If You Dare (Dare #3) — Chapter no 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

BECKY

AUSTIN HAS DECIDED she wants to be friends with my little sister. Just fucking fantastic.

I can’t ignore it. It was on the tip of my tongue to lie and tell Austin that Demi had something to do. Or make up something about how my sister doesn’t like her. But that would just cause more problems, and as much as I can’t stand this new Mommy Austin, she is my only friend. And my only way to stay close to Deke.

If I push Austin away, then my chances with Deke go from low to nonexistent. Cole isn’t going to be my friend or invite me over. So instead, I said I’d love to ask my sister to come hang out with us. It’s a movie. Not like I have to talk to her for hours.

We enter the theater, and I see Austin at the concessions with Lilly. And I think back to the day Austin had that bomb dropped on her. The day she found out that Cole’s half-sister is also her half-sister.

Seven months ago

“I don’t …” she trails off. “Why would my dad want to hurt Cole?”

Cole stares at her but remains silent as he sits on the couch in their clubhouse. She stands next to me, and I silently cry. Deke filled me in on the way here about why Cole skipped school today. He found out that the car accident was no accident. The brakes had been tampered with. I almost fainted. Cole has kept my secret for so long. This was it. He’s going to out me right here and now that I was with them. That I was driving.

It’s going to ruin everything!

“We don’t know for sure, but we have a guess.” Deke sighs.

“Which is?” she asks.

“Lilly,” Deke answers.

Her frown deepens, and even I have a moment of confusion. What are they talking about? What does Cole’s little sister have to do with this?

She looks at Cole. “Why would he want to hurt you because of Lilly?”

But Deke is the one who answers her, running a hand through his hair.

“Because Lilly is Bruce’s daughter.”

Bruce as in Bruce Lowes? Austin’s father? Holy fucking shit! Cole’s sister is somehow Austin’s sister too? I never knew this.

“Your mom and my dad had an affair?” Austin asks, trying to do the math in her head. Her dad and her stepmom have been married for ten years now. Lilly is six.

He fists his hands, and his jaw sharpens. “No.”

“Then how do you explain …?”

“Bruce fucking raped her,” he interrupts Austin.

That’s when things changed. She took on a new role of mother, and the rest was history. It was as if Lilly filled this hole that she didn’t even know she had. And her blackmailed relationship with Cole took a jump off the deep end. She walked out of that clubhouse with her head held high even though she had tears in her eyes. I was proud to call her my friend, even if she didn’t know my commitment to her wasn’t real.

I would betray her more than once. And even now, she would push me away if she knew the truth. What I’ve done. How much I’ve lied. Hell, I wouldn’t even be friends with me. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to turn myself in willingly. You don’t see any of the GWS shouting from the rooftops about all the illegal shit they’ve done. Why should I? They shouldn’t be the only ones who can cover their own asses. And that’s why Deke and I belong to one another. We are one and the same.

I just have to remind him of that.

I pull my cell out of my pocket and send a quick text to him.

Me: Can I see you this weekend? We need to talk.

Sometimes you have to swallow your pride, or a dick. And for Deke, I’ll do either.

It vibrates immediately. My heart begins to pound when I see it’s from

him.

Deke: Sure.

Sure? What the hell kind of response is that? I take a quick look to see if my sister is watching me, but her eyes are on Austin and Lilly standing at the concession stand.

Me: I miss you too.

I read over the text three times and then decide to delete it. He had told me he missed me while we stood in the kitchen of Austin’s house. I didn’t tell him then, but now isn’t a good time. Instead, I write: Me: Can’t wait to see you.

I watch him read it, and my heart pounds in anticipation to see how he responds. But after several seconds, I know he won’t when I don’t see those three dots jumping around. Then I look up at his activity, and it shows he was active one minute ago.

And it does nothing for my already sour mood.

He used to be the first one to text me in the morning and the last one to message me good night. And we’ll get back there. I just have to do what I did before—show him what I want him to see. The good girl who fell in love with him.

DEMI

“How about Skittles?” Austin asks Lilly as we come up behind them.

She shakes her head, blond curls bouncing.

“Hmm, okay, how about M&M’s?”

She shakes her head again.

“How about all of them?” Becky announces, and Austin turns around.

“Hey.” She smiles at us. “Demi, I’m glad you were able to come.”

