“You need something for that elbow.” He states, finishing off his beer.

I pick up my beer now that I’ve finally got the pain to stop radiating up my arm, and guzzle half of it in one pull. I wipe my mouth with my arm, “Yeah maybe I do.”

I’ll never tell Mason how bad it really hurts. I’m not a pu**y, I’ll watch it for the next day or so and everything will be fine again. I down the rest of my beer as the waitress sets our shots down on the table.

We down them quickly, and a few more after that, and talk shit about the other guys on the team. Who looks good, who is playing like shit, who’s not going to make it through the season. A few girls have come over to our table and tried to flirt with us but we both blew them off. There’s no way I could even think about another girl right now and neither would Mason.

“You ready to get out of here?” Mason asks.

I roll my neck, feeling the stiffness settling deep into my muscles. “Yeah, but stop at the liquor store first.”

Mason chuckles, “That’s what I thought.” Asshole just had to rub it in my face that he’s right about my elbow killing me.

I give him the finger and make my way to the bathroom before we leave. When I get back to the table Mason has paid the bill and is waiting for me at the bar.

“Ready?”

“Yup, let’s get the hell out of here.”

We stop and pick up a twelve pack before we head back to our place.

“Coach is going to f**king rip us a new ass tomorrow, you know this right?” Mason says as he places the bottle opener over the bottle cap and pops it off.

I shrug, not really giving a shit. “Won’t be the first or the last.”

Sitting down on the couch, I take the beer Mason hands me. He walks back out to the kitchen to turn off the light before joining me in the living room. I scroll through the channels trying to find something on TV, bringing my beer up to my mouth and taking a swig. I stop on Transformers and decide to watch it since there doesn’t seem to be anything better on. Megatron is blowing shit up.

“I never thought I would say this but I really don’t want to be here. I feel like I’m failing Hailey by leaving her all alone.” Mason says taking a swig of his beer. “She cries every time we talk.”

I nod, “Nah, you’re not. She knows the role and if she wasn’t up for it she wouldn’t have stayed around.”

“You miss Jay?”

Inhaling sharply I narrow my eyes at my brother. “What the hell would make you ask that?”

He shrugs then sits up and takes his shirt off. “Just a question bro, relax.”

I turn back to the movie; I’m watching it but not really paying attention to all the action on the screen. I lay my head back and close my eyes, an image of Jaylinn comes to the forefront of my vision; she’s lying in my bed with her chocolate colored hair fanned out across my pillow. She’s giving me a shy innocent smile, lying there with my number five baseball jersey on and a pair of panties. She’s beautiful. Her pretty blue eyes speak volumes to me, she’s turned on and wants me.

Mason kicks my foot. “Don’t fall asleep on me. We’ve still got four beers to go.”

I glare hard at Mason for interrupting my day dream. “I’m not sleeping ass**le, just resting my eyes.”

“That’s what you always say.”

I f**king miss my girl. There is no doubt that I will never get over the feeling that I’ve lost something that was so important to me. She’ll always be there, within reaching distance but far enough away that I’ll never be able to hold her. Things are so f**ked up.

I reach up and grip my hair in my hands. “I miss her.” I mumble. I don’t know if Mason could have even heard me.

“About f**king time you admitted it.”

I sit up and rest my elbows on my knees and hiss as the pain shoots up my left arm again. “Fuck.” I rub my left elbow with my right hand, massaging the pain away. “What the hell do I do, Mason?”

Mason takes a swig of his beer, “I don’t know because I don’t know what happened.”

And there it is; the root of my problem. I haven’t told a single person about that night, or what the problem really is, because I made a promise that I wouldn’t tell anyone. I just don’t know what to do to move past it, so that we can be together like she and I both want.

“I can’t, Mason. I made a promise and I can’t break that.” I explain.

Mason watches me for a long minute. “Sometimes those promises are meant to be broken.”

I think back to the one promise I made to myself and broke it. When I agreed to let her come to that party, I promised I would keep an eye out for her and make sure she didn’t get into any trouble. Look where that got me.

I go into the kitchen and grab another beer for the both of us. I walk back into the living room and hand it Mason.

“You’re going to need that.” I sit down next to him and replay the night of the party for him giving him the play by play up until I realized Jaylinn was missing.

“Okay, I don’t see any problems.” Mason says looking confused like he’s missing a part of the story.

My body starts to shake and sweat as flashes of Kevin hovering over a na**d Jaylinn surface. I grip the end of the couch and take a few calming breaths.

“I looked for her everywhere. No one had seen where she went. I ran upstairs and started looking in all the rooms but they all came up empty. I was staring at the last door and I knew something wasn’t right.” My stomach tightens. “No one would answer the door but I knew someone was in there, I heard the whimpering. I broke the door down and…” I swallow hard and Mason curses. “Kevin was laying there on top of Jaylinn. I yanked him off and when I got a glance at Jay all I saw was red, Mase. Fucking red.” I rub at my knuckles. “I kept hitting him in the face until he finally stopped fighting back. He f**king drugged her, Mason, she couldn’t move, he blindfolded her too.” My stomach rolls. “When I got a closer look at her she had a hand print on her right cheek, it was bruising already. I pulled the blindfold off her and her mascara was running down her face.”

Mason’s face is red, his eyes wide and panicked. “He didn’t did he? Please, God, tell me he didn’t.”

I shake my head, my eyes on the floor. “He didn’t. I made it just in time.”

“Thank f**king God.” Mason sighs in relief.