"Well, well, well what do we have here boys," I merely say when Lawson, Saint and I finally find where West had snuck off to. It is after 2 am and West has been missing for quite some time, the rest of us too buzzed to give much of a shit but finding him in the theatre room asleep and tangled up on the recliner with Lacey in his arms is a shock to say the least.
After what we did to her tonight, I am surprised that she was even willing to talk to him. Walking closer I kick West's foot hard to wake him up. "What the fuck" he swears, rubbing his eyes with his free hand, the other arm still firmly wrapped around Lacey."What do you mean what the fuck West? Shouldn't we be asking you that you sly dog," I retort promptly. "Shhh dickhead, don't wake her up. Unlike you, she doesn't hate me," he replies with a hiss, making Lacey shift in her sleep. "I'm speechless. How did you get wifey in bed so quickly? Also, what the fuck West. I won paper, rock, scissors" Lawson pouts at West making me laugh at his theatrics.
"So. How did you do it" Saint drawls from across the room, where he is leaning gracefully against the wall his shrewd eyes narrowed on West. You would think he gave a shit the way he was scowling but as far as I knew he didn't want anything to do with Lacey and I could not for the life of me work out why. It was not like him to be so openly hostile to females. Sure, he habitually maintained an air of arrogance about him, never sparing as much as a glance at the opposite sex nor had he ever had a serious relationship. In fact, I had never known him to date. I had wondered over the years if he was gay, not that it would matter to me he would always be my brother no matter which way he swung.
His open dislike for Lacey was a bit of a legitimate worry though since the rest of us were more than interested in having a relationship with her. Fuck wouldn't her father love to hear me say that. Not. No doubt he would be furious if he knew the wicked thoughts I had about his precious little flower, my stepsister no less. Oh well, that was a bridge I would be willing to cross once I got to it.
I was jealous that West had seemed to worm his way into her heart so fast, not that I would ever put my happiness over one of my brothers. They all deserved to be happy and if Lacey made him happy then I would not stand in his way. Having said that I did not think I had the willpower to not pursue her myself either. There was something about her that had me tied up in knots. She was all I could think about, and I had never felt like that about someone before. It terrified me how swift she had become someone that I wanted to love and protect. Whoa, I stop myself. Where the hell did that come from? I had never loved anyone before and to be merely tossing that four-letter word out so quickly scared the shit out of me.
"I made Lacey dinner" West bluntly informs Saint, a broad fucking grin on his face. What a sap. "Seriously," I groan."I make her food all the time, and she still barely talks to me," I mutter. "Maybe because there are always strings attached to your food" West snarks back, pulling Lacey further into his chest and adjusting the blanket covering them. I cannot help but be proud and jealous of West at the same time. The fucker could cook. Smooth move I thought. "Come on, let's get her to bed," I exclaim."She can't sleep like that all night." Lawson and I both advance towards the recliner, eager to have Lacey in our arms. West growls at us and wraps his free arm around Lacey, refusing to let her go. "Don't touch her" West grits out "Just give me this," he continues sternly, pleading with his eyes. "Yeah Ryder, just give him this" Lacey whispers from beneath the covers jokingly, causing West to turn beet red, the screen illuminating his flushed face.
"Seriously Kitten, you have been awake this whole time. I bet you knew I was here and still stayed snuggled in Wests arms. I'm offended" Lawson whines. Lacey just laughs at that and adjusts herself in the seat. "Come on Ryder, Lawson. You two are definitely not wanted here" Saint says from the back of the theatre. "I don't know about you, but I am not going anywhere since wifey is in the cuddling mood. Move over West" Lawson interjects, forcing his way onto the recliner before either of them can object. Lawson reaches over Lacey and hauls her towards his chest, clinging to her possessively like a spider monkey would its mother causing her to squeak at the sudden intrusion.
Saint storms out of the theatre room and shocks the hell out of me when he returns minutes later with more blankets and pillows, making his way toward the threesome lounging on the two-seater recliner. "What," he huffs."If we are sleeping in here tonight, we might as well be comfortable." Saint shocks the shit out of me again when he tosses everything he has carried into the room on the floor in front of Lacey, West, and Lawson and then proceeds to take his shirt of muttering about it being too hot in here.
