Broken Promises

Chapter Five

CHAPTER FIVE

It was a quarter past twelve. My parents were out of town for the weekend, and my brother thought it was a good idea to invite a few guys over to hang out. These friends, however, I had never met before. None of them said a word to me or even glanced my way. My brother told me to stay downstairs and to not bother him, so I didn't.

But since he had friends over, I invited Brody over. Not even ten minutes after I texted him to come over, he was already at my front door. I smiled up at him, and he leaned down to give me a kiss. I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him inside the house, and kicked the door closed behind him. Our lips stayed joined together as he walked backwards to the couch, where he gently pushed me down and hovered over me.

All we did was kiss, though. His hand rested on my hip bone, and he nibbled on my bottom lip. I moaned against his mouth, and we continued this for a good twenty minutes before he finally pulled away. I was out of breath, and he chuckled as I fixed my shirt and sat up.

Brody sat beside me, putting his arm around my shoulder, and pulled me closer to him. With his free hand, he grabbed the remote from the coffee table and turned the T.V. on. He flipped through the channels. "Parents out of town again?" he asked me, and I nodded. "What's Adam doing?"

I shrugged. "He has friends over."

"Oliver?" I shook my head. "Oh. His new friends."

"I guess. I didn't really meet them though. They just went upstairs without a word to me. But Brody," I said, turning to face him. "I really don't want to talk about this."

He nodded his understanding, and he finally settled on a comedy show. I snuggled up next to him, resting my head on his shoulder. This. This was perfect. I was content with this. I loved-

My thoughts were interrupted by the slamming of a door upstairs. Brody and I glanced in the direction of the noise. At the top of the staircase, I saw my brother arguing with one of his friends, but I couldn't really hear anything that was being said.

Adam turned in my direction then, and gave me a look that told me that Brody and I needed to go outside. I nudged by boyfriend in the shoulder and motioned for the door. He knew what I meant, because he grabbed my hand and led me outside. Brody leaned against the house, arms crossed over his chest. Annoyance flickered in his eyes.

"What the hell, Sierra?"

"I don't know."

Brody went to respond, but before he could utter a word, we heard my brother's voice on the other side of the door. "I'll have the money next weekend, Rodney. I promise."

"Don't make a promise you're not too sure you can keep, Adam. You better have it next weekend."

The door opened, and a guy with black hair and angry blue eyes stepped outside, followed by three others. They were all tall, built like a wrestler, covered in tattoos. The guy that I presumed was Rodney looked meaner than them all combined.

He glanced at me, eyes raking over my body. Brody noticed and pulled me closer to his side, giving the guy a warning look. The guy laughed, obviously not intimidated – Brody should have been the intimidated one – and looked at me for another split second. I cowered behind Brody, and this guy looked back at my brother. "Twenty-three fifty-four," were his last words to Adam before he and the other guys left.

They most definitely weren't Adam's friends, but who were they? And what the hell did those words even mean? Did I want to know?

I woke up from my dream in a panic. But it wasn't really a dream. It was something that happened a month ago, but I forgot about it because I really didn't want to remember anything about that night. Yet, I dreamed about it, and I had no clue why. Was my brain trying to tell me something? Was there something that was significant about it? A word? A hint?