Veils of Rivalry Chapter 11

Cole's POV

“Allie?” I call her name as I walk into the bedroom.

She groans when I tap her cheek and kiss her lips, her eyes opening slightly. “What?” she croaks.

“The party’s still going. Come on.”

“But I feel dead.”

“Be dead downstairs.”

She huffs and sits up, way easier than my attempt. “My head hurts.”

I grab her a glass of water from the bathroom, and she sips it slowly while I lean against the dresser and reply to some messages. I intentionally ignore my mom because the idea of spending a full week with Allie complaining about the snow during a ski trip makes my right eye twitch.

It takes her fifteen minutes to wash her face in the bathroom, removing her makeup altogether. I stay where I am, trying to remember what the fuck happened and why I’m still feeling so messed up. The longer she takes, the more ill and hungover I feel.

Which makes no fucking sense.

Did someone slip something into my drink?

“I don’t feel good at all,” Allie tells me as she leaves the bathroom looking like death warmed up. “I’m really dizzy.”

“Me neither.” I straighten and stagger, her body distorting through my vision. “We’ll go and see Samson and head to your dorm. I have classes tomorrow so there’s no point in me going home.”

She wraps her arms around my waist and smiles up at me. It’s like I’m looking through a kaleidoscope and all I can see is her face in the dozens. “I’m glad we finally did normal couple things. I’ve missed you.”

I huff a laugh. “You tricked me.” Sucking on my bottom lip, I feel the tender swelling from being nipped. “You bit me hard.”

Her head tilts, and then she pulls me down to kiss her.

Maybe she was the one who roofied me? Would she?

When she reaches down to my soft cock, I pull back. “I think you’ve had enough. Come on.”

She rolls her eyes and takes my hand, both of us looking like death. “We slept for, like, five hours. I have no idea how people are still going crazy down there.”

Uncoordinated, we manage to reach the stairs, and she holds on to me tightly as I get us down each step, bumping into the banister as we go. She huffs and stops, placing her hand on her hip. “I didn’t drink enough to be feeling this way.”

I run my sweaty hand down my face. “Me neither.”

“Do you think someone roofied us?”

I think she roofied me, in all honesty. It would make sense, and she could be putting on a show right now to make herself look innocent. She isn’t exactly the good girl, and she definitely has the fucked-up nonexistent morals to drug her own boyfriend so he’d fuck her.

If that is the case, then I hope I came and she didn’t get a chance to finish. Serves her fucking right.

Did I at least wear a condom? Fuck, I don’t know. She’s on the pill, but that doesn’t protect me from her fucking around with others and transmitting some shit to me.

I take her hand and pull her the rest of the way, stopping in the entrance of the doorway. My eyes instantly find Blaise passed out on the sofa, and Samson laughing and taking a picture of Blaise while trying to balance cups on his head.

Something inside me snaps. “What the fuck are you doing to him?”

My friends stand tall. “Cole’s alive! Where did you go, man?”

I ignore them and go to Blaise, crouching down through my dizzy haze and knocking all the shit off him. Grabbing his jaw, I pry one of his eyelids open. His pupils are fully blown, bloodshot, and when I shake him, he doesn’t show any response.

“He parties hard,” Keith tells me. “Mia left him here and went back to her dorm about an hour ago.”

Mom is going to fucking kill me if she finds out he’s in this state. Yeah, we’re not kids, but we aren’t exactly legally allowed to drink either. And if she found out? I’ll be shamed in front of everyone yet again and my stepdad will probably cut off all my funding for college.

I stuff my phone in my back pocket and turn to Allie. “We’ll take him back to your dorm. His dad will lose his shit if he sees him like this.”

My eyes lift to Jackson, who looks like he’s trying not to laugh at Blaise as I attempt to wake him again, but there’s something else there. Like he’s proud of how fucked he is. Why is he looking at him like that? I’ll carve his damn eyes out of their sockets and make him eat them.