I don't miss the sudden hitch in Lacey's breath and swear to god that I see a fleeting smirk on Saint's face as he makes himself comfortable. "Ok then. I guess we are sleeping in here. Who has the remote. I am not tired" I trail off, searching for the remote to press play on another horror movie since The Nun credits are frozen on the screen. I guess our Lace likes scary shit. Cool I think to myself as I press play on The Conjuring. I hope she likes what I have selected I think, looking towards where she is nested in-between my friends. I must admit, she actually looks relaxed for once.
"Lawson, if you don't keep your hands to yourself, I am going to go back to my bed" Lacey scolds. Huffing Lawson removes his hands from under the cover and places them above his head in surrender. "Ok, ok. No need to bite my head off kitten" he begs."I will behave" but as he says that he tugs Lacey onto his lap and shoves her under the blanket."See, I can behave," he says with a demented smile. "Now be quite please kitten, I am trying to watch this" he deadpans. Crazy fucker. Even Lacey is looking at him like what the fuck but to my surprise she doesn't move, she just wiggles down further until she is comfortable in her predicament causing Lawson to groan and West to grumble something about smothering Lawson with a pillow in his sleep later.
In the morning I wake up with an arm around my waist and freak out thinking that somehow during the night Saint has accidently snuggled into me. I capture the hand that is around my waist when it slowly starts to stroke my stomach under my shirt only to realise that the hand is small and ridiculously soft making me go stiff, my brain trying to process what is going on. "Lawson and West take up too much room, I hope you don't mind me sneaking in behind you early this morning. I would have asked but you were snoring so loud I didn't want to wake you," Lacey giggles. Was she making fun of me? "I do not snore," I reply indignantly. "Yeah, you do" Lacey teases "Like a chainsaw," she continues relentlessly.
A second hand reaches around me, latching firmly onto my stomach and this time I do jump at the contact. "You do snore Ryder. Terribly" Saint states from behind us. Holy shit is he spooning my big spoon right now. Why am I the little spoon in this situation? And how is Lacey ok with any of this I ponder? "I am not ok with any of this Ryder, I am just sick of trying to fight your attention. Even though it is arrogant, self-centred and bordering on possessive I am willing to call a truce. As long as I can lay down some ground rules between you and your friends that is" Lacey warns, her tone suddenly hard.
Fuck, so much for pondering. I had said that out loud. Argh, could I embarrass myself any more this morning I wondered? Suddenly Lacy stops tracing pattens on my stomach and turns around until she is facing Saint. "For someone who hates me so much you sure have a huge hard on this morning. Don't think I couldn't feel it pressing into my arse the last hour Saint" Lacey teases. Saint makes a huffing sound before replying "It's called morning wood Lacey. Maybe google it. It has nothing to do with you," he snaps before rising from our makeshift bed and storming out of the room, his massive erection on display for all to see as he stalks away.
The weekend passes quickly, sadly there are no repeats of Lacey being so open with us again much to my overwhelming disappointment nor does she hang out with us even though we deliberately stay home all weekend hoping that she would. She seems to have put her walls back up again since Saint's hissy fit about his boner.
On Monday I head towards her room, done with waiting for her to come down so that we can go to school and pull her door open expecting her to still be getting ready. I don't see her in the room so check her bathroom and walk in closet in case she is in either of those. Heading back out I catch sight of a note stuck to the door "See you at school," it states simply. I growl and grab my mobile phone out of my back pocket typing furiously as I ask the group chat if they have seen or heard from Lacey. When they all reply instantly they haven't I take the steps two at a time and run towards the carport, not bothering to let my Dodge Ram to warm up as I slam on the gas.
Pulling into school, I notice Lawson, Saint and West are already there and are gathered around Lawson's Cobra with the usual hanger-on's surrounding them. "Where is she," I hiss. When the guys hear the growl in my voice they all jump to attention, grabbing their backpacks, striding towards me. "Calm down Ryder. She couldn't have gone far. If she said she would see you at school, she will be here somewhere" Saint drawls in his usual bored fashion. "This is your fault Saint," I spit out, "If you hadn't of been such a dick about your boner Lace wouldn't have put distance between us again" I went on, furious that I didn't know where she was or if she was safe.
