The Parker Boys

Chapter Thirteen

"Don't let her fool you guys. She's not shy"

I stared at Kai as my mind went blank. I didn't have any ideas to get myself out of this situation.

"Hugh?" I sounded like an idiot. We both knew I knew what he was talking about.

He narrowed his eyes at my miserable attempt to brush him off. "Come on Princess, you can't expect me to just let some shit like that go."

I relaxed myself, leaning back into the water. "I already told you. I'm handling it."

He wasn't about to let it go. "Is that why you want to learn how to fight? To beat up Hugh?"

I scoffed attempting to swim past him. "I'm learning to fight because Bates insisted on teaching me. "

He grabbed my arm before I could pass him. "Did he put the bruises on your wrist?"

My careless facade dropped. This was exactly the questions I didn't need. "Kai, he didn't touch me."

Six more months.

Kai let me go. "Tomorrow is Sunday. We don't do anything at the gym. You gonna come by for a lesson?"

I bided my time, seeing if this was him giving me an out of this conversation. "Depends on how early you guys expect me to be there."

When he simply nodded I took that as a sign that we settled things. I swam over to the group.

They were spread out in a circle hitting the ball from person to person. When they saw us swim up Sky caught the ball.

She smirked at me. "We're playing truth or dare. You guys want in?"

I really didn't, but there was no way Sky was going to let me out of the game. After getting the rules we all spread out.

It was simple. You hit the ball, you were safe. You dropped it, truth or dare.

I looked around the pool, It was weird to see Sky and Ryan hanging out with the Parker brothers. It felt good. Even though Sky got on my nerves, I loved her. I liked the Parker brothers and I liked hanging out with them. And today I felt free.

As I hit the ball around the pool laughing with my friends I felt like a normal high school girl. I felt the most normal I'd felt in years. And I didn't want it to end.

Bates was the first one to drop the ball. He chose dare, which was expected since he always wanted to seem tough.

Ryan dared him to comment something flirty on some sophomore girl's instagram. He blushed the entire time.

Next was Sky who chose truth. She admitted to losing her virginity to Ethan Knight sophomore year, a story I had heard a million times.

Bates dropped the ball again and had to send another comment to the girl. He wanted to quit but we made chicken sounds until he finally did it.

It was funny.

And then I dropped the ball.

I had made a plan already, knowing I was going to drop the ball eventually. I knew that I couldn't choose truth, definitely not with Kai being suspicious of me. Plus there wasn't really much they could do to me on a dare. I didn't have a problem sending a flirty text or making out with Ryan.

"Dare." I said with a smile, genuinely enjoying myself.

Sky smiled, triumphantly. "Take off the top."

I frowned immediately. There was a reason why I didn't want to take off my shirt. Henry had bruised me, the middle of my back was a nasty looking yellow with fading marks. I couldn't risk anyone seeing it. The boys wouldn't believe I'd fought with Roy twice in a row.

"I'm not taking off my shirt." I said just to stall. It was doubtful that Sky would give me a different dare. I needed to think of something.

She pouted, pushing her hair back out of her face. "If your not going to do the dare-"

"Chill out Sky." Kai said, his tone easygoing. However, the way he was looking at me made me feel like he knew exactly why I didn't want to swim in my bikini.

Sky laughed, floating on her back. "Oh, don't let her fool you guys. She's not shy. I don't know what kind of act she's putting on right now."

Ryan cleared her throat. "Hey, let's just play a different game."

It was too late, I had my out now. Teenage girl drama. "How about you guys play a different game?" I said as I swam towards the end of the pool. I'll admit I looked stupid, trying to swim away angrily.

Sky laughed. "Jesus, over react much?"

Once I made it to the steps I simply shot her a cold look. "Don't forget to lock the door on your way out." I said with an attitude before turning on my heel and heading to my room.

Hopefully I pulled off the whole moody teenager routine.

************************************************************

The next day I woke up to someone bamming on the door. I checked my clock, seeing that it was already noon. I assumed it was the Parker brothers coming to bully me into doing something but when I pulled open the door, Roy stood on the other side.

His hair was ruffled and he had hickies plastered on the side of his neck.

"Forgot your key?" I asked moving aside to let him in.

He didn't answer me. I was really trying to be nicer to him since I'd learned the truth about his fight.

He walked to the kitchen, and I watched as he scanned the house. I'd already cleaned up most of the mess from the party, but from the way he was looking around I could tell he had heard about it.

"Problem?" I asked, ready to get our argument out of the way. I wasn't worried about Roy. I knew that he wouldn't snitch on me. We didn't normally snitch on each other.

"Heard you threw the party of the century yesterday..." He trailed off opening the fridge.

I rolled my eyes. "That's the stance you want to take? Considering you didn't even come home last night?"

He pulled out the makings for a salad, sending me an annoyed look. "Don't expect me to help you cover your tracks. I'm not cleaning the house, I have shit to do today."

I felt like he just wanted to argue so I didn't respond. We had cleaned up most of the mess last night and I could easily finish cleaning before our parents got home.

Remembering I told the Parker boys I would come to the warehouse, I went to my room to get dressed.

I was actually excited about seeing them.