Page 51 of A Little Bit Reckless

The boys had so much power on this campus.

“What the heck happened?” Sloane asked Bru. She started to help him up, but he waved her off. She shook her head. “You and Wells were fighting? Why?”

“People were telling us we needed to come to the quad. We were at the student union,” Fawn said. She was a curvy redhead with lots of tattoos. They were mostly covered up today since she wore a jacket.

Her head turned when Wells called out. “Let go of me, you motherfucker!” He was talking to my brother this time. Wells growled. “Let go. I’m cool, dude.”

“Like hell you are,” Thatcher said, but eventually, he let go when Wells worked his way out of my brother’s hold. Maybe Thatcher let go. I didn’t know. I just knew that after he did, Wells shot off in the opposite direction of the fight.

He left the aftermath.

He left Bru who was on his feet now but looked worse for wear. Ares put a hand on Bru’s arm. “The fuck was this about? Why were y’all fighting?”

Ares had the concern of a brother, and, even though Bru was adopted into Ares’s family, that didn’t matter. The bond they had went beyond biology. It was that same understanding of brotherhood all of my brother’s friends shared.

“A misunderstanding,” Bru said, watching Wells stalk away with Thatcher following him. Aspen had obviously already left town or she’d be here too. Bru huffed. “I just need to talk to him.”

“Nah. He needs to cool off,” Dorian said. He had his arm around Sloane now. His eyes narrowed. “What was the misunderstanding?”

“I might have an idea, but, like I said, we need to talk,” Bru stated. He said the words to Dorian, but his attention passed to me. It was brief and something only I probably noticed.

“You’re my friend, and she’s my?—”

I heard Wells’s voice in my head as I thought about Dorian’s question. I personally didn’t know what happened, or why Wells burst out the way he did.

But I was going to find out.

CHAPTER

TWENTY

Wells

I caught the fucker on the couch that night.

And this time, there was no one to save him.

Our friends had all gone out to a movie, so there was no one at Legacy House to keep me from that asshole. He couldn’t hide like alittle bitchbehind our friends.

Bru heard me coming this time. He had ice on his cheek for the bruise I left across his stupid-ass face on the quad. He blinked from the couch. “Wells?—”

I went for his ass. Bru was bigger than me, but I easily tackled him onto the floor. We both picked up where we left off, and, once again, he shielded his face with his big arms. Once again, he acted like a little bitch ass instead of fighting me back. I socked him in one of his Superman forearms. “Come on, motherfucker, hit me!”

I dared him. I dared him totry. I swung at his face and all he did was take the impact in his arms.

“Wells, stop!” he called out, but he didn’t hit me back. Why wouldn’t he hit me back? He guarded his face like a fighter. “Bro, stop… Wells, talk to me!”

I hit at his arms harder. At least, I tried. I wasn’t his bro. I wasn’t even sure I washis friendat this point after what he did.

It all made sense.

Bru had been trying to tell me something about Squeak at the ballet. The topic never came up again, and this clearly was it.

And he called himself my friend.

He called himselfmore thanmy friend and…

“Wells, tell me what this is about!” He grabbed my fists, but I could barely see him. I was driven by a haze I couldn’t easily fight out of.