Page 36 of Furious (The Six Six Six Rule #2)

“Huh?” Ares looks at Mom as if she had spoken in a foreign language. “I don’t understand. Why was she looking for me and why on earth would she think I would hurt myself?”

Heather lifts her head from the table and starts screaming at Ares.

“Because it was your birthday, asshole! I called you to see if you wanted to go visit Atlas with me and I texted you ten times when you didn’t pick up my call.

” Her eyes are full of tears and she’s crying and screaming at the same time.

The tick in Ares’s jaw is a telling sign that he’s about to lose his shit. I’m proud of him for not yelling back at Heather. But I can hear in the way his tone is shaking that he’s struggling to keep his cool. “Visit Atlas? With you?” he’s livid. “Why?”

“Because it was his birthday and I miss him so much and I thought… I wanted to bring him some flowers and go with the other person who’s supposed to miss him just as much as I do!”

Ares grabs the back of one of the chairs with white knuckle force. “First off, Heather, it was my birthday, too. Thank you for wishing me a happy birthday. And you know I don’t visit Atlas, so quit the theatrics.”

Heather stands up so fast that the chair capsizes on the floor. “Where were you yesterday?”

“Home.”

“So why didn’t you answer the door when I came over?”

Ares rolls his eyes. “Because, like I told you last year, I’m not interested in spending the day memorializing our loss.

All I want is to forget that there should be an identical-looking version of me, a fucking part of me, to celebrate with.

So I stocked up on booze and I spent the day drinking myself into oblivion. ”

“Bull fucking shit!” Heather screams.

Mom intervenes. “Heather, sweetie, I know you’re upset, but please watch your language.”

“Sorry Kelly.” Heather’s voice breaks. “But Ares is lying. I just wanted to support each other. I don’t understand why he hates me so much.”

Ares grabs his head with both hands, pulling at the short strands of his blond hair.

“I don’t hate you, Heather. But this kind of behavior isn’t helping our relationship one bit.

I told you last year that I just wanted to be left alone on my birthday and on the anniversary of Atlas’s death.

I don’t want to go to the cemetery with you.

I don’t want to attend a service. I don’t want to talk about him.

If you want to do all those things, it’s your prerogative.

I don’t tell you how to grieve, so please show me the same courtesy. ”

I’m proud of Ares for not yelling at her.

Heather, however, is still upset. “Why are you lying to me? You went to the grave.”

My stepbrother narrows his eyes. “How do you even know that? Did you follow me or something?”

Heather crosses her arms over her chest. “No. When you didn’t answer your phone and neither did your dad, Chance, Lev, or Zara, I decided to go to the cemetery by myself.

I got some flowers and when I got there, it was raining and I realized I didn’t have an umbrella with me.

So I went to ask the groundskeeper if he had one I could borrow.

He knows me because I go to visit Atlas every week.

So he told me I just missed you and your girlfriend. ”

Her tone is accusatory, but Ares doesn’t flinch. “Ok, so you got me. I didn’t want to go with you. Happy now?”

“Why are you such a fucking asshole?” Heather screams.

Mom opens her mouth to intervene again, but I shake my head.

“But I’m not, Heather.” Ares argues. “I’m not doing that grieving thing with you anymore.

We tried on the first anniversary of his death and spending time with you made everything worse.

Hearing you talk about him, seeing you cry, made me miss him even more, and it made me more miserable.

I’m sorry if that goes against whatever plan you have in your head, but I need you to respect my feelings. ”

Heather ignores his request. “Who did you go with? And why didn’t you answer your door when you were clearly home?”

Ares folds his arms over his own chest, mimicking Heather’s stance. “I put my phone on silent and I didn’t answer the door because I wasn’t alone. I wanted to spend my birthday eating, drinking and fucking. I’m sorry, Kelly.” He says, looking at Mom.

“So that’s how it is?” Heather screams. “You’d rather spend such a hard day fucking some rando than with me?”

Ares speaks slowly, as if he wanted to make sure that she understood every word without the possibility of misunderstanding. “No, it wasn’t a rando. I spent the day with someone I care about.”

She doesn’t believe him. “Ha. I’ve never seen you with anyone.

When I was dating your brother, I tried to set you up with so many of my girlfriends and you were never interested.

If you aren’t lying, tell me who this person is so important that you would take her to visit Atlas’s grave for the first time? ”

Ares’s eyes meet mine for a second. He looks like the proverbial deer caught in front of headlights.

Mom and Heather are both looking at him, and I start panicking that they might make the connection.

“It’s something new.” Lev intervenes to save the day. “Chance and I met Ares’s girl, and she’s awesome. But Ares wants to keep things low-key until he knows how serious it is, right, dude?”

