I wait for him to say something, anything to make this not look like what I think it is but it never comes. He doesn't scold them, or jump up to my defence and I realize I should have trusted my instincts. Felix Montgomery is nothing but a football player with an ego and a God complex.

He isn't the guy from the roof.

Instead, he's a guy willing to break my heart to get a laugh.

"Calm down," he chuckles. "You know I'll tell you as soon as I do."

"So...that's what this is to you?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest to get his attention.

It shouldn't affect me as much as it does, but when he turns to look at me it takes everything in me not to cry. It's not until now that I realize I had been hopeful. I wanted him to be who he said he was and I'm let down, because he isn't the guy I want him to be. For someone who wants to be in a shadow, away from his name he has a really funny way of showing it.

"Nicks, it's not what you think," Felix jumps up at the sight of me, his eyes pleading for me to believe him.

I shake my head at him and back away, "I should have known better. You're exactly who I thought you were and I don't know why I even thought for a second that you weren't."

"Stevie..." he frowns and reaches for my hands when I take a step backwards. "Let me explain."

"Explain what exactly? You did just tell them you'd let them know, didn't you?" I ask as I drop my arms, pulling on my shirt sleeves. "You're nothing but an egotistical asshole."

"Come on," he reaches for me again but I shake my head. "Stevie."

"You're a liar, Felix," I frown and head down the stairs, completely forgetting my backpack behind me with the feeling of the walls closing in around me. Suddenly feeling suffocated and in need of a way out.

"God damnit, Gavin," Felix growls as I head for the gym exit, his voice carrying after me. "Stevie, wait!"

"Not interested," I tell him as I speed up my walking, heading for the halls while avoiding people sitting on the floor as I search the walls for my locker.

I'm not going to let him do this to me. I'm not going to think I did something wrong or pass it off as boys being boys, because it's not that. It's more than that. It's boys thinking they can get away with talking about girls like they're objects put on this earth for their enjoyment.

We're not.

I'm not his toy to be played with.

"Stevie, hang on," Felix says as he grabs my arm, forcing me to turn and face him. "I'm sorry. You weren't supposed to hear that."

"No shit, Felix."

"That's not what I meant," he sighs.

"Then what did you mean?" I ask, searching his face to watch the emotion flicker. Wanting to see if he means anything he says, or if it's all just bullshit.

"I shouldn't have said that. It's just the guys and I said it to get them off my back," he sighs. "It's just shit we say. It doesn't mean anything"

"Are you serious?" I frown. "The boys being boys excuse is getting kind of old, Felix. I liked the guy on the roof. He was sweet and it's become very clear to me that's not who you are and I can't believe I even thought about going out with you for a second."

"Stevie," he sighs. "Please just ignore what I said. It was dumb. It's not important."

"It is important and the fact that you don't think it is, is a huge problem," I exhale softly and shake my head as I tucked my hair behind my ear. "You're not the person I thought you were."

"I made a mistake." He frowns and I can tell by the way his eyebrows furrow together that he is sorry, he said something stupid and maybe I should look past it but I can't. And I won't.

"Go back to your life, Felix. Forget you even asked me out, okay?" I tell him, heading down the hallway completely forgetting about my locker and him. He doesn't follow me this time and lets me walk away, my stomach curling in disgust at the situation and my chest feeling tighter than ever.

If it wasn't pouring outside, I know that's where I'd head but since it is I'm left with one resort and that's the north staircase. It's probably the least used set of stairs in the whole school and the perfect place to let me drown in my own thoughts. I completely ignore the fact that I forgot everything in the gym with Robyn, Isla and Miles. Or that I ran out of there without an explanation for them.

Climbing under the stairs, I sit against the concrete wall and pull my knees up to my chest. Maybe I am overthinking this, or being too harsh on Felix. I know people say dumb things and they can say things they don't mean, but either way I was hurt by his actions and that is enough reason to be upset. Weather he agrees or not, it's not his choice and he needs to realize that he should own up to his actions rather than make excuses for them. Stupid excuses that don't make it better and in fact make it worse.

"Stevie?" Isaac's voice fills my ears and my lips curl up slightly. "You here, Vee?"

