Beautiful Broken Rules (Broken, Series #1)(73)

We hadn’t seen each other too much this week, besides at nighttime after one or the other got off work. We entered finals week and I realized it was too hard to study around Jaxon, so I forbade him from coming over to distract me. It seemed to work out for the best because we both felt extremely confident about our grades.

On Thursday after our last final, all five of us were hanging out at the guys’ apartment watching movies and eating junk food. We had all planned on going out to a house party together later, but we still had a couple of hours until then. Quinn convinced us to finally get out and celebrate the end of the semester.

“Are you excited about spending the holidays with your mom and dad, Emerson?” Jaxon asked.

Quinn’s head shot over to look straight at me. I knew she was shocked that I hadn’t told him yet. She tried to act casual, moving toward the kitchen as if to get something, but it was obvious something had bothered her. Cole stood up awkwardly to join her.

“Uh… no, not really. I don’t really like holidays.” Actually, holidays were the absolute worst time of the year, aside from February 2nd, the day they were both killed. Coincidently, that was also my birthday as well. Yep, happy birthday to me. I NEVER celebrate it. It’s forbidden. Quinn doesn’t even mention my birthday anymore.

Completely oblivious to our odd reactions, Jaxon laughed a little and said, “What? Who doesn’t like the holidays?” He was holding my hand and I had to release it.

I looked over at our audience; Quinn, Cole, and Jace all knew. I looked to them for help, for someone to distract him from this topic. No one stepped up and I was all alone.

I gripped my hands together tightly and murmured, “Umm… someone who… doesn’t have parents.” It was hard to get out of my mouth but I couldn’t lie to him.

He turned to look at me, a little more concerned now, but I could tell he still thought I was pulling some weird joke on him. “What are you talking about, Beautiful, yes you do. You’ve told me tons of stories about how you grew up.”

“All of those stories stopped before I turned fifteen. They were both killed in a car accident,” I whispered, wringing the blood from my pale hands.

“What the f*ck, Emerson? Why haven’t you told me this before?” he stood up and shouted.

“Dude, it’s time to chill out and leave her alone,” Jace said, looking up at him from his spot on the couch.

Jaxon looked at his brother and his expression turned murderous. “YOU knew about her parents?” He jabbed his finger at Jace. Then he turned to look at me again. “FUCKING JACE KNEW?” His voice was getting even louder now.

“I’m so sorry, Jaxon,” I said in a calm voice, hoping it would bleed into him.

“Jax, seriously stop it. It was a weak moment; you guys weren’t even together yet. She had just come back from home to see you, when she saw that Audrey was here. She got upset and it just came out.” Great, yet another piece of information I hadn’t told him yet. Girlfriend of the year right here. Although, I guess I didn’t even have that title.

Cole finally stepped up. “Jax, you need to f*cking lay off of her or I’m taking her out of here, away from you. You can see her when you get back from break.” The protective big brother was coming out in him and I loved him for it. But this was entirely my fault; he deserved to know that about me.

When Cole talked about taking me away from him, I saw his expression snap from infuriated to frightened. He quickly came up to me and knelt between my legs. Jace got up and left. Once Cole and Quinn were satisfied that Jaxon wasn’t going to yell at me anymore, they left the living room as well.