Scattered Colors (24 page)

Nothing could touch me. The gossip and evil glares didn’t matter. The hushed whispers about Parker and me couldn’t penetrate the peacefulness that surrounded me. The cattiness of some of my classmates didn’t hold a single ounce of importance. Life was bright and colorful, and it was only getting better.

Until it wasn’t.

The thing about putting your entire happiness into one person is that, in the blink of an eye, it can be stripped away from you, leaving you completely stunned and shattered. When you make one person your whole world you run the risk of losing everything, feeling as through you’ve been set out to sea, all alone with no land in sight, just trying to stay afloat as each and every wave threatens to pull you under. I never would have thought I’d lose everything just as quickly as I found it.

But that was what happened when you lived each day for one single person. I didn’t know it at the time, but I’d made a grave mistake in pouring my heart and soul into Parker Owens. And it was a mistake I’d be sure never to make again.

I rushed through the halls, pushing past the students who were hampering my escape. The final bell of the day had rung minutes before and I needed to hurry. I told Freya I would meet her on our beach, but there were a few things I needed to do before I could go to her. It wasn’t every day your girl turned eighteen, and I was determined to make her birthday one she’d never forget. However, my slow-moving classmates were tugging at my already frayed nerves by not moving out of my damn way.

“Excuse me,” I huffed, sidestepping one last person before blessedly reaching the doors. Finally out of the school, I all but ran through the parking lot toward my truck. A quick glance at my watch showed I had a little more than thirty minutes to get everything I needed before hightailing it down to the beach, to my girl. However, the thrill of excitement I’d been feeling all day at the thought of giving her the gift I’d spend hours painstakingly searching for was crushed at the sight of Cassidy leaning against my truck. Or more appropriately, leaning against the driver’s side door, making it impossible for me to get in without having to physically move her.

“I don’t have time for your shit. Move out of the way.”

The smile she shot at me had my blood running cold and the tiny hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.

“Oh, I think you’ll make the time…especially when you see what I’m here to show you.”

I took a menacing step closer to her, hoping my threatening demeanor would make her slither back into whatever hole she crawled out of. But the instant her spine stiffened and her chin came up in the air, I knew I was right to worry. Reaching into her purse, she pulled out her phone and held it up for me to see what was open on the screen. My heart plummeted from my chest at the image in front of me.

“How did you get that?” I seethed as I grabbed the phone from her hand, scrolling through to see picture after picture of my father in an embrace with a woman who most definitely wasn’t my mom; an embrace that left little to the imagination as to the type of relationship they had together.

I’d known for a while that my dad had been cheating, but up until that moment, I always thought I was the only one. I managed to keep his indiscretions away from my mom over the years, knowing just how badly the fallout would be if she ever discovered the truth, but the proof of his sloppiness was staring me in the face. I was no longer the only one who knew, and the one other person in our little town with the knowledge of my father’s affair was someone who had the power to destroy the already crumbling foundation my family was sitting on.

“What do you want?” I somehow managed to speak through the massive fist that had grabbed hold of my chest and was squeezing the life out of me.

Cassidy snatched the phone from my fist and tossed it back in her purse before crossing her arms over her chest, putting on display the cleavage that was barely contained in her low-cut top as it was. “I want you to break up with your slutty little girlfriend.”

Rage like I’d never experienced before took over, blood rushed in my ears so loud I could barely hear anything else. “You’ve lost your fucking mind,” I growled as I stepped even closer. My fists balled at my sides. The small sliver of pain from my nails digging into my flesh was the only thing that kept me centered enough to prevent me from putting my hands on her. I’d been raised all my life to never,
ever
hit a girl, but Cassidy was testing that resolve.

“If you don’t, these photos are going to make their way to your mother. I don’t think that’s something you want, now, is it? How much do you think it would take to push her over the edge completely?”

Before my brain could even process what I was doing, I reared back and, with a feral yell, planted my fist into the side of my truck just inches away from Cassidy’s head. The startled yelp she made would have given me pleasure had I not been feeling like a hole was forming beneath my feet, about to swallow me up.

“Why are you doing this, Cass? What the hell did Freya ever do to you?”

