500 Days (5 page)

“
No, apologize to your
mother.”

“
That thing is not my
mother and I’ll be damned if I’m going to apologize for telling the
truth.”

“
Everyone out.” They all
stood and left, glad to not be the one under fire. Dad and Dallas
stayed put.

“
Dad, you can save the
bullshit speech.”

“
Dallas, will you excuse
us for a minute.” She managed to unhook her claws long enough to
leave my dad and me alone. “Sit.”

“
I’d rather
stand.”

“
Suit yourself.” He stood
and walked over to the bar to make himself a drink. He swirled the
brandy around the glass before he dug into me. “When are you going
to start taking responsibility for yourself? You sit and pass
judgment when you should take a look at yourself in the mirror. You
shame the Covington name. Out of respect you could have at least
worn a long sleeve shirt to cover those disgusting tattoos and that
hair. You couldn’t have gotten a haircut before you came for
dinner? Or were you too busy sleeping all day?”

I crossed my arms letting him know he
couldn’t get to me. “Is that all you got? You want to take a stab
at my boots or let’s talk about how much you despise the fact that
I chose to live elsewhere so I don’t have to be constantly badgered
by you. Or hey, what about school?”

“
Now that we’re on the
subject, have you signed up for your prerequisite
classes?”

“
You never listen to a
thing I say, do you? I am not going to law school dad. I dropped
those classes two years ago and changed my major.”

“
Why would you do
that?”

“
Because I don’t want to
go to fucking law school! That’s what you want
,
and I’m not you.”

“
Clearly.”

“
You know what, I’m done.
I’m tired of having the same argument over and over again.” I
walked out without another word. My dad didn’t say anything nor did
he try to stop me. I headed out back to let Colton know I was ready
to leave. He and CiCi were running around the back yard with
Katalina. They had their arms spread wide pretending to be
airplanes.

“
I’m sorry.” Candice
stepped over to my right. “I just panicked and it wasn’t your
fault.”

“
It’s alright.” I threw my
arm over her shoulder and gave her a small squeeze.

“
How bad was
it?”

“
I don’t think I’ll be
coming back for anymore Sunday fundays.”

“
Sunday funday?” she
arched a brow. I winked. “You’ll crush Kat if she doesn’t get to
see you. You do know you’re her favorite uncle.”

“
Look, don’t play the
guilt trip on me. I can’t keep doing these weekly
beatings.”

“
I know. Do you want me to
talk to him?”

“
What’s the point? He
won’t change.”

“
But maybe he
–”

“
Don’t worry about it.” I
pulled her in for a hug before I said goodbye to Katalina and the
rest of my siblings. Then I stormed out with Colton rushing to keep
up with me.

“
Where we going?” he
asked, knowing I needed to let off some steam.

“
The bar,” I growled. He
took the keys knowing I was too angry to drive. I called Greyson on
the way and he said he would see us in about twenty with a table of
drinks waiting.

Chapter 4

Alexis

The sound of a bullhorn screaming in my ear
was what woke me from my nap. I jumped, startled, and fell off the
bed in a crumbled heap on the floor. I looked up to see Jaxson,
Jasper, and Jack standing in the doorway of my bedroom laughing.
“Rise and shine princess,” Jack said with a devious smile. My eyes
wandered down to his hands to see he was the culprit.

“
You’re all a bunch of
jackasses, you know that?” I lifted my bruised body from the floor.
“A simple,
‘hey Alex, wake up,’
would have sufficed.”

“
But that wouldn’t have
been any fun,” Jaxson laughed. I flipped them off on my way to the
shower. Every day I regretted giving my brothers the spare key to
my apartment. I told them it was in case of emergencies, but they
have been abusing the privilege and took it as a good opportunity
to torture me whenever they felt like it. I contemplated changing
the locks.

