“I’m seeing someone,” he says finally.

I look up at him. “That’s great.”

He shakes his head, meeting my eyes. “No, it’s not. He and I . . . we thought it was fine but today a group of guys from our old school found out. They are going to announce it to the entire world, and I don’t know how to handle that.”

“Don’t you think it’s time for you to admit to what it is you’re keeping inside? Do you really think anyone will be upset at you for that?”

He sighs, running his hands through his hair. “Fuck, I don’t know. That’s the problem. I want to be loud and proud, I want to be with Matty, I want things to just be normal but I’m fuckin’ scared, Aria.”

“Of what, honey?”

He gives me a look that breaks my heart. “Of losing everyone I love.”

Oh jeez. I reach over and grab his hand. “Listen to me, your dad and brothers, they freaking adore you. Do you really think they won’t love you when they find out?”

He looks away. “Brody and Blade, they’re so masculine, so manly, they make dad so proud . . .”

My heart is ripping to pieces. “And so do you.”

He shakes his head. “I’m different. Dad and I never bonded over fishing or fast cars. I’m the outcast. What if they don’t want to accept me when they realize just how different I am?”

“If they don’t accept you, then they aren’t being true to you. If they love you like I know they do, they will deal. They might not like it, but they will deal. You don’t deserve to live like this, Lee. You deserve to be happy and if Matty makes you happy then you need to hold your head high and say fuck the rest of the world.”

He smiles, but before he can answer a voice rings out through the crowd.

“Oh look, he likes girls now.”

Ripley tenses and lets go of my hand, turning in his seat. There are a group of about five guys coming towards us. Ripley gets out of his chair quick as lightning and storms towards them, fists clenched. He’s more like this family than he realizes. I quickly get out of my chair and rush over, too.

“What? You decided the fucking dick wasn’t good enough so now you’re back to pussy? And well done, Ripley,” one guy sneers. “She’s a fuckin’ sweet pussy. Even for a fag.”

Ripley swings, hitting him in the jaw.

Then all hell breaks loose. All five guys take hold of Ripley and start pounding into him, over and over again, into his face, into his stomach. People rush over, but none of them have the guts to jump in. I do. I launch myself towards Ripley, screaming at them to stop. My step-brother’s eyes flick to me and he yells out, “Run, Aria.”

Like hell.

No one touches my brother like that.

I send a fist into one of the guy’s faces, causing him to stumble backwards. “Stupid fuckin’ bitch!” he bellows.

I don’t give him the chance to lunge at me. I bring my knee up and hit him so hard in the balls he goes flying backwards and falls to the ground. I spin and try to fight my way to Ripley, managing a couple of punches. Ripley is on the ground now, and God, there’s so much blood. Some of the onlookers have finally jumped in and a few guys are pulling these bullies back. There are still two on him, and he isn’t moving.

“Get off him, you motherfuckers!” I yell, throwing myself onto one of the guy’s backs.

I grab a fistful of his hair and I pull so hard he screams bloody murder. I tug and tug, digging my fingernails into his scalp until he’s clawing at me to try and get me off. He can’t. There is a group of people around Ripley now, so I go to jump off when the man starts charging backwards. It takes me a split second to realize he’s about to slam me into a tree.

Before I can get off, the tree comes crashing into the back of my head. Pain radiates through my skull and my entire body goes limp as I slip off the man and land with a thump on the ground. Then everything goes black.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Blaring light is what wakes me. It’s burning into my eyes as if someone is shining a torch directly into them. I blink a few times, but my vision is hazy. There’s a pounding in my head that is constant yet quite dull, and I can hear the beeping sounds of what would seem like machines surrounding me. I blink more rapidly, and slowly my vision begins to clear and I realize I’m in the hospital.

“Oh thank god.”

With a wince, I turn my head towards my mother’s voice. She was sitting in a chair beside the bed, but is now rushing towards me. When she reaches me, her hands cup my face and she begins sobbing hysterically. I try to recall what happened and when I remember, I gasp out, “Ripley!”

“Oh honey . . . it’s so bad.”

Bad. Bad? No.

“Nurse?” she calls. “My daughter is awake.”

A nurse comes in before I can ask Mom more about what she meant by it being so ‘bad’. The nurse is young, maybe about twenty-five. She starts checking me over and asking me mindless questions that I mutter responses too. There’s a bandage around my head and my neck is stiff as hell. I don’t care about any of that; all I care about is where the hell Ripley is.

“Mum,” I plead. “Where is Ripley?”

She blinks back tears. “He’s in surgery right now.”

“W-w-w-why?” I whisper.

She takes my hand and I want to vomit. “One of his ribs punctured a lung, so they have to repair that. And . . . he hit his head so badly his brain is swelling and that’s . . . life threatening. He’s been in surgery for a few hours; we don’t know what’s going to happen but the doctor has warned us that it isn’t looking good. There was massive internal bleeding and . . .”