Page 116 of The Golden Boys
Finally.
So, while the team and dancers are all partying in Trip’s room tonight, I’ll be with Southside, laying my full truth bare. After that, neither of us will have any need to fight whatever happens next. All questions will be answered, all our secrets will be out in the open. A clean slate.
“All right, we gotta go. Bus leaves in forty-five.” Sterling announces, hiking a bag up his shoulder.
Dane grabs his jacket and I shrug into a hoodie, since winter is officially on our heels.
A text has my phone vibrating and I glance down to read the message.
‘We need to talk,’Parker insists. ‘And don’t blow me off, West. There’s a chance I can help you. Whether you like it or not, you need me right now.’
That knot in my stomach is back and the text has me on edge, wondering what in the hell she’s talking about. As much as I’d like to think none of those privy to the only secret I have would’ve told Parker, it’s feeling less and less like she’s bluffing.
“Everything okay?” Sterling glances back to ask when he sees I’m suddenly feeling anxious.
“Yeah, just a stupid text from Parker,” I say, but I’m making light of things. Truth is, if this girl opens her big mouth, I can kiss my football career beyond high school goodbye.
We get to the elevator just as the doors are parting and the message I just received is shoved to the back of my head. Because, unfortunately, our escape route is now being blocked by our father, the oppressor himself. He’s standing inside the brass box, brooding for reasons he has yet to share. But judging by the tie hanging loosely around his shoulders, and the vein throbbing on the side of his neck, it’s safe to say he’s worked up about something.
His eyes lock with mine, and what he says next is the last thing I want to hear.
“I need West for a few. You boys wait downstairs.”
Dane and Sterling both shoot me curious glances.
“We’ll wait in the car,” Sterling says, stepping inside the elevator to head down to the lobby. But his eyes are set on Dad as the doors close again.
Now, it’s just us, the man who rushed down here looking every bit as insane as I know him to be.
“What?” My tone is hard and unfeeling, which makes perfect sense, seeing as how I feel nothing for him whatsoever.
There’s something in his eyes I don’t expect to see, though.
Concern.
I’m admittedly curious now, wondering what this is about.
He leads with a gravely spoken, “Son … we need to talk,” that has my heart racing because he sounds just like Parker. No conversation in history has ever gone well after beginning this way, and as I stare into my father’s eyes, I don’t believe this will end any differently.
For the fraction of a second, I’m worried he’s found me out, knows the huge mistake I made, but I force myself to relax and remember who I’m dealing with here. If he’d rushed down here because of a‘me’problem, he’d be much more relaxed. He doesn’t care about anyone that much. Which means this is a‘Vin’problem.
What the hell has he done now?
* * *
Vin
“Care to explain this?”
West leans in and his expression never changes as he glances at the two-week-old picture. One that damn-near gave me a heart attack a few minutes ago.
Pam rushed into my study, hysterical, squawking about how she thinks our boys might be sexually active. After crushing her fragile heart with news that I’m positivethey’ve had the pleasure of defiling at least a dozen girls each, she shoved her phone into my hand before storming off.
And when I glanced down at the screen, what the fuck did I lay eyes on? Like I don’t already have enough shit to deal with? My son—the star of Cypress Prep’s football team, and future quarterback for the best D-1 college in the state—dicking down a pretty blonde I know all too well.
“You fucking her?” There’s no need to sugarcoat anything with my boys. They’re cut from the same tough cloth as me. Not that flimsy shit they bypassed from Pam’s side of the family.
He doesn’t answer, but his stare is furious, and I can tell by the look in his eyes he feels something for this girl.