I just nod at her.

“I thought you and Cole had plans tonight?” Becky asks her when she puts Lilly down.

“We did, but something came up,” she answers.

I look over her while she talks to my sister. Austin is pretty in that whole I-don’t-know-it way. Her dark brown hair is down and a little wavy as though she let it air dry and didn’t bother to straighten or curl it. It’s so long that it drapes over her chest, almost reaching her belly button. Her makeup isn’t caked on like my sister’s, but she doesn’t seem to need much. She has dark green eyes and a diamond stud in her nose. She reaches up to push some hair behind her ear and I run my eyes over her right arm, looking for what she had mentioned in her journal. And I see it. It’s faint, but it’s there if you know what you’re looking for. A cut about three inches long across her forearm. The very cut that Cole gave her that first night in the cemetery.

“Demi?”

I blink and look up at her eyes. “Hmm?”

She gives me a soft smile. “Do you want something?”

“Yeah.” I look up at the menu.

“What would you like?” She turns, giving me her back to face the man

who patiently waits for her order.

“Oh, I can get it—”

“Nonsense,” she interrupts me. “I’ll get it. I owe you anyway. You got my gummies the other night at Silence. What do you want?” She begins to order for her and Lilly.

I scan the menu, and say, “A large Coke ICEE. Please.”

Lilly grabs my hand and looks up at me. Her brown eyes wide in excitement. “That’s Austin’s and my favorite.”

“So, what did Cole have to do?” my sister asks, being a nosy bitch as she pops a piece of popcorn in her mouth from the bucket the cashier just placed on the counter.

“He didn’t say, and I didn’t ask. Deke called him, and he said he had to go.”

I stiffen. Is she gonna rat me out that I was just there earlier tonight when her and Cole were leaving?

“I’m sure it has to do with swimming. Or maybe their classes.” Austin

shrugs.

And I try to slow my racing heart.

My sister looks at me, and I swallow nervously, looking away from her.

Austin may not have told on me, but did Deke? Did he call Cole the moment I left to tell him that I know his secrets? That I threatened to out them? Fuck, Cole cut Austin’s arm, so I wonder what the hell he would do to me if he knew I had the power to destroy them? Plus, Austin mentioned in her journal that Deke wanted to shoot her. I wasn’t all that afraid of Deke until after I read that. Cole always had that I’ll kill you and store your dead body in my basement kind of vibe. If they worked together, I’m sure my body would never be found.

“Here, Lilly.” Austin hands her a small ICEE. “Don’t drop it, okay?”

She nods. “I won’t.” Then she takes a drink of it.

I feel eyes on me, and I can’t help but look up. My sister is still staring at me, but now she’s glaring. I pull my shoulders back and narrow my eyes at

her. I won’t bow down to Deke, so I’m sure as hell not going to bow down to my sister.

“Okay, we’re ready,” Austin announces and turns, handing me my drink.

“Thank you,” I say to her.

She grabs Lilly’s hand, and we make our way into the theater and walk up the stairs until we are at our seats. But Austin doesn’t sit down. “Let’s go use the restroom before the movie starts.”

“Okay.” Lilly gets up and follows her back out.

I sit back in my seat, place my phone on silent, and take a drink of my ICEE.

“What the fuck are you doing?” my sister growls from three seats over. I

sat so Austin and Lilly are between us.

“Excuse me?”

She eyes me. “I saw the way you were looking at Cole at Silence.”

I laugh at that. She thinks I’m hung up on Cole. Priceless.

“And then when you went to get Austin her gummies, he had to go track you down to get them from you.”

So she paid enough attention to see that Cole left the group and returned with Austin’s gummies but not enough to notice that Deke was gone as well. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Maybe she is the one with a crush on Cole if she’s watching him that closely. Wouldn’t surprise me. My sister has to prove to herself that every guy wants her. That’s why she willingly throws herself at all of them.

She looks at me with suspicion. “I know that whatever you’re trying, it

isn’t gonna work.”

Oh, it will. I’m sure of it.

“I’m nothing like you, sis. I’m not into spreading my legs for every guy who looks my way.”

Her mouth opens in a gasp, but she doesn’t have a comeback for that.

I just smile, and she sits back in her seat as Austin and Lilly come walking up the stairs.