Stalking towards the building I don't have time to look for Lacey as the bell rings for the first period. Slamming my locker violently closed I turn towards my English room and run smack bang into someone."Baby why didn't you reply to any of my texts over the weekend" Lyndsay says pouting up at me with her gross sticky lip glossed lips, forcefully pushing her fake tits into my chest. "Not now Lyndsay" I snap, pushing her away from me so that I can make it to class without having to go to the office for a tardy slip. I don't make it three steps before long, nailed fingers wrap around my wrist and I am jerked back around to face Lyndsay again, obviously my contemptuous dismissal was disregarded.
"If you are looking for the hood rat, she is in the Library with Matt the last I saw her," she sneers before releasing the death grip she has on me. "I don't know what you see in her to be honest Ryder. She is trailer trash scum. Beneath you really," Lyndsay continues bitterly, seeming to ignore the murderous look I am giving her.
Spinning around rapidly I grab Lyndsay by the throat and slam her into the metal lockers behind her, making her squeal in surprise "Talk about her like that one more time Lyndsay and I will make sure the whole school knows you gave Mr Marone genital herpes last week," I snap, effectively shutting her up.
If looks could kill, I would be a dead man right now they way Lyndsay is glaring defiantly at me, mascara starting to pool under her eyes as they water from the grip I have on her throat. "Fuck you, Ryder," she hisses as I release her, turning on her ridiculous heels and storming away with her cheerleader posse in tow. I hope all these bitches get the message loud and clear not to fuck with Lacey or talk shit about her.
Fuming about Lacey being with Matt again I can barely concentrate in any of my classes and am positively raging by the time lunch rolls around. I pull up the group chat on my phone.
Me: Meet me in the cafeteria. Now.
Saint: What has Lacey done now
West: See you in 5
Lawson: Is it about wifey. I miss her *crying emoji
Aggressively shoving my phone back in my pocket I storm to my locker, shoving my books inside angrily. I had no idea why I was so angry; I just knew the thought of Lacey being with such a douche canoe like Matt pissed me off more than I would ever admit to anyone. I didn't like the guy and didn't want him touching my stepsister with a twenty-foot pole. Not only that but she was back to blatantly ignoring me it seemed.
Stepping into the cafeteria I freeze instantly when arms wrap around my mid-section, wondering if Lyndsay is seriously as dumb as she looks and is looking for round two. When Lacey's head pops under my arm and she grins up at me all the anger and rage leaves my body. Placing my hands over hers I sigh deeply. Not only am I relieved she is here, but I am thrilled that she is touching me.
"What's up bro," she teases."Why were you looking so angry just now," she continues anxiously. Not wanting to lie to her, I tell her the truth, wanting to go about this the same way West did to win her over. No strings attached and all that shit. "I was worried about you and then Lyndsay told me you were with Matt. I was also angry that you had left before me this morning and found some way to school without me," I say, eyeing her suspiciously. "And after you ignored us the rest of the weekend, I was sure you had done a 180 after Friday night," I finish with a sigh.
Lacey tilts her head, still under my arm, and then walks around so that she is standing directly in front of me. "I wanted time to process my thoughts over the weekend Ryder. You and your friends are very intense and after Friday night I realise I genuinely do enjoy spending time with you all. I was serious though about setting up boundaries going forward. I want to talk with you all after school if that is ok, if you have time. And I left early this morning because I wanted to apologise to Matt for what happened Friday night. I know it wasn't directly my fault, but he is a nice guy and I wanted to tell him in person that I think he should cease trying to peruse me. Like I said, he is a seriously nice guy but I don't want to date right now. Now if you are done sulking and being angry can we please go and get lunch before it is over Ryder". That is the longest sentence Lacey has ever spoken to me and I am still lost in thought when she grasps my hand asking, "We good"? "Of course we are Lace," I say smiling down at her. My heart beating a million miles an hour with the contact between us.
The looks on the guys faces as Lacey and I approach the table are a mix of awe, bewildered astonishment and outright curiosity. I can't blame them; this is fucking weird. But I love it.
YOU ARE READING
Lacey
RomanceWhen my father left my mother and me for a better life, I was devastated and naively thought my life couldn't get any worse. How wrong I was. My new stepfather decided he was entitled to my body, and my mother became an alcoholic who did her best to...