“She took what’s mine!” Cassidy lost hold of her calm demeanor right then, her pale skin flushing red as she carried on. “We were great together, Parker. You know that. We were the most popular couple in school, and now people think I’m a joke. Even after we broke up, it was still you and me. You would have come back to me eventually, I know you would have. Everything was perfect until that bitch moved here.”

“Call her one more name and I swear you’ll regret it.”

Her eyes narrowed as she sneered. “I don’t think you’re in a position to be making threats.”

She was right. Sucking in a deep breath, I took a step back and ran my hands through my hair, grabbing fistfuls as my whole world came crashing down around me. Cassidy had me by the balls, and there was nothing I could do about it. I was being backed into a corner with no way of escaping. Images of my mom’s pale, bleeding body sprawled out on the bathroom floor flooded my mind. There was no way I could ever allow her to know what my father was doing. It would break her completely. It would send her back into that darkness that almost took her from me three years ago.

Cassidy took my silence as an opportunity to step closer, placing her palm on my cheek. As soon as her skin touched mine I jerked back, unable to stand the feel of her touch. Her hand hung in the air for a few seconds before she finally dropped it. “You’ll come around,” she said with a firm nod. “We’re meant for each other. You’ll see that eventually.”

“I wouldn’t count on that,” I ground out between clenched teeth, my jaw ticking uncontrollably. “You’re the fucking devil.”

A flash of hurt lit up her eyes so briefly I almost missed it before she masked it behind calm collectiveness. “You have until tomorrow to do it. If you don’t, you’ll regret it.”

“The only thing I regret is ever giving a selfish bitch like you the time of day.”

Her shoulder came up in a casual shrug as she began to walk away. “Like I said, you’ll come around. See you tomorrow, baby.”

I never knew it was possible to hate someone as much as I hated Cassidy right then. In a matter of minutes, she’d managed to strip away every good thing I had in my life. She knew my weakness and hadn’t hesitated to dig her claws into it. It took someone truly despicable to follow through on a threat like hers, but if I knew anything, it was that Cassidy didn’t have a redeemable bone in her body.

I could hear my mother crying from her bedroom the second I walked through the front door. It had obviously been a bad day. While instinct screamed at me to go and comfort her, my brain wouldn’t shut off. I needed to find a way out of this. There had to be a solution. Walking on quiet feet so as not to disturb Mom, I shut my bedroom door and began to pace, thinking of anything and everything I could do in order to keep Freya. The thought of going to Cassidy’s parents was a joke. Hell, they were the ones who made her into the conniving bitch she was, so there was no way in Hell I’d be able to get any help from either of them. I could go to Freya and tell her the truth, but was I willing to risk Cassidy finding out and showing those pictures to my mother? I paused in my pacing and listened closely to my mother’s sobs. I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t let her hurt any more than she already was. It had been my job to protect Toby and I’d failed. I couldn’t fail my mother. I only had one choice.

Grabbing my phone from my back pocket, I called the one person I despised more than anything. The phone connected after only three rings.

“Dad, I need you to come home.”

I’d left Freya down on the beach.

My stomach twisted into knots as I waited for my father to get home. My cell had dinged a few times with text alerts, but I couldn’t bring myself to read them. I knew they were from her, and if I read them I’d cave and go running down to that beach. I needed her like I needed air. But I had to fix this first. With each ding of my phone, I felt a small piece of me crack and break away.

The sound of the front door opening and closing alerted me to my father’s arrival. As he stepped into the kitchen, I took in the man who should have been doing everything in his power to protect his family. Instead, he’d pushed us to the wayside for his own selfishness and I was at risk of having to pay the price.

“This better be important, Parker,” he grumbled as he walked to the fridge to grab a beer.

“Cassidy Ashworth knows about your affair,” I spit out, not bothering to mask the disdain in my voice. “She’s got pictures and she’s threatening to show Mom.”

The bottle paused midway to his mouth for several seconds before he finally put it to his lips and took a long pull.

He remained silent for a few minutes as I stared at him. Finally, he said in a bored tone, “Well, then I suggest you give the little bitch what she’s wanting.”

I couldn’t believe what I just heard. I knew the man had always been a bastard, but never to this level. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I laughed in disbelief. “She’s threatening to ruin my life!
Mom’s
life!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, unable to control the rage coursing through my blood.

“Shut your fucking mouth,” he hissed as he stepped into my space. “You
want
your mom to hear you?”