Dirty Little Secret

twenty-five | things you don't understand

"Galveston. Stayed at Kari's."

"With who?"

I open the fridge and scan its contents. "Why does it matter?" I ask, using the heel of my palm to twist off the bottle cap of a beer. I look at Corey as I take a swig.

"God, I am so fed up with you." He huffs. "Do you not even realize what you're doing?"

"It's not me." I shrug. "You're the one who keeps making a big deal about everything. All you do is criticize me anymore."

Corey scoffs. "I'm trying to get through to your thick skull what an idiot you're being. If you'd quick thinking with the head in your pants, and start thinking with the head in your shoulders, I wouldn't have to make a big deal about things. But what you're doing is a big deal, Lucas."

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "If you came here to yell at me again. You can go ahead and leave. I'm not in the mood for this shit."

"She's ruining our friendship, man."

"This isn't the first grade." I point out. "She hasn't done anything to you."

Corey scoffs again. "You know what, you're right. She's not the one ruining our friendship, you are." He stares at me for a minute, blinking slowly. When I don't respond, he walks out of the room. Three seconds later the front door slams.

I walk over to the couch and slump down onto the leather cushion. I mindlessly flip through TV channels until settling on a John Wick movie.

"Hey." Gabe nods when he walks in, his gym bag on his shoulder.

I take a swig of my now room-temperature beer. "Hey."

He's slamming everything throughout the kitchen. The fridge door. The pantry door. Drawers. The dishwasher.

I turn the TV volume down. "What's wrong?"

Gabe drags a hand across his forehead. "You haven't heard from Riley, have you?"

I take another swig of my beer. "Nope."

He crosses his arms and leans against the counter. "I'm worried."

"Why?"

"She hasn't responded to any messages since Friday. I don't know where the hell she is. She turned off her location." His knuckles turn white as he grips the counter behind him. "It's like she's missing."

"She hasn't said anything?"

"She texted Luna." He grumbles. "Said she'd be back Sunday night. I went over there about an hour ago and she was still gone. Luna didn't know where she was either. And her mom is in town. She flew all the way in from Indiana to see her and Riley ditches her. How fucked up is that?"

I scoff, then force down another swig of beer.

When Riley first told me that things weren't good with Gabe, my mind went to the worst. First I thought it was his mental health. He's been different this year. My mind was all over the place, thinking she couldn't break up with him because of suicidal thoughts or something like that.

But now I'm starting to rethink that.

His girlfriend is "missing" and he looks more pissed off than worried. Just like when she'd called and said she got into a wreck. It was an inconvenience to him that he had to go to the hospital, never mind that she was injured and probably shaken up.

He used to be protective of her, but not I'm starting to wonder if he's grown possessive of her.

I shake any thoughts out of my head because there's no way my brother would hurt her. He'd never lay intentionally hurt a woman.