I took the quickest shower possible, knowing
they would be bitching at me to hurry up. I could just picture Jack
tapping his watch and complaining that I was putting them off
schedule. Declan had already picked out a nice dress for me. It was
dark blue with capped sleeves and hit just above the knee. It was
the kind of dress that you saw girls wearing in commercials that
pranced around in meadows and spun making the skirt fly out around
them. I was hardly a girly girl growing up, but lately I started to
appreciate things that most girls did like dresses, makeup, and
shoes. I still preferred jeans and a t-shirt, but I also liked to
dress up when I could.

I put on minimal makeup and started the
process of drying my long, dark hair. This usually took up to
twenty minutes and that’s only if I didn’t dry it completely.
“Alex, what the hell is taking so long,” Jasper groaned. I looked
at my watch. The ceremony didn’t start for another two hours yet.
They are so impatient. I sighed and put down my hairdryer. Curly
and damp is what I would be going for today. I pulled the sides up
into a waterfall braid to at least keep it out of my face and threw
some mousse in to tame the frizz and curls. I ran back to my room
for my purse and shoes and then met the boys in the living
room.

“
It took you that long to
look like that?” Jasper said, arching his brow. I charged for him
when Jack stopped me.

“
You look fine,” Jack
said, trying to hide his annoyance.

I straightened myself out and smoothed down
my hair. “Let’s go.”

All the boys piled into Jasper’s pickup
while Declan and I followed behind in her Ford Focus. It was an
hour drive to Jacob’s school so I settled in after Declan found a
station she liked. On the way there we passed my old house – a
house that should have been burned down years ago. Too many
memories flooded my head and I suddenly felt claustrophobic.
Sensing my unease, Declan reached over and took my hand. She was
the only one who knew what happened in that house. My aunt, her
mom, had let her spend the summer with us while her and her husband
at the time went backpacking through Europe. They lived two states
away so the summer was the only time we got to see each other.
Declan and I spent every summer together up until the incident,
forcing my aunt to move back to her home town that she tried so
hard to escape from.

She bought a house in the surrounding
neighborhood so she would be close if we needed her, but she was
never really around. We’d see her once a month if that. She was
either traveling for work or off on some retreat with her latest
boy-toy. Declan went to boarding school so I only saw her on
holidays or vacations. We never grew apart though, and as promised,
we applied to the same college prompting us to get our own
apartment together after I graduated and started my freshman
year.

Declan was always there when I needed her
and I couldn’t imagine my life without her.

I smiled back at her and rested my head back
against the seat. Only another thirty minutes and we would be
there. Jacob went to a local private school, thanks to my aunt. I
was glad he had this opportunity. Jacob was a smart kid and
deserved the best. I was surprised when my aunt presented us with
this offer to put Jacob in the pristine school. She always seemed
to make it clear how dysfunctional our little family was. I figured
she felt Jacob was young enough that she could still mold him into
a better version of us. I let her insults slide so Jacob could have
a better education. My aunt always harbored negative feelings
toward us. She blamed my mom for what happened. I couldn’t blame
her though, it was her brother that died, but she wasn’t there, she
didn’t know the whole story.

“
We’re here,” Declan
cheered, bringing my head out of the clouds. “Hey, you
okay?”

“
Yeah, just
daydreaming.”

“
Are you excited?” Her
voice squeaked.

“
I’m more excited to see
the look on Jacob’s face when he sees Jack.” Jacob and Jack were
the closest. He spent most of his attention on Jacob because he was
the youngest. He knew Jaxson and I had each other and Jasper was
old enough that Jack didn’t have to worry about him so much. I
can’t even imagine how thrilled Jacob is going be when he sees
Jack.

“
What about the look on
your face when you see who’s making their way over to
Jasper?”

“
Huh?” I scrunched my brow
in confusion and followed the direction of Declan’s stare. “Holy
shit!” I heard a click and turned to see Declan taking a picture of
my jaw dropped expression.

“
Priceless,” she giggled.
I frowned at her. “Is it me or did he get hotter?”

“
I think I just wet
myself,” I admitted, making Declan laugh even harder. I pulled down
the visor and quickly checked myself out in the mirror.

