Beautiful Broken Rules (Broken, Series #1)(12)

He placed his tray next to Quinn who was laughing at Micah’s barbarian tactics. “Oh God, Em please stop calling me that,” Cole groaned, with a wince.

I started eating my pasta salad, while Micah seemed to think that was a go ahead to explore my body. At least he wasn’t blatant about it. I don’t think anyone even noticed. When he moved my hair away from my neck and started lightly kissing under my ear, I noticed Jaxon come in and sit down in front of Quinn. He took off his ball cap and put it back into his backpack. He was staring right at Micah and me. I was confused by the hard set of his jaw. All of a sudden, the last thing I wanted to be doing was sitting here on Micah’s lap with one hand drifting dangerously high up on my thigh.

“Micah, it’s too hard to eat like this,” I said with frustration, scooting down onto the bench next to him. I was looking directly at Jaxon but he was talking to Cole now about furniture they were having delivered later.

Micah leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Stop staring at him. I hear he’s the male version of you, he doesn’t settle down. Although I’m hoping I can change that about you.” This was exactly why I needed to stop letting Micah touch me, because he thinks he can convince me to change my rules for him. No one will convince me of that.

I looked down the table past Cole. “Hey, Quinn, I’m going to go ahead and go home.”

I made a face that I hoped she would understand that said I needed to get away from Micah; his behavior was scaring me. I didn’t like to be in this territory, where people started thinking you were in a relationship and they expected it from you.

“Emmy, I can’t give you the car. I still have class and I promised I would meet up with my study group later,” she urged back.

Quinn is my stepsister, but we never use the word ‘step’. That implies she is less than what she is; she is my sister and I am hers. My parents got divorced when I was nine and my dad remarried. Thankfully, he married Ellie. She is the most amazing person I have ever met; she saved my life. When they got married, I got a sister, Quinn, who is exactly thirty-four days older than me. We were inseparable from the very beginning. Her dad was never in the picture, so she never had a dad’s house she had to go visit because of custody. Most of the time when I had to spend the weekend at my mom’s house, Quinn would spend the night with me. I loved my mom, but I cherished the times I stayed at my dad’s house.

When I turned fifteen, I was sitting in my English class when Mr. Smith, our high school principal, walked in and asked if he could speak to me. I walked out into the hallway and saw Ellie and Quinn standing against the wall crying. I immediately ran to them to ask them what was wrong, ready to injure whoever hurt these two very special people. In a blur I hardly remember, I found out that my mom and dad had been killed in a car wreck. Apparently, a driver in the oncoming traffic had fallen asleep, because she worked a late shift at the hospital. She hit them head-on. She lived, they didn’t. At first, I was confused and in denial; I mean my parents would never be in a car together. They had to have made a mistake. When Ellie told me there was no mistake, I crumpled to the ground. It was the worst day of my life. That day I learned never to get too close to people. It was too late with Ellie and Quinn, we were already bonded; but I swore it would never happen again. There’s no point in having a relationship, because if they aren’t cheating they’re dying. In my parent’s case, they were both.

My family attempted to fight for custody, since my aunt felt it would be best for me to be with a blood family relative. It didn’t matter to her that I hadn’t seen her since I was seven years old. Once I very passionately explained to her that I would run away every single day to Ellie’s until she let me go, she realized I wasn’t worth the fight. Ellie was beyond happy when I moved in. I’m grateful for her every day that she didn’t hold my dad’s affair with my mom against me. She never really spoke about it to Quinn or me.