Hard to Love You

My stomach rolls. I turn and walk away from her. It’s an ass**le move but if I stay I’m going to puke too.

I throw on some shorts and go downstairs. There are a few guys sitting at the table. I go to the fridge and pull out a bottle of water. I twist the cap and start gulping it down when the girl from last night walks in looking like a hot mess.

She comes over and wraps her arms around my waist. “Last night was great.”

“Babe, it was just a piece of ass.” I say, releasing her arms from around me. I don’t do the whole cuddling shit the next morning, most of the time I’m already gone before dawn.

I sneak a glance at the girl; her mood has drastically changed in the last couple of seconds. She went from being all lovely, like we were going to start dating, to looking like she’d just been told that she was the worst lay ever. I shake my head and dismiss the girl like I do with the rest of them, just like yesterday’s trash.

1

Shit!

I hear her gasp before I even see her. I know it’s her, I can feel Hailey. I know this looks all kinds of wrong but I was trying to figure out what the f**k Lily was talking about. She cornered me when I went to take a piss, telling me she knew shit that would f**k up a few relationships in my family. I got pissed off and forced her into the alcove in the wall, trying to intimidate her into telling me what she knows.

I didn’t think it could be about Hunter, at least I hoped it wasn’t. He’s learned his lesson, I think. Lily didn’t have shit on me and even if she did it wouldn’t affect me or Hailey. Hailey and I have a strong relationship now. She trusts me. I know everything there is to know about Cooper, so there isn’t anything there. He’s been crawled up Jaylinn’s ass for the last few years. Jackson and Chloe have been inseparable since high school so I’m not even entertaining that shit.

“Mason!” MacKenzie yells as she slides past a stunned Hailey.

As Lily starts to turn around I see what she is about to do. She reaches up and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, smearing lipstick so it looks like we were hooking up. I have to hand it to Lily; she has balls, especially with my sister and Hailey standing right here. The stupid bitch just didn’t realize her mistake - I didn’t have lipstick smeared across my face. People would know she was lying.

“What the f**k, Mase?” MacKenzie seethes. She despises Lily and it’s showing in full force tonight.

One thing I’ve always tried to do is protect my family, and MacKenzie is always a top priority for me as she’s my baby sister. When all hell broke loose a few months back, and she found out about our dad, she refused to talk to any of us. When she finally started getting over the hurt she demanded that we trust her to be able to handle shit. We all agreed, I mean what choice did we really have? If she wants to deal with all the shit in the world then so be it. Now that MacKenzie knew everything, we all started to back off a bit. I backed off from being that overbearing, over-protective, big brother but I would never stop looking out for her. And that’s exactly what I’m doing now. She deserves to have her wedding with no drama.

“It’s not what it looks like.” I look past MacKenzie, to Hailey, who is still standing there frozen, “Hailey, Boo, it’s not. I was telling her to leave me alone. She’s been following me all night.” And that is my first lie. I have to lie about it until I can figure out what the hell Lily apparently has over us.

MacKenzie marches up to Lily and punches her straight in the face. Lily drops to the ground, covering her mouth. My little sister bends down and gets in her face, “That’s what you get for trying to kiss Hunter and messing with my family. It’s well overdue.”

MacKenzie turns to grab Hailey, who is still standing frozen in the doorway, and stomps away towing Hailey behind her.

Lily sits up and wipes the blood that drips from her lip. I look down at her in disgust. “You got what you deserved. You just had to go and make the situation worse didn’t you, Lily?” Shock registers across her face. She’s more stupid than I thought.

I clench and unclench my fist a few times; trying to calm myself down before I go after Hailey to fix this clusterfuck. Let’s just hope she lets me explain.

“I know Cooper slept with Brittany!” Lily screams as I start to walk away.

I freeze mid-step. “What?” I shake my head and turn around. “What the f**k are you talking about? Cooper would never sleep with that crazy bitch.” She has to be lying; there is no way Cooper would ever sleep with Brittany.

“It was spring break a few years ago.” She tries to stand up but stumbles back. She slips her heels off and then tries again to stand.

“Lily, you need to tell me right f**king now what the hell you’re talking about. Spring break? When? Where? And how the hell would you know this?” More importantly, how does she know Brittany?

A few girls walk into the bathroom and give us dirty looks. I’m sure that Lily sitting here with a busted lip doesn’t look good for me. “Slow down will ya? I just got punched in the face.” She tells me as she touches her lip again.

“I don’t have time to waste, especially not for you.” I seethe. My body is humming from the rage coursing through it. “Tell. Me. Now.”

“Alright, damn it. Three years ago you guys all went down to a house where Hunter was staying, apparently. There was some kind of huge party.” Cooper and I have been to a dozen house parties with Hunter. Nothing is registering. “Her cousin, Logan, brought her along.”

“Lily, you’re full of shit. I would have remembered Brittany from back then.” Brittany was one of those girls that you just don’t forget. She’s got long, golden-blonde hair, wide, innocent-looking eyes, and she’s model tall and carries herself well. She looks almost as beautiful as Jaylinn; except for the hair color and big tits. “And what’s in it for you to tell Cooper about this bullshit lie now?”

Lily stares down the hall for a minute; I’m sure trying to come up with a good reason. “I want Hunter.” She says, just above a whisper.

Fuck!

“I want what MacKenzie has.” Her eyes well up with tears.

“Lily, Hunter will never want you.” I want to say more but I don’t want to push it with her. I need more details about Cooper and Brittany.

“I know!” She yells at me. “But if he knows Cooper slept with his step-sister, who he hates, he’s not going to want MacKenzie! How could he ever want to have anything to do with any of you?” She’s hysterical now. She’s has a few screws loose if she thinks this will end things between them. There isn’t anything that could tear them apart now, after all the shit they’ve been dealt their bond has grown so strong.