Still Jaded

  me, but I didn't think she was being as gentle as possible. I hadn't felt the same poking and prodding from the nurses.

  "My point is that I don't want anything from you. I'm already friends with these guys. My brother belonged to this fraternity, and I've grown up with guys like these. There! All done."

  "Not quite," I muttered and turned to lift my shirt.

  The smile left her face. "Oh man."

  The glass hadn't just gotten my face. I had a row of stitches on my back too, although how they got there was a mystery to me.

  "Okay." Leah got to work, but this time I didn't have to hear any proclamations of her pure intentions. I was beyond caring by the time she finished. I wanted to get out of there, get back to Corrigan, and fill him in on everything.

  "Now we're done for real," Leah announced. As she washed her hands, I tried to twist and inspect her work. It hurt too much so I'd need to trust her.

  When she started to throw away the old dressings, I moved to the door. "Thanks, Leah."

  "No problem. Let me know when you need those changed again."

  I felt a little odd about the whole thing, but it was done. Now I had to deal with Corrigan.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Corrigan was at his desk when I entered. He turned and asked, "Leah redid your dressings?"

  I moved some of his clothes to inspect the bed sheets. "Is there a clean spot on here that I can sit?"

  "You can sit wherever you want, but if you want clean, I'd recommend the chair." He grinned and pointed to a lounge chair in the corner, underneath a pile of text books and clothes.

  Tentatively, I picked through some of the books and placed them on the floor. Then I moved some of the shirts and pants. Finally, after a couple seconds, I dumped everything on the floor and sat down. Corrigan grinned. "Enough's enough?"

  "My place was trashed last night."

  "What?!" He wheeled around to face me. "Say that again?"

  "Officer Sheila showed up yesterday and told me everything had been completely destroyed. She made it sound like she couldn't even walk around."

  He frowned. "Didn't you go and see it?"

  "Hell no," I snorted. I've seen my place trashed before. I'd even been the one to do it a few times. "I want to go back with you."

  "What about Bryce?"

  "Oh. You mean Bryce and his whore from Spain? No thanks."

  "Again—what?"

  "Guadalupe." Where had he been the last few days? Where was he today?

  Corrigan stood. "Sheldon, Bryce doesn't even like her. He talked to me about her, how she's a nuisance and clingy and…I should not be telling you any of this."

  "You better start spilling it or I'm going after your nuts with a knife." I glared at him because it made me feel better. It was the only thing making me feel better right now.

  He flinched and reflexively covered himself. "Okay. But chill, please?"

  Slowly, I sat back down in the chair while Corrigan shook his head and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. "You can't say anything to Bryce. I know he's got his thing about you and me, but the two of us are still buds. He'd be pissed if he knew I'd told you this stuff."

  The weird rules of our threesome best friendship were starting to piss me off. I growled and shook my head. "I'm not promising anything. You spill or I'm coming after you."

  "Okay. Okay." He held up his hands in surrender. "Just…does Bryce know you're here? I mean, how are things between you two now? Did you…"

  "Tell me what he said! I'm getting pissed off."

  "Okay, okay. He didn't say anything, just that after you came back he called me a few times. He didn't say anything about you, we don't talk about you. I knew things weren't good, but that was it. One time he'd been drinking and let it slip about another girl."

  I felt a stab in my heart, but still asked, "Another girl?"

  "Yeah. Guadalupe. His agent wanted him to have an affair with her. He refused, but then went along with it for show. His agent said it would boost his popularity in Spain since she was a big deal over there. After that phone call, Bryce didn't call for awhile. The next time he did, he made sure to let me know that everything was finished with that girl and it had been a mistake to go along with it. I knew you were back and clearly avoiding me, so…neither of you talk to me about the other. I never have any idea what's really going on. And that girl…a few months before he came back, Bryce had started calling more regularly again. He's mentioned having a clingy fan who won't take no for an answer. I'm assuming it's her. That's all. I swear. I'm done confessing because my ass is going to get beat up."

  I closed my eyes and sucked in my breath. My gut told me that the affair wasn't fake. I wiped away a tear as I laughed weakly. "This is so opposite how we used to be. Remember when I wanted him to be with other girls?"

  "Sheldon."

  "What?" I didn't want to hear any words of comfort from him. I didn't want to deal with the topic of Bryce and me anymore.

  "What did you say to Bryce about us? I know he was grilling you the last time I saw you."

  "Oh. That."

  "Yes. That." He rolled his eyes. "You're so damn frustrating at times."

  I was okay with that. "I told him that we almost hooked up. I was drunk and missing both of you guys. Things stopped before it got too heated. Was I supposed to say something more?"

