Suppressed (Suppressed Saga) (23 page)

“
What?”

“
Nothing.” She shook her head mechanically and started to unzip her bag. “Do you mind if I take a shower? I feel nasty after that plane ride.”

After showing her where the bathroom was I went back to the bedroom to call Lance. I told him Amy was in town for the weekend and asked if he wanted to go with us tonight to the music festival. He said he would and that he would meet us there.

When I turned around to walk out of the room Eric was standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. I jumped a little and looked at him curiously. “What?”

“
If we’re going to this music thing then there are some rules.”

“
Of course there are.”

“
You stay by me at all times. Don’t leave my side for anything. Do you understand?” He eyed me waiting for my answer

“
Okay. Anything else?”

“
Try not to get too wasted. You can drink but not a lot.”

I didn’t really have a problem with that but decided to give him a hard time about it anyway. “Are you going to drink?”

“
Does it matter if I drink or not? I just don’t want you to get too drunk and do something stupid, you know, like beat on me or scream in my face like you did last weekend.” He finished with a smirk.

“
I don’t need to drink for that to happen, it just comes naturally.”

“
All the same I’d rather you paced yourself. I don’t want any crazy stuff to happen tonight. I’d like to just have one weekend where we don’t have to fight.”

“
You and me, or us and the underworld?”

“
Both.” His arms uncrossed and he headed out of the room.

I rolled my eyes to myself and went to go find something to wear. I picked out a pair of ripped up jeans, a turquoise t-shirt with some type of design on it, and my converses.

Amy came in from her shower and we both finished getting ready. We laughed and joked about all the times in high school when we used to get ready to go to parties thinking we were the shit. I remembered having to carry Amy up the front steps of her parent’s house one night when we were both plastered. We tried to be as quiet as we could but the porch light came on and her dad came out causing me to drop her down the steps. She busted her head on the side walk and had to get seven stitches. Back then it wasn’t as funny but now that so many years had passed we couldn’t help but laugh, and she still had the scar to prove it.

Lance met us at the Boston Harbor Park where the music festival was taking place. Why they were having a music festival in February was odd but there were hundreds of people here so they must not have minded.

A huge blinking board was next to the even bigger stage that I could barely see because of all the people. On the board it had a list of the bands that would be playing.

“
Rock and Country music?” I said out loud.

Amy’s head was moving around searching for lord knows what. “Yeah, it’s a nice mix don’t you think?” she said absently.

I shrugged, “What are you looking for?”

“
Drink stand, I’m gonna need to get a lot of liquor in you if I want you to dance with me.”

I patted her on the head, “Oh honey, I’m not dancing tonight.”

“
We’ll see…” she muttered.

Lance pointed to a tent that was selling drinks and we all went over to it. A group of people we went to school with was standing by the table and we stopped to talk to them. Beth was there with Jack and I introduced her to Amy. I almost threw up in my mouth at how fake Beth was being towards her.

Eric got me two drinks. He said he didn’t feel like going back and forth so he got me them just to get me started. Lance walked up to give Amy a drink and I eyed him suspiciously. I realized I was being a little too paranoid and brushed it off.

Twenty minutes later the first band had started playing. It was an Indie rock band called Silenced but was anything but that. Lance was head banging along with it and I like to have died watching him. I had no room to talk though because four drinks later I was doing the same thing. Amy got what she wanted and I was dancing and yelling right along with everybody else. Eric stayed by my side the whole time and was almost rolling around on the ground in laughter at my craziness.

The first country band eventually came on and Amy and Lance went to get more drinks. I watched them carefully as they walked away. The whole night they were getting a little too close for comfort and even though I was drunk I still noticed. When they returned Lance handed me my drink and I gave him a questionable look. He ignored it and went back to talking to Amy, Beth, and Jack.

“
What’s the problem?” Eric said beside me.

I didn’t take my eyes off Amy and Lance when I responded, “I don’t like it.”

“
He’s grown he can do what he wants.”

I turned and glared at him, “That’s not the point. He does what he wants then he could end up getting hurt, or worse.”

“
You’re a pushy little thing.” He said shoving me with his elbow.

I downed my drink quickly just as a new song started. I think I drank it a little too fast because I was suddenly a little light headed. Eric watched me and took my empty cup to throw it away.

“
Would you rather him be with some random girl or your best friend who you know everything about?”

He had a point but I still didn’t like it. If it was any other girl I would think she was a skank for sleeping with Eric and then two weeks later hooking up with my brother. But it was Amy and I knew she was anything but that.

I gave in deciding Eric was right, so I let it go. “Alright I’ll quit being pushy.” I said.

I turned around and saw them dancing close together and it almost looked like they were about to have sex right here in the park. And that right there was my limit.

“
Oh hell no,” I started to walk over to them but Eric grabbed my hand and spun me around to him.

“
Oh no you don’t,” he started smiling and twirled me around before pulling me back up to his chest. “You’re going to dance with me.”

