I frown.
It’s from Millie.
I MISSED YOU LAST NIGHT.
I roll my eyes and search for Seth’s name. Nothing. He sent nothing. The last message was from yesterday, demanding I get pizza. I stand and groan. My head pounds and the world sways, which won’t help me at all for today. And I have rowing practice later, which makes me feel even more miserable. I stumble into the kitchen and pour myself a glass of water, guzzling it down while Seth slams the door shut, strutting in and sweating from his morning run.
I smirk at him, waiting for the inevitable. Maybe he will just tell me in person, I think, trying to be reasonable. Maybe Rachel exhausted him so much last night that he just passed out. The thought leaves me with a very dirty image of Rachel riding Seth so hard her bed breaks, which annoys me more than it should. “Morning,” I say casually, despite the prickle of annoyance brimming.
Seth nods at me, gasping while he grabs for a cup and downs several gulps of water. “Morning,” he says between mouthfuls. “How was the party? Did you hook up with Millie?”
I shrug. “Party was pretty boring.” I don’t want to admit to him I turned Millie down. I don’t want him knowing whatever is going through my pathetic little head. Especially since I don’t even understand what is happening in there. “What did you get up to last night?”
Seth downs another glass of water. I notice he doesn’t even bother looking at me as he answers, “Nothing. Just studied and went to bed early.”
Fucking liar, I want to yell at him. I clench the cup in my hand, tempted to throw it at him and demand to know the truth. The least he could do is tell me he fucked Rachel. “That’s it?” I ask while he strides back to his room.
He shoots me a weird look. “Yeah.” I notice he glances at Rachel’s door before entering his room. I scowl. Fucking asshole, I think as I throw my glass into the sink. Thankfully it’s plastic and doesn’t shatter into a million pieces. I’m probably being such a drama king right now but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter whatsoever. Maybe Seth will just message us about it later.
I spend the entire day looking at my phone, waiting for Seth to fess up and tell us he slept with Rachel. And every time I look down at my screen I see absolutely no text messages from him. I see one from Hunter about how he’s so hung over from Tom’s party. And another from Millie wanting to meet up later. I ignore both. I’m tempted to throw my phone across the room when I see by the end of my English class in mid-afternoon he still hasn’t texted us about Rachel. I even go to my rowing practice and fuck everything up, not able to think about anything, but my stupid phone. By the end of practice, not only has my coach asked me if anything is wrong, but I still haven’t seen a single text message from that fucking bastard.
I return home, pissed, throwing my bag down on the floor and scowling at the top of Seth’s stupid head. I kick the door close harder than I really need to. It slams shut, rattling the glasses on the counter a bit.
“Fuck, man,” says Seth as he turns around in the couch. “What’s wrong with you?”
What’s wrong with me you ask? Oh, that you are a fucking little good for nothing liar. “Oh, go fuck yourself,” I nearly shout at him. I want to confront him. I want to yell at him and let him know I heard him and Rachel going at it last night. Instead I bite my tongue as Rachel opens her door and strides into the living room.
She looks between Seth and me with wide, concerned eyes. “What’s going on here?” She asks.
Seth shakes his head. “Nothing. Lucas was just being an ass,” he mutters while flipping through the channels on my TV.
“Oh,” Rachel breathes. She smiles at me and I feel like everything around me becomes soft and fuzzy as if I’m in one of my mother’s favorite soap operas. “Actually, Lucas, I was meaning to talk to you about something.”
“You were?” I and Seth say in unison.
I give him a dark glare while Seth glances back at Rachel, worry all over his stupid face. I smirk. Oh, so you’re worried about Rachel needing something from me. How interesting.
“Yeah, we got this new product in the store. It’s some sort of electrolyte thingy.”
I chuckle. “Electrolyte thingy?”
“Yeah it’s called Nuun or something like that,” she says while flicking her hair behind her shoulders.
I laugh. “That’s not new. And why do you need me?”
Rachel’s shoulders slump and I know she feels offended by whatever is that I said. I try to take pity on her and wrap my arm around her shoulder. “I can help, whatever it is.”
Rachel smiles up at me. “Well, I was wanting to get some photos for the website and I was hoping to get some pictures of you using it. Maybe I can also get an article out of you about how it helps with your rowing.”
Seth scoffs. “You don’t need him for that. I can help you.”
I give him another dark glare. He glares back at me.
“I want to get more people in the store,” says Rachel. I break my staring contest with Seth and smile down at Rachel. Yeah, Seth. She wants a rower. A rower who doesn’t make up rules he’s just going to break. “Not just runners. I think the stuff we