  He studied me intently. "No. That's fine. Bryce was okay with that?"

  I looked at my hands. "Yeah. Why wouldn't he be?"

  "Because I'm best friends with both of you. Because you're his girl and we…almost hooked up."

  I looked up. "We did hook up."

  He amended, "We hooked up. And you're his girl."

  I stared straight ahead and said, "You're saying that stuff like you don't believe it."

  "Oh my God." Corrigan raked both of his hands through his dusty blond curls and started to pace his room. "I think you were actually put on this earth to make me go crazy. Either that or you're supposed to make me a more patient man. Do you stay awake at night thinking of ways to push my buttons?"

  "Why would I do that?"

  "Never mind. Bryce called me the other night. I think he was just leaving the hospital because he asked if I was still awake, but I wasn't. I just got the message today—"

  "Did you talk to Grace?"

  "What? Uh…no. I haven't had time. I didn't see her yesterday. Wait—you didn't go see your place? Where've you been since you left the hospital? I went there yesterday, but you'd already checked out."

  I stood up. "I went to a hotel. Talk to Grace. Tell me as soon as you talk to her."

  "Where are you going?"

  "I'm going…" I didn't know. "I guess I should go back to my place and see the damage."

  "Sheldon." Corrigan crossed the room in two steps and caught my arm. "What is going on? You were shoved into a glass table. Now you're telling me that your place was trashed. You didn't call me but went to a hotel room. Things aren't good between us three. What's going on? Are you okay?"

  Was I?

  Corrigan squeezed my hand. "I know you were drinking. I can smell it on you. You only do that when something's really wrong. The last time, that night, you were getting wasted on purpose. You do that when you're in self-destructive mode. No matter all the crap that's between us, you're my best friend."

  I forced a smile and squeezed his hand back. "I'm fine. The booze helps with the pain. I know I shouldn't drink, but I'm not driving. Talk to Grace. That's how you can help me, but don't let her know that I'm the one who sent you her way."

  As I left, I contemplated how I wasn't being a friend to Grace, but some of her actions weren't making sense to me. Call me paranoid after Marcus, but I learned not to trust what doesn't make sense. I couldn't look at Grace how I used to, not until I knew what was going on with her, but I knew she wouldn't confide in me. I hoped that Corrigan could pull the 'love' card to get her to tell the truth, and then I'd proceed from there. Corrigan was right.
I needed to find out what was going on.

  I caught a cab home and then stood in shock at the end of the driveway. The gates had been left wide open, and I could see the front door was open too. Bryce's Miata was parked in front of the garage with another car beside it. As I headed inside, I called out, "Hello?"

  Bryce yelled, "We're upstairs." His voice echoed in the house and gave me a creepy feeling. We?

  I had only a second to wonder who else was with him before I took stock of the destruction. Officer Sheila hadn't exaggerated. It looked like a tornado obliterated it from the inside out. And that the tornado had a personal vendetta against me. Pictures were ripped in pieces, cushions had their stuffing yanked out, and I was pretty sure I smelled urine and vomit. An angry atmosphere lingered in my house.

  When I got to the bedroom, I couldn't believe my eyes. Bryce stood with two large boxes in the middle of the room. Mathias walked out of the closet, his arms full of shredded clothes. As he dumped them in the box, the pink polo-shirted agent grinned at me. "Hey, Sheldon! Quite a party, huh?"

  I narrowed my eyes. When had we become friends?

  Bryce crossed the room to hug me. "He's trying to make nice. I laid down the law. We're both trying to make nice."

  As he kissed my cheek, I sucked in my breath and grasped his shirt. It felt so good, like I'd been thrown a lifesaver. Bryce had the power to make me numb, crazy, or feel too much. I wasn't sure which was the healthiest.

  He brushed his cheek against mine and added, "We'll work things out. I promise. I took the day off to help you."

  "This is from your party, Sheldon?" Mathias paused after he dumped another load in the box. "This is going to take a month to clean, and it's not even noon, we've only gotten one closet cleaned. You should hire professionals."

  "No need!" Cadence laughed as she moved around me. Her hair was swept into a braided bun, and she wore a yellow rubber apron with cleaning supplies in the pockets. She smiled and puffed out her chest as she posed in front of Bryce.

  "What are you doing here?" I asked and stood slightly in front of Bryce. Boyfriend or not, he was still my best friend.

  "Some of the guys from Alpha Mu called and told us what happened. We decided to come over and help out. You're going to be one of us, remember?"

  "We?"

  "All of the sisters." Cadence gestured behind her. "They've already started cleaning."