I exhale the breath I was holding when Ares nods. “Yeah. What he said.”

Rather than being appeased, Heather gets even angrier. “Chance and Lev met her, and I didn’t even know you were seeing someone? Why do you treat me like I don’t matter? I’m one of your closest friends and in the past year, you’ve been avoiding me more and more.”

His voice is hard and cold as he looks at Heather. “You and I aren’t close, and if you keep acting this way, we’re not even going to be friends. Got it?”

Mom, Lev and I flinch at how harsh that was.

“I hate you!” Heather yells, her face red and blotchy as new tears roll down her cheeks.

“You’ve always kept me at arm’s length. Do you think I don’t know that you told Atlas to dump me several times?

You were jealous that your brother loved me more than he loved you.

And now that we both miss him and we could help each other navigate this terrible loss, you treat me like I was nobody to him.

I wish that day it was your bike that got hit! I wish you were dead instead of him!”

“Heather!” Mom and Lev gasp.

Heather storms out of the room and Mom runs after her.

There’s a beat of silence in the kitchen, and when I look at Ares, I don’t like what I see. He’s pale as a sheet, his fists clenched at his sides to the point that his knuckles are white.

“Ares.” I whisper, feeling the tension that radiates from him when I touch his bicep. “Are you ok?”

His next words are barely above a whisper. “She’s right. It should have been me. Everyone would be better off if Atlas was here instead of me.”

The sadness in his voice breaks my heart and, against my better judgment, I close my arms around him. “Don’t you dare say that ever again. Heather was just angry. I know she didn’t mean it.”

He hugs me back, his cheek resting on the top of my head. “Princess, I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve you. I?—”

“You two need to knock it off.” Lev utters, looking left and right. “You can hug and kiss anywhere but here. If Kelly comes back, or Scott sees you, Heather will be the least of your worries.”

Ares lets me go before I’m ready, and I miss his warmth.

“You’re right.” He sighs.

Lev pulls me closer to him and I go willingly.

“We need to be careful, guys. Heather came to your place yesterday. It would have been way too easy for you to get caught. Think if she saw you opening the door to get a delivery or something like that. I think from now on, it’s probably safer if you two used my house when you want to be alone. ”

Ares nods. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I just wish she understood that I’m not my brother. We might have looked identical, but she knows full well that we were two very different people. She and I were never friends when Atlas was alive, and sure as fuck, we aren’t going to be friends now.”

“Yeah, I know.” Lev sighs. “All I’m saying is just be careful. It isn’t just Heather’s nosiness you need to watch out for. When you aren’t alone, you shouldn’t get too close to Zara.”

Ares considers Lev’s words. “I’m not saying you’re wrong, but there’s one thing I don’t understand.”

“What is it?” Lev asks.

“You want Zara just as much as we do. Why did you offer to help me and Chance fly under Dad’s radar? It goes against your best interest.”

I know the answer even before Lev explains it out loud.

“You’re right. I want Zara. But caring about her means that I want to see her happy.

The same thing goes for you and Chance. I don’t want to be the chosen one just because I’m the easiest option.

So until we all figure out this thing between us, I’ll do my best to keep things simple, at least with our families. ”

“Hey guys.” Chance enters the kitchen in a pair of dark blue sweatpants and a faded Star Cove High School Hockey t-shirt. “What was all the yelling about? All that commotion woke me up.” He yawns, running a big hand through his short blond hair.

We barely get the time to explain when Scott comes in from the back door in a very similar outfit to his youngest son. The only difference is that he’s covered in sweat. He’s clearly been running on the beach.

“Morning, everyone.” He looks at Chance and Lev. “Shouldn’t the two of you be at practice?”

Chance explains that for once, they aren’t required to be at the arena at the crack of dawn.

“Excellent.” His father smiles. “Then, since we’re all here, why don’t we have breakfast together? By the way, where’s Kelly?”

As if summoned by her husband’s words, Mom returns to the kitchen.

“I’m sorry, my love,” she says to Scott. “I was going to get started on making breakfast, but we had a little incident with Heather and I had to walk her back to her house.”

My stepfather looks perplexed. “Why didn’t you invite her to stay for breakfast?”

“She was… upset. I’ll explain later. Let me start cooking some bacon while you take a shower.”

“Lev and I brought fresh pastries.” I intervene. “We thought it would be quicker to have a continental breakfast since the guys have practice this morning.”

We all help Mom set the table as Scott goes to shower.

I know there’s a reason why Ares is acting distant, taking a seat at the table as far from me as humanly possible. I just wish things were different, and that we didn’t have to hide our feelings from our parents.