"Stairs," I announce and look up as my twin brothers kneel down in front of me – copies of each other to the tee other than their personalities. Isaac always wearing his hair with a little more curl than Riker's, who styles it up to show off his sharp jaw and bright blue eyes. The same blue eyes we all shared with our mom, even Greyson.

"Robyn and Isla came to find us," Riker explains, holding up my stuff before crawling over to sit next to me. "What happened?"

"Nothing," I shake my head as I lean my head against his shoulder. "Just boys being stupid, I guess."

"Come on, we know it's more than that," Isaac nudges me with a sweet smile on his face, having sat down in front of us. "Tell us what happened."

"Felix asked me out," I frown, not wanting to go into full detail and keep it to the bare minimum. "And I was going to tell him yes, but I caught him talking to his friends about me and my pants."

"I'm going to kill him," Riker moves to get up when I grab his arm, keeping him still.

"I handled it, Rik. Don't make a bigger deal out of it than it is, okay?"

"He can't talk about you like that, Vee."

"I know and I appreciate you wanting to protect me, but I can take care of myself, okay? Just be my big brother and sit with me while I'm upset," I smile weakly. "That's all I want."

"Okay, but if you change your mind about the ass kicking," he says and my lips curl up.

"I'll be sure to let you know."

"You really like him, don't you?" Isaac asks and my shoulders shrug, unsure of how to answer.

My feelings for Felix are complicated at best. One part of me really liked the sweet guy he was on the roof. How he opened up and spent the whole party with me, but the other part of me knows now that some part of that was fake if not all of it. Or maybe it isn't and he really is just stupid.

"I don't know," I admit. "I really wish I did because it'd make all of this a lot easier. I don't know whether to be mad at him for being an ass or relieved that he gave me an out...or sad because he's not who I thought he was going to be," I explain the confusing emotions swimming inside me. Each of them making a little more sense than the last.

"Alright, well, come on," Riker shuffles forward to get up, offering me his hand when he gets to his feet. "Let's get out of here."

"School's not over."

"Don't care. Our little sister is upset and needs ice cream. We already texted Greyson to meet us at double scoop," Isaac grins, holding his own hand out.

"Plus, I have physics with Felix next and I might punch him in his pretty boy face if we don't leave," Riker chuckles and I shake my head but don't argue, taking each of their hands to help me up to my feet.

"I love you guys," I hum, wrapping my arm loosely around Riker's waist to lean my head against his torso.

"We love you too," Riker replies and wraps his arm around my shoulder, rubbing circles over my shoulder as we move our way toward the nearest exit.

Running out into the pouring rain, we bolt for Riker's truck while trying our best not to get soaked. Isaac pulls open the passenger door and pushes the sit forward, letting me climb into the backseat before climbing in himself. I pick my phone out of my pocket and open my group messages, sending a quick text off to Robyn and Isla to assure them that I'm fine and will call them later.

"Grey's really meeting us?" I lean forward after hitting send, resting my arms on top of their seats.

"Why is that so hard to believe?" Isaac laughs.

"It's not," I shrug. "What did you tell him?"

"Just that something happened that upset you and that we were skipping the rest of the day," Isaac explains as if it's that simple. It's not though and I know Greyson's going to be mad, probably blaming himself since he encouraged it.

"Okay."

"Are you okay, Vee?"

"No," I frown before sighing. "Yes. He's just a stupid boy. I'm not about to let him screw up my life anymore than it already is because he's an asshole."

"Good for you," Riker smiles, meeting my eyes in the rear view mirror. "If you weren't totally lying through your teeth, I might actually believe you."

"Hey! I'm not lying."

"You like him, Stevie. He may be an asshole," Riker chuckles. "But you still like him."

"I don't."

"You do. You like assholes, Stevie. It's kind of like mom and dad. Dad was the asshole neighbour and she was the girl next door who fell in love with him," Isaac laughs.

"Okay, who's side are you on?"

"Yours," they both say, but Riker is the one that continues. "That doesn't mean we aren't going to tease you about it though."

"Just for that, you're buying," I glare at him.

"Was that ever out of the question?" Riker questions and a small smirk creeps up onto his lips.

a/n;

I love the twins.