Keith and Samson help me get Blaise to his feet while I pull his arm over my shoulder. I shake my head, because I’m still fucked up and it’s a struggle to focus. Allie calls for a ride, and Blaise groans as I drag his ass to the car when it sounds its horn outside.

Once we reach the dorm, Allie seems more alive while I feel like I’m about to smash right into death, at the same time as carrying my unconscious stepbrother to his bed.

Mia is sleeping on the sofa, so we leave her there. Allie vanishes into her room, and I hurry to get Blaise to Mia’s room before I drop him. He groans again, his hand flexing to a fist, and when I lower him to the side of the bed, he blinks his eyes open a little.

“C-Cole?”

Leaning down, I pull off his shoes and socks, and when I go to unbuckle his belt, my hands freeze over the leather, the metal clip pressing to my fingertips.

“This isn’t,” he starts, hiccupping, “how I saw my night en-ending.”

I roll my eyes and try to ignore the way my cock is reacting as I pull his belt off and drop it on the floor beside me. His body towers over mine as I stay on my knees, looking up at him. Will he let me undress him so he can sleep comfortably?

My cock pulses, and I want to punch it, because what the fuck?

“If you remember me helping you tomorrow, don’t you fucking dare let my mom and your dad give me shit for your condition if they find out.”

I flinch as his hand reaches to my hair, fisting it and making me pause. “I’m not Mia,” I tell him. “Get your fucking hand off me.”

Neither of us pulls away, even though I know I should.

“I’m not sorry,” he says, slurring each word and syllable.

He falls back on the bed, passed out before I can ask what the fuck he wouldn’t be sorry about. I sigh and drop back to my haunches, taking a minute to watch him before I roll him onto his side.

If he’s sick in his sleep, I’ll get the blame for him dying.

I leave a glass of water beside the bed and exit the room, my head doing overtime, trying to fight my own exhaustion.

Allie is half asleep when I get to the room. I climb in beside her, resisting the pull to go into the room across the hall.

She turns inside the duvet to face me. “Is your brother okay?”

I roll my eyes. “He’s not my brother.”

“I don’t understand why you hate him so much. What did he ever do to you?”

Gritting my teeth, I turn away from her, my fingers gripping the duvet so tight, I think I might rip the fabric.

Hands slide up my back. “Just try with him. You make no effort, and your mom is desperate for you both to get along.”

I shrug her off, rubbing my face, feeling the swollen side of my bottom lip from her obvious hard kisses earlier. It’s not even something I should be mad at – my girl wanting to be romantic with me. I was before, when we first started dating. I wanted to see her, speak to her, but the feelings were always…confusing for me. Now, everything feels forced to make others happy.

Then again, the look on Mom’s face when I brought Allie home pushes me to turn around and face her in the bed. I feel like I need to give her something more. I’m leading her on, and my mom will never forgive me if I fuck this up.

Giving my stepdad and Blaise ammunition against me isn’t something I’m seeking out. I’m trying to fucking prove that I’m not the asshole everyone thinks I am.

Well, I am, but not fully. I’m not my father.

Allie smiles when I drag her body closer. Her small frame fits perfectly against mine, but it isn’t right. It isn’t… I… Something isn’t right.

I kiss her, and she kisses me back with her fingers brushing through my hair, and I fight not to pull away. I press my mouth to hers harder, and when her hand drops between us, I snatch her wrist. “No.”

I’m giving myself whiplash at this point.

“But…” Her lips move, but no sound escapes. “Why?”

“I’m not in the mood.”

She averts her eyes, and I see a tear slipping free. “I promise, I’m not cheating anymore. I blocked my professor’s number, and I haven’t seen the others in weeks.”

My eye twitches. Is it bad that I don’t care? It’s a huge fucking sign I should end this. “Go to sleep,” I tell her. “We’re fine, I’m just tired.”

“Do you promise we’ll be okay? We’ll get back what we had?”

I nod. “Yeah.”

We both know that’s a lie, especially when she falls asleep and I check on Blaise four times before I manage to pass out.