Talking to Jasmine as I exited my last class of the day, we walked into the hall and I saw Chase talking to Zoey in their infamous position—her back against the wall and him talking down to her, his hand either on Zoey's hip or on the wall as a bar. Something ran through my body uneasily. Maybe because they shouldn't be together? Maybe something else.

"I'm gonna have to steal her," Eli's voice rang before he swept Jasmine up in a cradle and sprinted down the hall. So I was left with Zoey and Chase, holding hands as they walked behind me. Yeah, they were still together. I didn't want them to be together though. Honestly, I didn't. I never thought Zoey would cheat...especially on someone like Chase. He was too nice for that. He was my friend, so I cared about him. Therefore, even though Zoey was my sister, I wanted him to be happy with someone that would treat him right and not cheat on him...

"Hey," Riley's voice greeted as I felt his cool hand brush against mine.

"Hi," I said, stopping to hug him. He was just another person to make me feel uncomfortable, especially considering I witnessed him get slammed into a locker last time we spoke.

"Wanna come over tonight?" he asked.

"Uh..."

"She's coming with us," Chase said.

"Who's 'us'?" Riley asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Me and Wes," Chase answered. Ugh. Wes...He had been acting strange all day by assuming I could magically read whatever his blue tinted eyes were trying to tell me. He surely didn't say a word to me, which was strange because I didn't think he knew how to shut up.

"Well who do you want to go with?" Riley asked me.

"Well—"

"Chase, I thought we were..." Zoey prompted.

"Nope. We have a project," Chase lied.

"Shit. I forgot," I commented. I looked to Riley. "Maybe some other time?"

"Sure," Riley said, disappointed before walking away.

"So. Project..." Zoey prompt.

"Sorry. I forgot that we had to work on it," Chase lied.

He suddenly bent down to peck her cheek. Zoey blushed of course, but then she turned to me. "So I'm assuming Chase is giving you a ride, so...I'll see you home?"

"Mm-hmm," I hummed, unsure. She reached up to kiss Chase and then skipped away in the opposite direction.

"Wasn't it you that's supposed to be coming to my house...?" I asked Chase. He shrugged.

"I just thought that you might've wanted to see Grayson—"

"Enough said," I said, grabbing his wrist and pulling him out of the school. As I started to walk to the parking lot, I heard Chase snicker before he slid his hand down to mine and pulled me in a different direction. He clicked his parking key and the lights to his black Corvette flashed. I immediately flinched out of his grasp because this was still my sister's boyfriend, but still climbed in for a ride.

***

"So why'd you lie to Riley?" I asked Chase as we walked in the park and I rolled Grayson in a stroller not even an hour after school got out.

"About?" he asked, innocent.

"A project...?"

"I didn't lie," he denied. "Part of the entire project is to know the others in the group. That's what I'm doing."

"Whatever," I laughed. After a few feet, Chase took the stroller from me and started to set up a blanket on a patch of grass. So now I was sitting criss-crossed with Grayson playing on my lap.

"You know babies are the best judges of character," Chase said out of nowhere as he laid down on his side at the length of the blanket, propped up on his elbow. He pulled apart a flower with his fingers as he spoke.

"Apparently," I replied in a mumble. "You know who else who judges character great?"

"Hmm?"

"Puppies," I stated. He froze and I reached over to smack his shoulder. "So then why haven't you returned Roanoke to me?!"

"Because he loves my house more," Chase shrugged.

"Doubt it."

"Well we don't have whiney screaming teenage girls at our house that hate puppies, do we Grayson?" Chase said. Grayson frowned and responded with some baby noise.

"Does Zoey know about Grayson?" I asked, cocking my head to the side as Grayson shook his hips as he held on to my hands and stood up.

"Nope. It's almost like she doesn't know anything about me," he informed.

"Why's that?"

"Because she doesn't ask stupid questions like you," he answered, throwing the remaining bits of flower at me.

"No question is a stupid question," I mumbled. He laughed at me and I let Grayson fall into my arms.

"When you grow up, don't be like your big brother," I whispered down to Grayson rather loudly as a joke.

"Good. I don't want him to be like me anyways," Chase said with a straight face. I thought he was joking and I looked over to him as he tore up a piece of grass, but his eyes flickered up to me. He smirked, but I could sense there was something wrong. "What?"

"Why don't you want your little brother to be like you?" I asked, intrigued.

"There's a lot of shit in my life that I don't want him to deal with. Not to mention, I'm just not a person that should be copied off of," he answered, back to looking at his blades of grass. I stared at him in silence until he looked up at me, confused.

"Why not? You're a good guy. One of the best I've met," I said truthfully. Even though I never wanted it to happen, I was starting to care a lot about Chase...and even sort of trust him. My precious wall of steel that was built to ward guys away was beginning to be torn down a few weeks after meeting Chase and the guys...shit. "Ali, what are you thinking about?"

You.

"Nothing," I lied. He gave me a skeptical look.

"I'll tell you what I'm thinking about if you tell me what you're thinking about?" he compromised. I nodded. He laughed once before putting on his default face and looked down at the grass still. "I'm thinking about falling in love."

"I thought you didn't love Zoey..."

"I don't," he assured.

"Someone else...?"

"Well someone...eventually...I just think that later in life if—or when—I'm with her, I want to know how it would be...if one day we'll be out sitting in a park. And I'm also thinking that I can't have this moment with Zoey so what's the point of being with her, you know?" he revealed. Even though Chase's visions of eventually being in love were romantic and sweet, he wasn't talking about my sister, and I didn't want them together anymore. I didn't actually have to say anything. Nor did I want to because unfortunately Wes was right when he said it was their relationship that I shouldn't worry about. "But I'm not going to drag you into our business," he added, "so what were you thinking about?"

