How To Play the Player (COMPLETED)

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"Go sit." Bryan ordered. "I'll go get the food."

I felt his hand against my shoulder, then he was gone. Falling into a hard metal chair, I kept my eyes on the Nic and Jay before being disrupted by my phone buzzing in my pocket. Pulling it out, I could feel a smile touching at my lips when I saw who it was.

Tin Man: nice dress

Confused, I started writing back but a video immediately dropped right below Liam's words. It was me in front of the dressing room twirling around and laughing. Bryan must have sent it to him; which is odd considering I hadn't even known my best friend had Liam's number.

Below Liam's text was the same compliment from Shay and Brianna, gushing about how beautiful it was and how they couldn't wait until Prom.

"You're trying to break up with Jason?" the quiet, bitter question earned a surprised look out of me.

Nicola had fallen into the seat across from me, but unlike how she walked the halls at school, her face was clear of makeup and the bags under her eyes were nearly as heavy as mine. Pretending to be a heartless bitch must have been taking a toll on her.

"Why the hell would you do that?"

"Because I don't have feelings for him." I decided to be the bigger person. "He deserves to be with someone who's all in. I'm not."

Her lip curled back a little. "Because you're in love with Liam."

"Because I'm not good with relationships in general."

There was a fracture in her hard shell. "Why Liam? A whole team of assholes and you choose him."

"I never meant to fall in love with him, Nic." I whispered.

"But you did." She snapped bitterly. "I did all of this so Liam would notice me, but as always, perfect little Reese Taylor still wins it all."

"I didn't win anything, Nic."

I started to stretch my hand across the table to touch hers, but she quickly blinked the tears from her eyes and rose, shaking my hand off angrily. "You're going to regret it, Reese. All of this. You should have just tried to fall in love with Jason."

Then she was gone, leaving a very shocked Bryan with two takeout containers in her wake.

· *

Of course my day couldn't just end with that being the worst of it. As soon as Bryan dropped me off at home, I crept into the house already aware my dad was here despite having parked his car at the end of the street. I guess I had thought with the divorce or possibly even the baby, that my parents would learn to be civilized. But the second I stepped foot in the house, I watched them shout across the house to one another. Mom was at the top of the stairs, cheeks tear stained and lips trembling. Dad stood in the living room, entire body tense as he shouted at her.

"They're my daughters too, Margaret! I have a say in everything they do." Dad snapped, oblivious to the fact I'd just walked in. "I need you to stop being a petty bitch and actually think about our girls."

I looked from my dad to my mother who had stopped on the last step, her hand on her stomach. "I am thinking about our girls, Jeff. I can't raise her in an environment like this. We've already put Reese through enough."

"You never even wanted them." Dad's voice lowered a little, his shoulders slumping forward. "Not Raya, not Reese, not this one either. You never wanted to marry me. You should have just ran off with Preston years ago, my girls would have been far better off without you."

"Don't you dare bring him into this!" My mom raised her voice, eyes shining with tears.

"You let our daughter run off with his son like he's not a danger to her! In the latest hours of the night you just let our seventeen year old little girl disappear with an eighteen year old that we know nothing about!"

Mom flinched. "Liam would never hurt her."

"You don't know that. That boy is not Preston. That boy has been through unexplainable trauma and he's dragging our daughter into his shit. I may not have had the chance to protect Raya, I might not be able to protect Reese for much longer, but that baby growing inside you, I will be able to. I'll see you in court, Margo."

With those as his last words, my father brushed passed me without as much as a look in my direction and slammed the door behind him. I stared at the door handle then slowly turned to face my mother, only to find she'd disappeared to her room. I shut my eyes to keep tears back and turned around, slipping out the door and down the step.

This place no longer felt like home.

**

I shoved my hand deep into my pockets as I stared at the snow blanketed asphalt beneath my feet. I hadn't been back here since the last day of summer. My mom and Bryan knew to avoid this intersection, and had found any alternative route possible. I kicked a rock aside and stepped up on to the curb and faced the small memorial that had been set up for Raya two years ago. The wooden cross had long since become entangled in roots and had felt the brunt of the last couple harsh winters and hot summers and was even a little frayed on the edges. I sat down beside a bouquet of dead flowers, running my hand along a small photo of my sister from her Junior year of high school. When I heard footsteps nearing, I didn't even bother to look up. I knew Mom would have called someone when she realized I took off, and there were only two people who knew where I went to hide from the world.

"Hey, Re." Brianna's voice was so soft I was afraid she was crying herself. I felt her body beside me within seconds, her hand on my back. Not long after Bryan was on my left, touching a hand to my knee. Then we all lifted our heads and stared at the park across the street; the park we'd spent half our childhood at but had not stepped foot in since Raya died.

"We're here." Bryan whispered, dropping his arm over my shoulder and hugging me against his side. Brianna moved closer to me and wrapped her hand around my forearm before laying her head against my shoulder, her quiet sniffling a sure sign she was crying too. And for the first time since Raya's death I let it all out; all the pain, the agony, the useless reassurances that everything was going to be okay. Because with Dad finally gone and a new baby being brought into this world, everything was beginning to feel more real. It felt as if a tornado was tearing through the little life I'd tried to rebuild after my sister's death, and soon I'd be swept up into the eye of the storm with no escape.