Page 92 of Firefly
“You're an asshole!” she yells after me, and I glance back once.
“Yeah,” I say with a smirk. “But I’myourasshole.”
Then I leave her standing there hot, furious, and trembling beside the sink.
Exactly where I wanted her.
Because no matter how hard she fights it… she still belongs to me.
Ophelia
“Enter Sandman-Metallica”
Two days later…
I’m sprawled across the couch at the warehouse waiting for Bianca to finish whatever dramatic phone call she’s currently whisper-yelling through when my phone buzzes in my hand. I glance down and groan immediately.
Reid.
A literal thorn shoved permanently into my ass.
Ever since the disaster with Tracy and the school fight, my life somehow became even more chaotic. Which honestly feels impressive at this point.
After Brayden dragged me away from the school that day, things spiraled fast. I was still riding the adrenaline high from beating the absolute shit out of Tracy. Angry. Emotional and reckless.
Brayden started kissing me and, for one stupid second, I let myself get carried away because I wanted to feel something besides Hayden consuming every inch of my brain.
Then… the rumble of the bike. The car door ripped open.
And there stood Reid, looking homicidal.
At first, I genuinely thought Hayden found us. But no.
It was somehow worse.
Reid practically dragged me out of Brayden's car by my arm before nearly beating the shit out of him right there in the parking lot for touching me. Like I was five years old instead of being fully capable of making my own horrible decisions.
The lecture afterward? Absolutely unbearable.
“You can’t trust rich boys.”
“You need to be smarter.”
“You’re acting reckless.”
Blah, blah, fucking blah.
Meanwhile, Brayden sat there furious and confused, demanding to know who the hell Reid even was and why he cared so much about me.
Which meant I had to lie. Again.
I swear my entire life is just one giant pile of secrets stacked on top of other secrets waiting to collapse.
So I told Brayden that Reid was basically family. My overprotective uncle figure who stepped in after my mother abandoned me. And somehow… Brayden bought it.
I honestly don’t know if he’s stupid or if he just wanted an explanation badly enough to accept whatever I gave him.
Either way it worked.