"You," I blurted out. UGH. I could feel him looking at me as I looked into Grayson's beautiful eyes to avoid the confrontation.

"Good," I thought I heard Chase say. But when I looked over to him, he was texting on his phone.

***

We spent a few hours at the park and it was really shocking about the number of people who stopped to compliment Grayson's eyes. But now we were back at his house since it was getting dark outside. After being fed, Grayson was now asleep and upstairs in his room. Chase and I were watching a movie and throwing popcorn at each other. Then suddenly, the front door opened and I felt Chase stiffen as I turned to see who arrived.

"Chase—" I heard a deep voice say before I heard footsteps and saw a dark figure appear in the hall. There was a muscular boy who was about the same height as Chase, who had a light five o'clock shadow for a beard and dark set eyes whose color wasn't identified. How his jaw was clenched, I could tell he had dimples like Chase, even if it was under scruffy hair. He stood looking tough in his leather jacket and black straight-legged jeans. This must be Chase's brother.

"What do you want?" Chase asked harshly.

"Where's Grayson?"

"Sleeping upstairs," Chase answered. His brother sighed in anger or stress before walking around to the kitchen or den. Kitchen supplies rattled and clanked as if he didn't even hear Chase's answer that informed him of the sleeping baby upstairs. "Dude."

"F*CK!" I heard the guy cuss in pain or realization. I started to get up, but Chase put his arm over my lap and shook his head at me. Moments later with the continuation of loud noises, the guy came back into the living room with a black backpack thrown on his shoulder.

"Where are you going?" Chase asked.

"None of your business," he responded rudely.

"Really? Because last time you said that—"

"Shut the hell up and stop taking it to heart," his brother answered. What a jerk. "As I see it, I did you a favor last time."

"Favor my ass," I heard Chase say beneath his breath as he rolled his eyes. I looked back to the man and he looked at me with his dark orbs. He only smirked in arrogance.

"You think I'm a dick," he assumed, talking to me.

"You know Grayson's asleep upstairs, yet you made a shit load of noise. I don't think you're a dick; I know you are," I responded

He walked over to me.

"And how would you know what a dick is?" he asked down to me. I gulped out of fear. "You're nothing but a pathetic virgin that can't get any from no one...Not even the man whore sitting next to you. So before you go around assuming shit about people you don't know, shut the f*ck up," he finished right before leaving.

Even though I initially got flashbacks of Wes telling me almost the same thing, it actually hurt now coming from him because that meant someone told him those details about me. But more than that, I was upset that Chase didn't even defend me or even himself. After sitting in silence for too long, I grabbed my bag and left too. I was sure to wipe my eyes in the process to make sure I wasn't idiotically crying.

"Ali—" Chase started to call when I almost made it through the door.

"Whoa," a voice said as a pair of arms wrapped around me as I bumped into them. I rolled my eyes and tried to step around the newcomer, but he kept me there even though Mason was standing behind him. Wes was the last person I wanted to see aside from Chase's brother. "What's wrong?"

"Guess who just left," Mason said as if he was here the entire time, but really he was nodding over to the eldest Cane walking down the street. I didn't look up to Wes, but his muscles tightened and looked like he was shaking.

"I'll deal with him," Wes growled before stalking off. I didn't follow him, but I felt someone behind me. From the corner of my eye, I saw Chase, but I wasn't particularly in the mood for him right now, so I walked home by myself.

"What the f*ck is your problem?" Wes yelled at Dane once he found him. He caught up to him in the forest, with a bag slung over his shoulder.

"Excuse you?" Dane responded, turning around.

"What did you say to Alicia?" Wes asked through his teeth.

"What she is. A pathetic virgin that's not worth a damn," Dane answered with absolutely no guilt. With his strength, Wes pinned Dane against a tree, but since Dane was older and stronger, he instantly pushed him off and tackled him to the ground. Dane got up from his one-man dog pile on Wes before kicking his side. Wes still got up.

"I don't know why you're getting so mad at it," Dane started.

"She might have not cried, but I know how hurt she is. I did the exact same thing to her days after I met her...the only difference, is that I felt bad about it," Wes responded.

"Why the hell would you feel bad about it?" he asked, confused and disgusted at the sympathy. "This is what we want. We want to ruin her just like Chase did to—"

"I'm out."

"What?" Dane asked.

"I'm out," Wes said with a clenched jaw. Dane sized him up as he crossed his arms.

"You gotta be shitting me!" Dane shouted, dimples concaving in anger. Wes shook his head. "That girl—that virgin piece of crap—is Chase's soft spot. You and I have been waiting for someone like her to come around for ages to ruin Chase."

"We won't ruin Chase with her," Wes denied, backing up to leave. "Alicia's mine. Not his."

"Oh really? Because you might want to tell her that or him," Dane challenged. "Last I heard he had a girlfriend he's thinking about breaking up with. I'm not stupid enough not to think it's because of her. And you're not stupid enough to think she's yours considering she doesn't seem to be your type and you were already so sure you had a mate before."

"Then maybe we're both stupid," Wes reasoned as a confirmation of his feelings for Alicia.

"So you're just out," Dane asked for a clarification. "Even after all Chase has done to us, you won't want to get him back?"

"Of course I do...but not with Alicia. She isn't his."

"Then just keep your eye out and your mouth shut," Dane ordered. Even though Wes seemed to be sided with Dane, their usual rivalry still remained. He looked over his shoulder and watched as Dane continued his hike without him because of all the conflictions Alicia had caused within him.