  Mathias clapped. "Alright!" He rushed to the stairs, mouth agape as he took in the scene below us. Cadence hadn't lied when she said all of the sisters. There were at least thirty of them, and they all wore yellow rubber aprons and braided buns in their hair. Some waved but most were already cleaning.

  "You just found out?" I asked.

  Cadence smiled. "Well, we were going to come over to clean after the party. Some of the girls were hung over so we didn't get here yesterday. Sorry about that. But we're here now and we're here to help. From the looks of things, I'm guessing a lot of this is just going to be thrown out." She surveyed the room and nodded. "I know the party was rough, but it looks like someone's angry with you."

  Only one person? I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and sighed instead. "I'm starting to get use to the feel of being violated."

  Bryce curved an arm around my waist and pulled me close. "We'll get it clean. These are just things, remember."

  I nodded, conscious of Cadence's eagle-like scrutiny.

  "Sheldon, I'm starting to really like your friends." Mathias came back in and picked up a box. "I'm going downstairs."

  Bryce chuckled. "If I don't see you for the rest of the day, I'll call you tonight."

  The normally polished agent turned and gave him a distracted wave. "Right now, I don't care when you call."

  As the doors closed behind him, I noted, "He's not shallow at all."

  "He means well. He does," Bryce reassured me.

  Cadence shot out her arm. "I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Cadence, president of the Zeta house on campus. You might've heard about us. We're close to the Alpha Mu house, Corrigan's fraternity."

  Bryce gave her a polite smile and shook her hand. He retracted his hand too quickly for her liking, but I had to give Cadence some props. She hid her disappointment well. However, I was starting to think our previous deal of Bryce being off limits had been an empty promise. And she didn't even know how messed up we really were at the moment.

  "I'm guessing you've slept with Corrigan?"

  She choked in surprise but quickly recovered. "Uh—no, I haven't. I'm picky about who I might have a relationship with."

  Bryce smiled and hugged me tighter against him. Then two things happened at the same time. Bryce pulled me to stand in front him, and I heard a sudden explosion of noise from the living room. "What the—" My words stopped short when I heard Corrigan's voice bellow out, "Start cleaning, boys!"

  Cadence flashed two perfect dimples. "We told the guys we were coming over to help. They decided to join and make a social event out of it. I'm surprised Corrigan didn't tell you this morning."

  As she glided away, I turned to look at Bryce. "I don't know what to say. I didn't know you were going to be here."

  His eyes glittered from emotion, but I saw that he couldn't speak.

  Then I caught movement from the corner of my eye and looked up. Corrigan stood in the doorway. He watched us in return, guarded. "I didn't know this was the plan until you left."

  Bryce moved away from me. "You went to see him this morning?"

  I nodded.

  Corrigan spoke quietly, "It's not even like that, man."

  Then Bryce shook his head. "I don't know if I should be more upset that you saw him and didn't tell me or that …I don't even know anymore. I just know that you two are hiding some secret from me."

  Corrigan jerked forward. "Maybe I should remind you that you ended things with her."

  "Sheldon left me." Bryce moved to face him.

  "Because you pushed her away! You wanted her to end things and you didn't fight for her."

  "Well I am now!"

  "Then act like it. You don't have a lot of ground to stand on. You weren't really cheated on."

  "You were supposed to be my best friend!"

  "You were supposed to be mine all those years too, Bryce. You always knew and you never cared."

  I stood between them but now rounded towards Corrigan with wide eyes. "Wait—what?"

  Seething, Corrigan looked away and Bryce retreated to the window. I felt the room spinning and knew I was at my limit. Things weren't making sense and nothing good ever happened when I felt overwhelmed. I snapped, "Stop it. Both of you. We will clean this mess up and deal with this crap between us later when it's just us three. Got it?" A second later, both jerked their heads in nods and I took a deep breath. Be calm. Be calm. Be calm. This day sucks. I need better pain meds.

  I left the room and stopped when I saw Cadence beyond the door, slack jawed. When she saw me, she snapped to attention. "Things don't seem so rosy in your threesome."

  "We're just fine," I said. Now I was sure Cadence's deal with me had been empty words. She wanted Bryce and was going to do whatever it took to get him. When I heard Grace's voice from below, I looked over and saw that she was dressed like the rest of the sisters. She was glowing.

  "She's come into the group with her arms open wide. She's happy with us, Sheldon." Cadence purred in victory. Of what she was victorious—I wasn't sure, but I made the decision to find out. I'd underestimated the bitch, and I rarely underestimated anyone.

  I turned back to face her and rolled my shoulders back. "If