“
You look fine and stop
fussing. He’s seen you in all your pimply glory and not to mention
the year of the bad haircut. You could be wearing a trash bag and
that boy would fall to his knees kissing your feet.”

“
Stop exaggerating. It’s
not like that. I was the one who went after him.”

“
And he took the risk of
committing the ultimate betrayal. Either he’s the biggest dick head
alive and doesn’t care
,
or that boy is in love and you and I both know
it’s the latter.”

“
Declan, he is not in love
me,” I said, rolling my eyes at her.

“
Whatever, you can deny it
all you want, but mark my words; you will not be going home alone
tonight.”

“
Declan, that was a
one-time thing.”

“
Uh-huh. You got a little
drool right there.” She tapped her lip. I smacked her and got out
of the car. I took a deep breath and then let it out as I walked
over to join my brothers and their guest.

“
Alex, hey,” Colby said,
giving me an awkward hug.

“
Hi Colby, how you been?
Haven’t seen you in a while.” One year, five months, and three
weeks to be exact. “Looks like L.A. has been treating you
well.”

“
Yes it has. How about
you? You look like you’re doing well,” he smiled coyly, making my
heart melt. Colby was handsome. Like movie star handsome. He had
blonde hair that was cut short on the sides and spiked sporadically
on the top, dreamy blue eyes and the body of an athlete. He stood
about a few inches taller than me and had a smile that burned so
bright it hurt to look directly at him. He got an offer to tattoo
at some high end tattoo shop in L.A. So that’s where’s he been. He
was the only tattoo artist I knew who wasn’t covered head to toe in
tattoos. He had a few here and there but he showed more skin then
artwork.

“
I’m good, just finished
my sophomore year of college, and got a job for the summer.” Declan
cleared her throat. “You remember Declan, right?”

“
How could I forget
Deflating D-cup Declan?” Declan’s face turned bright red. I covered
my mouth to hide my laugh. I forgot about the nickname they gave
her junior year of high school. While I blossomed pretty quickly,
Declan was a late bloomer. One night while my brothers were having
a party, Declan thought it would be a good idea to stuff her bra.
She went a little overboard using almost a whole box of tissues.
What she didn’t anticipate was getting a drink spilled on her and
deflating her sudden d-cup when the tissues soaked up all the
moisture. My brothers, including Colby, teased her for a whole year
about it.

“
Now I remember why I
don’t like you,” she pouted.

“
I was just messin’.”
Colby nudged her playfully and flashed his ever impressive smile.
Declan tried hard to stay mad, but with a smile like that he was
sure to have any girl throw their underwear at him. She caved,
hugging his waist as he wrapped an arm around her
shoulder.

“
We should get seated,”
Jack said a little impatiently. The ceremony was being held outside
on the football field to accommodate the large group of families
that had showed up. Colby held out his hand to help me up the
bleacher steps and then sat on my left next to Jasper while Declan
sat on my right and Jack and Jaxson behind us. Declan nudged me in
the ribs and wiggled her brows in Colby’s direction. I rolled my
eyes and faced forward.

As we waited for the ceremony to begin, I
could feel Jack’s leg bouncing behind me. I turned around and
shielded my eyes from the bright sun. “You okay?”

“
Yeah, just excited to see
Jacob.” He gave me a forced smile and squeezed my shoulder.
Something told me he was hiding something, but now was not the time
to ask. He made us sit in the front and on the end. He wore his
uniform so no one complained when we asked them to scoot down. I
was so happy to be here to see my baby brother graduate that I
could barely contain my excitement. Another ten minutes later and
the ceremony began. We sat through about forty-five minutes of
boring speeches and then finally they began to call the names of
all the students. I was practically jumping out of my seat in
anticipation of them calling Jacob’s name. They were only on the
C’s so we had a bit, but when they reached the N’s I couldn’t take
it anymore and I stood up. My brothers followed suit when they
reached the R’s.