Page 9 of Dirty Roulette

She shrieks and kicks herself away from this guy littered with tattoos. “What the hell are you doing here?” She fists the blanket to her chest.

“I’m- I’m sorry.” The punk flips his hair back with a hand and leaps off the mattress.

I scoff. “You’re sorry?” I storm to him, fists tense. “That’s my sister!”

His hands fly up, backing away with a please-don’t-hurt-me expression plastered on his face. “We were playing a game.” He stumbles over a pile of clothes, glances down, and scoops up his shirt.

“Leave him alone!” The shock drains blood from Charlie’s face. She scrambles for clothes and pulls a shirt over her head in an angry fit. “I’m not sixteen anymore!”

“Wait! Wait! I’m sorry...” He throws the shirt over his head but doesn’t get another word in. A fog layers over my eyes as I seize him by the shirt, my eyes meeting his.

“Were you actually going to have sex with him?” My heart pounds inside my eardrums and every part of my body breaks out in a cold sweat.

“Don’t!” Payton wraps icy fingertips around one of my arms, tugging me back.

When I glance at her, her big eyes plead with me.

“Please... stop.” I’m huffing, my chest heaving in and out.

“Please...” I bite the inside of my cheek and unfasten my grip on the guy with my hands held up.

Payton tugs on my arm, and I back away with three steps.

“I’m so sorry!” Charlie rushes over to him and cups his face. “Oh my god!” She turns blubbery and cries. I didn’t even get to hit him.

“I’m fine... I’m fine.” The guy holds up the palm of his hands.

“My brother is an asshole, I’m sorry!” Charlie’s cheeks redden, her eyes watering, as he shrugs her off.

“No wait!” She grasps his hand, but he weasels out of her grip and disappears out the door.

“Please, Noah!” Charlie scrambles to her feet, chasing him out into the hallway.

“Stop!” She chokes with hands raking through her hair.

She turns to me, her nostrils flaring, and tears brimming the edge of her eyes.

“I hate you!” She retorts, stomping over and shoving me in the chest. “God, I hate you!”

“You’re barely eighteen! Get your shit and let’s go!” I find her shorts and throw them at her face, but that seems to tick her off more. All I see is her nails flailing, she’s smacking and punching me in the face like the typical immature brat that she’s always been.

“Stop it!” I fight against her noodle arms and restrain both of her wrists.

“Then stop being such a control freak!”

“I kinda can’t if you’re crashing every goddamn party. I told you to lay off!” I shoot back.

“Charlie, let’s get out of here.” Payton attempts to intervene, but my sister and I are at each other’s necks. There isn’t a day my throat isn’t raw. We always fight, but if she isn’t telling me how shitty I am as a brother, then I’m doing something wrong.

“It’s just a game, and it’s not like you didn’t play it either!”

“That’s exactly why I don’t want you playing it. This is how guys get the wrong impression of you!”

“You don’t always have to protect me!” Charlie retorts.

“You have no idea who those guys are. You’re gonna get hurt, and you dragged Payton into it, out of all people!”

Charlie furrows her brows, darting her gaze to Payton, then to me. She looks me up and down, biting her bottom lip. There is no way she doesn’t spot the wet stain on my jeans.

“Who did you land on?” She scowls.

Payton runs a hand through her hair, and her eyes shimmer. She stares at the ceiling as she shakes her head.

“No-no one.” The tone in her voice cracks. “I didn’t land on anyone.”

“You’re lying?” Charlie tilts her head to the side, with the distinct look of knowing something’s up. “Did you land on Brody!”

“NO!” Payton shouts.

“I broke the game up!” I cut the conversation before it goes any further. “Are you happy now?”

“Screw you!” Charlie storms out to the crowded hallway with her shorts not even buttoned. I roll my eyes as her tantrum burns like a raging wildfire out of control.

“Wait!” Payton rushes after her.

There is no other choice but to chase them down.

My brain is leaking into my spine at this point.

I can’t keep up with Payton stomping down the stairwell.

People shove and jostle me in the crowd.

I squeeze through the tightly packed stairway.

The air is thick with sweat and the aftertaste of vomit.

Everyone here is sloppy. I catch Brody storming behind my sister, grabbing her shoulder to swivel her around.

Payton stands motionless like seeing Brody again turned her to stone. I run a hand down her back and lean into the hollow of her ear to say, “Wait for me at the Jeep. I’ll handle it.” Payton bites her bottom lip and nods. “Give me five minutes.” She scurries off into the mosh of people.

