Beverly Hills Brothers

Chapter 27

I woke up to the sound of tennis balls hitting the chain link fence next door. I looked next to me at the clock and saw it was 2 in the morning. What were they doing out this early? I walked downstairs and snuck out the back door and walked through the little hole in the hedges between our yards. As I got closer, I could see it was Erik. "Hey Er. What's going on?" I asked and he jumped. He was really angry about something. "Why does Lyle get to leave? Why does he get everything and I'm stuck here? I'm shit at tennis. My grades are shit. My dad-" he trailed off. "I'm never good enough. Do you know how fucking exhausting it is to be doing your best and it isn't good enough. I'm not enough." He said, walking closer to me. "Don't say th-" He cut me off. "No, you don't understand. I can be out here all night, every day of the year and it'll never be enough. I'm just so fucking sick and tired of this." He raised his hand and I flinched and his whole demeanor immediately changed. "Did you-did you think-" He stood there in shock, unable to get the words out. "Sarah, I would never ever ever hit you. I can't believe..." he said, looking down at his hands like they weren't his and shaking his head. "You know that right?" "Yeah of course. I was just a little on edge because you were so angry." I said, weakly smiling.

A few days passed since I've seen the boys. Lyle has been busy with his dad and getting things shorted out with Princeton and I honestly don't know what Erik's been up to, but ever since the other night, when I flinched away from him, there seemed to be tension between us. I honestly, in my soul, know that neither of the boys would ever hurt me, especially Erik, who I've only seen truly angry a handful of times, but because of my dad taking his anger out on me my whole life, naturally when somebody is angry and moves suddenly, I flinch. I really wanted to talk to Erik, but surely he would have come over if he wanted to talk to me. It was Friday night and Lyle was out with Perry and most of my grade was at some party in Malibu that I couldn't be bothered to go to. Even my parents were out, having fun tonight. I pretended to clean up my room as an excuse to look out the window and see if Erik was miraculously staring out the window at me too or coming over to finally talk and hang out, but after about twenty minutes, I huffed and gave up. The phone rang. Finally. I practically tripped over my feet as I ran to it, excitedly answering until I heard a female voice. "Hey girl. I know this is totally last minute, but Chad asked me out and wants me to bring a friend for his friend. His name is Toby and he goes to LA High and you're single, so I kind of already agreed you'd go. Please don't kill me." Jess said and I rolled my eyes. "So you were just calling to let me know I have a date tonight?" I asked, twisting the cord around my finger, while looking through my closet. "We can pick you up in an hour. Love you!!!" Before I could complain, the line went dead and I flopped down onto my bed. Guess I'm going out tonight.

I'm not gonna lie. Even if I wasn't dating the Menendez brothers, I would still say Toby is about as interesting as a bag of hammers. Honestly, I bet he doesn't even know my name, ever since we sat down in Cheesecake, he has not stopped telling me about how great he is at football and how without him, LA High probably wouldn't even have a football team and on and on. I busied myself by stirring my straw around my drink and nodding every once and a while. I was really not in the mood to be "out on the town" tonight and now I feel justified in feeling that way. If only I was cuddled in bed with Erik right now, listening to music and planning our futures together. The meal finally came to an end and we stood up after paying the bill. Toby surprisingly grabbed my hand as we were walking out and I didn't pull away because I was so ecstatic about this night being over and finally being able to just go home. As we walked out of the door, I made eye contact with Lyle, who was walking in. He opened his mouth to say something, but quickly noticed my company and how me and Toby were holding hands and he froze. Nobody else noticed anything and I was dragged away by Toby, who sadly, still hadn't run out of things to say.

Once I was back in my room, I threw myself on my bed and screamed into my pillow. "Fuck!" "Fuck! I fucked up. I could just explain to Lyle that I was asked, no forced, on a double date and I obviously couldn't say 'uh actually I can't because I actually don't have one boyfriend, I have two'. That was if he even lets me talk to him." I argued with myself as I paced back and forth. Great, now Lyle and Erik won't talk to me. I should just go over there and talk to them both, but Lyle is definitely not home yet and I don't necessarily want to be there when he does because I feel like he is going to be angry. I can only hope he doesn't tell Erik, because I don't want him to hurt even more but I can't be ignorant.