I felt a small smile come to my face and I forgot all about my brother and Amy. “I am?”

“
Yep.”

“
You’re ridiculous.” I said holding on to his bicep. I felt him sway me back and forth slowly to the music with his hands on my lower back.

He smiled again, “So are you.”

I was getting ready to say something when he pushed me away from him and spun me back around in his arms to dip me down. I giggled at how goofy he was being and he must have thought so too because he was laughing with me. When he brought me back up I grabbed the back of his neck to steady myself from how dizzy it made me.

He braced his hand on my back again and looked down at me. “I don’t see how you can hate me if we have this much fun when we get along.”

I didn’t like what he said and tried to act like it didn’t bother me. “I don’t want to talk about it Eric.”

Something flashed through his eyes and he looked away from me. Then they suddenly started to get brighter and I felt his hand fall from my back. I looked to where he was looking and saw a man with shoulder length black hair watching us, he looked mean, very mean. Eric’s eyes moved over to where Lance and Amy were and then back at me. “Go over there with them and stay there. I’ll be right back.”

“
What?”

He dragged me over to them and leaned down to the side of my head. “Just stay here and don’t move.”

I grudgingly agreed and turned back to Amy and Lance who were no longer all over each other. Jack and Beth and a few other people were standing here but I ignored them and watched Eric go up to the guy who had been watching us. I was shocked to see them start talking like they were friends or something. At first they looked to be having a normal conversation then it seemed like they were arguing.

I heard Beth yell and suddenly Eric and his mystery friend weren’t as interesting.

“
Hey Ashley!”

Hearing this brought me back to everyone else. My stomach dropped and my second worst fear stood before me. Graham. He was next to Ashley smiling and his eyes slowly came to mine causing his smile to grow wider.

“
Hey Cam.” He said in a smooth voice.

I forced myself to say hi, I didn’t want anyone to be able to tell there was tension.

“
Where’s Seth?”

Like he didn’t know. My insides were churning and I could have spit fire at him.

“
Working.” I said simply.

I wanted out of the conversation with him so I turned to Amy and introduced her to Ashley. I tried to focus more on them but my eyes kept traveling to Graham who was now talking to my brother. My blood pressure rose as I saw him start to pat him on the back. I didn’t know much about what he could do, but just seeing him touch my brother made me want to pummel him. Grahams gaze cut over to me and he saw me watching him. A grin slid on his face, he knew he was getting to me.

“
Hey.” Eric voice sounded in my ear and I jumped a little. My anger went from Graham to Eric in a split second and I had to hold back the urge to smack him.

“
You son of a bitch,” I muttered so only he could hear.

“
I thought we agreed to not argue tonight.”

I tilted my head over to Graham and Lance to show Eric part of the reason I was being so hostile. He saw my point and started over to them. My stomach twisted as I watched Eric and Graham talk silently. It only lasted about a minute before Graham nodded and Eric made his way back over to me.
“You ready to go?” he asked.

I leaned into Amy, “You want to go?”

She looked a little taken back and I could tell she wasn’t ready to leave yet.

“
Um, I guess we can leave.”

Lance heard us talking and cut in, “I can take her back to the house in a little bit.”

The anger inside of me was about to boil over. Eric’s hand went around my waist and he started to pull me away. “That’s fine. We’re leaving.”

He snatched me away rather quickly and I stumbled a little. I wanted to very forcefully grab Amy and bring her with us but Eric dragged me farther away stopping me from doing so. There was a part of me that wanted to start screaming at him right now but I held it back because I didn’t want a repeat of what happened last weekend when he threw me into the truck.

I kept quiet the whole way home, which was a hard thing to do. My knee was bouncing crazily and I knew Eric could tell I was on edge.

“
Just go ahead and yell at me, get it over with.”

I cut my eyes over at him and let out a cold laugh. “We’re in too small of a space, I might kill you.”

The car came to a stop in the driveway and I jumped out quickly. Eric was already out ahead of me and swung the front door open. He started to walk in and I shoved him hard, causing him to stumble the rest of the way inside.

He spun around and looked at me seething, “You are unbelievable. Every time something doesn’t go your way you take it out on me and I’m tired of it.”

“
You said to not leave your side all night and then you left me to go off with your demon friend. And to top it all off Graham was there getting all chummy with Lance. He’s going to do something to someone I care about and you all don’t even care.”

“
The guy was a friend of mine. And as for Graham, I told you before he’s just trying to get to you. A little while ago you said you didn’t want to know the details about what was going on, so I’m doing my best to keep you out of it as much as I can.”

“
You could give two shits about what I want. And that guy you were talking to didn’t look like a friend of yours, you all were arguing.”

His arm went up and he gestured to me, “You’re my friend and look at us right now, arguing.”

“
What were you arguing about?”

He looked stressed at my question and ran his hands down his face, “I can’t tell you.”

I shook my head and started to walk by him, “God I’m so stupid.”