“I’m grabbing my purse and leaving.” Charlie hisses.

“Stop walking away from me!” Brody snaps at her. I stand at the edge of the living room watching them like a soap opera. “It’s not like I planned it. It just happened.” He holds out his palms to emphasize whatever point he’s trying to make.

“Back off!” Charlie shouts.

“You really slept with him out of spite?”

She reaches for her purse, which is stashed behind the couch. Everything inside spills out to the floor, including the keys to my Jeep.

“Like you care? You cheated on me months ago and bragged about sleeping with her again. I can’t believe I thought about giving you a second chance. Go have that slut suck you dry. I want nothing to do with you.”

Brody runs a hand through his hair and curls his lips. “You weren’t willing to put out for me when you said you would, but you’ll give it up to some tattooed poser?”

“He has a name.”

He coughs up one of his sarcastic laughs. “Like I give a shit! You’re lucky I let him play.”

Charlie starts picking up her pack of cigarettes and all the knickknacks that spilled out. “By the way, I’ve known him a lot longer than that.”

“Oh, really?” He asks her.

“Did Payton land on you?” She snaps back.

“And what if she did? What if I fucked her in that bed tonight? What are you going to do?”

“So, you won’t tell me either?” She scoffs and throws the purse into his chest. No, Charlie, she landed on me. My thigh still has a wet spot stained on it. “Go sleep with someone else to make your sleazy homemade videos.”

“You’re the one who broke up with me, remember? You wanted this!” Brody argues.

“You made it clear how little I mean to you, and now you want my best friend.”

“Whatever, slut!” He thrusts the purse back into her arms and glares at her straight in the face.

“You either sleep with me, or I’m posting those tits of yours for everyone to see.

Maybe, your little friend will like a theft charge on her record too.

You wanted to play the game, now you’re in it, baby.

” Brody laughs, and my heart shrinks into itself.

I watch her visibly swallow. “You’re insane!”

“Then do what I say.”

My lungs sizzle as I stare at Brody, tempted more than anything to punch him in the face and shatter my knuckles, but man makes monsters. And his monsters have videos of me too. All I can do is stand still and do nothing.

“Looks like your babysitter is here to take you home.” Brody smirks, not even fazed by me. Charlie spits in his face before she takes her purse, and storms off. “You’re a psycho-ass bitch!”

Blue and red lights pour in through the window shades and an ear-splitting voice shouts, “Pigs! The pigs are here!” Someone cut the booming music within two seconds flat.

“I’ll see you at practice on Monday, Crab.” His hands fall into his pockets with the mess of people hopping over furniture and storming down the stairs. He starts to walk off as everyone in the house scrambles out the patio door in a panic. I bite my tongue, dead on the inside.

I race out the door as several patrol cars with flashing lights pull up. The cops seem more interested in the idiots running off than me speed walking to the Jeep.

“Hand over the keys, thief!” I demand.

By the time Charlie reaches the Jeep, the passenger door is wide open... for me, and she’s buckled, hands on the wheel fuming.

“Hell no! Get out! You’re wasted!” I climb in, tossing my sister in the back like luggage, where she belongs. Another door swings open, and Nick weasels in with a massive bag of cheddar-coated popcorn. Payton hops into the front passenger seat, and all the doors slam shut.

It’s quiet besides the sheer panic outside with cars peeling out and Nick munching on popcorn like he’s Michael Jackson in a movie theater.

He’s an interesting friend. He grew up with hippie parents still living in the 70’s, he learned how to grow weed before knowing the alphabet, and he was going to take over the family business and become a carny.

The only thing convincing him to walk away from that life was Jared and I playing football with him.

“Where did you get popcorn?” I lean over in my seat.

“Uhh... there is a Mexican party down the street.” He points cheddar-covered fingers to the house behind us. “They had tacos... and I won it in a poker game, and became some ninos God Papi... I think they called the cops. I got lost.”

“Right...”

I watch an officer lunge at someone in the grass, tackling him to the ground as I drive off. Payton is passed out with her head against the window. In the rearview mirror, Charlie sits with arms crossed and the pissed-off stare she keeps throwing at me.

She doesn’t get it. An invitation to join the football team at GCU is rare, you gotta have skills for Coach Storm to notice.

Out of everyone he scouted in the area, he offered me his card.

The smell of cut grass, digging up graves with cleats, and the ball cemented to my chest as I bolt past the faded touchdown line is the best definition of me.

I earned my position.