Unless the marriage didn’t work out. Which with my father’s history was damn well possible.

But on the other hand, his marriages probably failed because of his affair with Jared’s mom. Now that they could be together, it might be forever.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled.

Standing up, I couldn’t look at any of them, but I knew they were all looking at me. Why the hell did I attack my best friend? I had called his mother a slut, for crying out loud.

All of Jared’s shit while Tate was in France came back. He’d missed her. He’d loved her, even though he hadn’t known it then. And he had been withering away without her. He fought. He drank. He screwed.

And none of it made him feel any better.

So why was I screwing up my life for a chick I didn’t even love? Who didn’t even deserve my attention?

I could understand Jared losing control of himself for Tate. She was a good girl, and she fought for him. And when that didn’t work, she fought against him. She never stopped showing him that she was there.

But Fallon wasn’t Tate. She wasn’t even in the same league.

All of this was so stupid. I had no reason to go off the rails just because she popped back into town and f*cked with me again.

Holding out my hand, I was relieved when Jared took it. I helped him up, hoping he took that as an apology. Jared and I didn’t need to get all girly. He knew I f*cked up, and he knew that I knew it.