Too Complicated

Chapter 83.

I stop in my tracks, Gavin not seeing Darren yet I presume as he does look at me strangely. He'll soon figure it out because I can't take my eyes away from the man that made my life a living hell only for his selfish form of revenge.

I haven't an idea why he's here, but I know I want him to leave. I can feel my heart pounding against my tub cage, bringing me back to that moment in time when he made a fool out of me. The time where he used his anger out on me when I had no part in my brothers act. The time that scarred me so badly, that I had to leave the country in order to not relapse.

"I don't know why you're acting like you care, Devon."

"Don't."

"Don't what? Don't tell you how completely unfair you're being?"

"I'm being unfair?" My brother laughs bitterly, my attention only slightly on their conversation. "You're flaunting another guy right in my face! As if I wasn't between your thighs a month ago."

I hear Hailey gasp.

"Darren, my man!" I blink, my eyes zoning in on Darren's hand colliding with another guy's.

"How's it going?" Darren asks the other boy. My eyes zero in on his lips, the way they move with that smirk he always seems to have. And as if he senses my eyes on him, he turns his head, our gazes colliding.

I'm frozen, completely and utterly useless as he walks towards me, a mischievous glint in his eyes. I need to be stronger than this, I want to be stronger than this, but seeing this man after everything he's put me through, it seems impossible.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he speaks. I don't notice Gavin's shift in stance; half in front of me. "I got caught up in some business."

The words that leave my mouth weren't thought by me, and they definitely weren't planned. "Betting on another virgin?"

His smirk widens and the loudness of the house becomes quiet. Devon and Hailey are no longer fighting, the music is practically non existent, and any other form of talking is cancelled. It feels like it's just Darren and I in the room, just him and I.

"Fucking one, actually," he shifts on his feet, his shoulders square and amusement in his voice. "But close."

I swallow harshly. I want to punch all his goddamn teeth out.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't shove my fist down your throat," the haunting, gruff voice of Gavin projects into my ears. I can hear the strain that he holds as he speaks.

"Why must you be so violent all the time, Johnson?" Darren snickers. "I just came to wish Bella a happy seventeenth birthday."

"Get out of my house, Inkster," Devon butts in. "Or I'll make sure you lose every goddamn tooth in your mouth."

"Let it go, Duffy," Darren shakes his head. "It's been seven months."

Gavin grabs Darren by his collar, shoving him into the wall so fast that I'm not even able to blink.

"I'm not going to say it again," he states in a dangerously low voice. "Get out of my sight before I lose it."

"I thought Richard was lying," Darren responds instead. "When he said you two had gotten back together."

"That's not of your business," Gavin growls.