Page 9 of The Substitute (New York Gods #4)

NINE

AMbrOSE

“Where were you?” I stand with my arms crossed over my chest.

“Does it matter?” Tobi’s cheeks instantly pink, which makes me immediately suspicious. But what could he be hiding?

“I was worried about you.” I narrow my eyes, the wheels in my head spinning and instantly going to the worst-case scenario. “Did you go to the bridge?”

“You already asked me that.” His expression flashes anger, but quickly changes to hurt.

“And you didn’t answer.”

“I did. I told you to leave me alone.” He’s so defensive. I don’t get it. I just want to know him. Why is he treating that like a threat?

“That doesn’t answer the question, does it?”

“I can’t believe you think I’d do it.”

“What do you want me to think?”

“I should request another fucking roommate. I can’t believe I got roomed with the one person who saw me that night.” He blows out a frustrated breath and turns around.

“Don’t do that.” I reach out, putting my hand on the back of his arm and feeling like an asshole. “You don’t need to change rooms. I’m just worried about you.”

“Why do you even care?” He whips around, angry, seemingly on a roller coaster of emotions.

I step back and hold up my hands. “Because I do. I wasn’t lying that night.” I’m not sure if this is even helpful, but I go on. “I’ve been there. The same spot.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to care. Lots of people have probably been there.”

I shove a hand into my hair, tugging it. “No, it doesn’t, but I do, and I want to be friends.” And maybe that’s something I need to work out with my therapist. I don’t fucking know, but I seem to be fucking it up left and right.

“Whatever. Why were you blowing up my phone?” He flops down on his bed, and I can’t read him. He’s clearly still mad, but I don’t know what else. “Shouldn’t you be happy I’ve left the room?”

I study him for a few moments because this feels like a trap, but I can’t figure out how. “Yes, I’m happy you left the room.”

“Good. Then it doesn’t matter what I did.”

“Do you enjoy making me suffer?” I pull out my desk chair and take a seat, leaning forward to rest my elbows on my knees. “Be real.”

“Maybe a little, but you make it too easy.” Tobi rolls his eyes. “Don’t you have practice or something?”

“So you get to know where I am, but I can’t ask where you were?”

Tobi smirks. “Maybe don’t post your schedule on the wall if you don’t want me to know. So why are you still here?”

I pick up my phone like I’m busy or some shit, annoyed he somehow memorized my schedule in three days. “It got pushed an hour.”

“I see that look.”

I glance up from my screen. “What look?”

“The annoyance. If you don’t want to be stalked, maybe don’t stalk.”

“My bad. Sorry for asking.” I spin around, opening my laptop, but with mandatory team studying, I’m caught up on homework, there isn’t much to do.

“I was out with your brother.” He drops the words like a bomb.

Like this is a horror movie, I turn the desk chair back around, not meeting his eyes until I’m fully facing him. “Excuse me? I must have misheard you.”

“You didn’t. He offered to help me study.” Tobi shrugs. “So I took him up on it.”

I stare at him for a whole minute before I find words. “Why the fuck would he do that?” I know Savage, and he’s got to be doing this to get to me.

Mother fucker.

“I don’t know. Ask him yourself. He’s your step-brother.”

“Do you really need help studying?”

“Yeah, this is a really hard year for my major, and I need to take the GREs. He gets it.”

“Oh, he gets it, does he?” My tone is dripping with sarcasm, which Tobi clearly misses.

“Yes, he does. He’s pre-med. You know that, right?” Tobi is super defensive.

“I know full well what his major is. And how he is.”

“Then you should be happy I’m studying!”

“I’d be happier if you were going to class, too.”

Tobi just shrugs but I don’t have time to fight. I need to get to practice.

“I’m happy you’re studying, but this all sucks.” I throw my stuff in my bag, sad about the whole fucking thing.

“What sucks?”

“That you’re willing to give him a chance but not me.” I don’t look at him.

“It’s not—”

“It is,” I say coldly but it sucks. “Can we just start over?”

“How do we do that?” he asks carefully

“I don’t know. But I want to figure it out.”

After practice, I’m still stewing, so I grab the subway to the Gods’ campus to confront my brother. I bang on his door and wait for him to answer.

“Yes?” Savage asks, like he has no idea why I’d be here.

“Why the fuck do you need to involve yourself in every aspect of my life?”

“I wasn’t aware I was.” He’s such a dick.

“You know what you’re doing.”

“What am I doing?” he asks.

“Getting involved with Tobi to piss me off.

“What if I like him too?”

“You don’t like him. You’re just doing this to get me to talk to your mother.”

He shrugs noncommittally.

“Don’t fucking deny it. I know how you operate. You’ve never met a person who would make you date one person.”

“I’m not denying anything, nor saying anything. I can like him. I can pursue him. That’s mine and his business. Not yours.” Savage isn’t giving me an inch.

“What is your fucking end goal?” I don’t give him a chance to reply. “This isn’t going to make me stop going after him, or go see your mother.”

“Our mother,” he corrects.

“She’s not my mother.” I grind my teeth.

“She’s raised you since you were little. That counts for something, doesn't it?” He’s always playing an angle, and I hate it. Yes, I love his mother, but at some point, I had to admit to myself that she’s enabling my father.

“I’m not having this fucking argument again.” I ball my hands into fists.

“You gonna fight me?” Savage laughs, amusement flickering in his eyes.

“What if I am?” I step up to him.

“I welcome the fucking release. I’ve wanted to kick your ass every fucking day for upsetting Mom.”

He’s delusional. He knows if I went home, she’d tell my dad, and I’d have to see him. “She picked his side when she let him kick me out of her house.”

“It’s their house.” He sounds exacerbated.

“No, it’s hers. Her first husband bought it.

Your dad. Maybe you remember him? He’s the fucking reason your college is paid for, and you have a fucking trust fund and aren’t living under their thumb.

I don’t have that fucking luxury, and I’m done taking whatever he decides to fucking dish out this week for money.

” It’s a low blow, bringing up his father, since I know the guy was a grade A douche bag too before his dementia got bad.

“Fuck you. You don’t know what I’d give to have him back, including the asshole parts of him, instead of having to make all his fucking medical decisions.

” Savage grinds his teeth. His dad used to play professional hockey and was pretty good, but he’d dealt with CTE for years.

“I have no idea what your dad put you through, but I do know what he’s put my mother through, and she loves you.

She cares about you and wants the best for you. This has nothing to do with him.”

“That’s where you’re fucking wrong. She’s allowing him to be who he is by staying with him.

You can see it differently, but she doesn’t have to be with him.

” I don’t even know why I’m rehashing this.

I could say it until I’m blue in the face, and Savage won’t ever see it, and I just don’t care anymore.

He tries to speak, but I cut him off and keep going.

“Can you just stay the fuck out of my life?”

“I’ve left you alone. I can choose to study with whomever I want.”

“You’re not just fucking studying. Don’t fucking give me that.”

“I’m doing whatever I feel like doing.”

“Don’t expect me to fucking stop. I’m not letting you win this.”

A huge grin spreads across Savage’s face. “I’m not asking you to, and you won’t win.”

“You really think both of us can go after him and that won’t cause an issue?” I ask, unsure what he is trying to do here.

“Why not? We can let him choose.”

“Fine. May the best man win.” All I can do is laugh.

“I plan to.” Savage closes the door in my face.