Chapter 4

Colt Age Seventeen

I stood in the doorway and looked at her. The room was dark, but she looked so damn beautiful. The moon light was shining through her window, making it look like she was glowing. I knew she had a date to the dance, but she never showed up. So, I took my date home and came here as soon as it ended. Konner didn't even know she had a date, but I had heard Brandon talking about how he asked her, and she said yes. He seemed excited and he should have been to have the privilege to take her, but his buddies were making fun of him for taking Finley. Saying she might be a ten, but she is also half man when she steps on the court. 

She never answered my question, "Finny, why weren't you at the dance?"

"Stop calling me that," she snapped. 

I stormed through her room and grabbed her arm and pulled her to a standing position. "Now tell me what is going on?" I demanded, even though I already knew. 

"It doesn't matter, Colt." 

"It matters to me." 

"I was just proven that my mom was right yet again." 

"You mom is an awful bitch who doesn't know her head from her ass." I told her and she started laughing. I reached into my pants and pulled out my phone and brought up my playlist and hit play and Just The Way You Are filled the room. I pulled her closer to me and wrapped her hands around my neck, and I placed my hands on her tiny waist, and we danced in her bedroom. I wanted her to know that she was worth it. She was worth everything. That her mother wasn't right and that Brandon was a dick head, who I would deal with later.

I loved the way she felt pushed up against me and how I was holding her and her scent of vanilla and something else filled my senses. We moved so slowly throughout the entire song, but when it ended it, she pulled away, and I hated how instantly cold it was. 

"Thank you," she whispered and then sprinted off to her bathroom. She was still upset and I wasn't going to leave her until she was better. I followed her to the bathroom and opened the door, and she was sitting on the floor and leaning up against the shower door.

"Stand up." 

She just looked at me with those tear-filled eyes again and then hung her head on her knees. "Nope, we aren't doing this. Get up. You aren't going to sit on the bathroom floor feeling sorry for yourself."

I grabbed her hand and pulled her to a standing position and then forced her to walk over to the sink. I grabbed the washcloth and turned the water on and waited for it to get warm. Once it was, I got the washcloth wet and rang it out and then wiped the smeared makeup off her face and then threw it in the sink and moved behind her. 

I reached around her and placed my hand under her chin and forced her to look up. "Tell me what you see when you look at yourself."

"Colt, don't do this. It doesn't matter."

"It does and I want to know."

She studied herself in the mirror and I knew that she was about to start crying again but she needed to know her worth and in order for me to tell her what it was, I needed to know what she thought of herself. "Come on, Finny tell me."

"I see an ugly face that no one will love, I see a girl who is too tall, I see everything my mother told me growing up. That I'm never going to have a boyfriend because I play too much basketball. That I'm too much like a guy. That no one will ever love me because of it, and it only took me five years to prove my mom right."

"You know what I see." I pushed her head up even higher because she needs to hold her head high like the queen she is meant to be. "I see a beautiful girl. One that doesn't know how beautiful she is. I see someone who works so hard on and off the court. Who applies herself to everything she does and who is kind to everyone she meets. I see a girl who doesn't know her potential and one day she will. I can't wait to sit back and watch you flourish. I see a girl who is going to take the world by storm, not only on the court but off the court as well. I see the most beautiful girl in the world." 

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes and then ripped her body away from mine and gave me her back. I watched as she wiped her eyes. "Please just go," she whispered but I still couldn't, not yet. I reached out and turned her to face me. 

"Colt, don't lie to me. What I said is true. No one will ever love me. No one will ever want to touch me. I just need to come to terms with that." 

I don't know what came over me, but I jerked her to me and grabbed her face with both of my hands, and I pressed my lips to hers. She was shocked and opened her mouth which allowed me to slip my tongue into her mouth. My knees got weak as I deepened the kiss and when I felt her relax just a little, I ran my hand behind her head and held her there while I explored every delicious inch of her mouth. It was unlike any kiss I'd ever had. She tasted so sweet and innocent. Fuck. I'm kissing Finny. I shouldn’t do this. My senses came back to me and I pulled away.

"Finley, you are beautiful and you are worth it. Some guy is going to come into your life and sweep you off your feet. He is going to love you for you, and he isn't going to care about anything but you. Until then all the other boys, well their jackasses." Me included. I should have never kissed her, but damn was it the best kiss of my life. I needed more of it, but I couldn't. She's my best friend's sister. 

I turned and walked out of her bathroom and her bedroom. Shutting her door softly, I knew exactly what I needed to do. I jumped into my car and grabbed my phone. 

"What?" Konner snapped into the phone. I knew he was still with his date. 

"We have a problem that we need to take care of right now."

"This better be fucking good."

"It is, we're going to kill someone."

He sighed and said something to his date, "Meet me at my house." 

"I'm already there. Where are you? I'm coming to get you."

"Meet me on Williams Hill."

I hung up the phone and took off faster than I should have been going, but I wanted to get there as soon as possible. I managed to make it through town with no cops spotting me and up to the hill that he was at. It was a common spot for teenagers to hang out, well more like hook up. I've brought plenty of girls up here. We both have. 

I found his car and pulled up beside him. We both got and met at the backside of his car. "Who and why are we killing someone?"

"Did you know that Finny had a date to the dance?"

"No. I didn't see her there. Why didn't she say something to me? What happened to her?"

"She was stood up."

"WHO?" He growled just as worked up as I was now. 

"Brandon." 

"The fucker is dead." 

He walked over to the passenger seat, and I went and got into my car and waited for him. He was sending his date home in his car, and we could get it later. A few minutes later he dropped into the passenger seat of my car, and I waited for his date to back out of the parking spot, and we followed her down the hill. Konner was texting away on his phone, finding out where Brandon was. It wasn't that hard to find out. 

"He's at a party at Shane's house," he mumbled. 

Again, I drove way too fast to get there, but it seemed that the police gods were on our side, because I pulled into Shane's house in record time. He was a junior and was known for throwing parties. I parked the car and we both jumped out and I rolled my sleeves up ready to get my hands bloody. 

We walked through the house like we owned the place. People were everywhere drinking and smoking weed. The music was blaring and we had to push our way through the crowds. When we made it out back, I spotted the back of his head. He had his face shoved into another girl, kissing her. 

The closer I got to him, the angrier I got. When I reached him, I grabbed the back of his shirt collar and jerked him back. 

"What the fuck?" He yelled and his dates eyes got huge as she looked at the angry faces of Konner and me. 

"We're going to have a chat." Konner said, and we dragged him away from everyone. We walked him to the back corner of the yard where it was dark, and no one could see us, and I doubt they could hear us over the music and people. 

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt your sister," he said as soon as we got him alone. I shoved him to the ground and Konner placed his foot on his chest and pressed down. 

"Why the fuck did you stand her up?" I growled at him, ready to drop to my knees and smash his face in. 

"Look your sister is hot, really hot but it's also your sister and well I don't know. She is so aggressive on the court. She plays like she should be on the guy's team."

"So, you fucking stood her up because she can kick your ass on the basketball court?" Konner yelled but I was done talking to the fucker. I pushed Konner off of him and dropped down grabbing his shirt collar and brought my fist back punching him right in the nose. It made the same noise that Finnys did all those years ago when I broke her nose. Only this time I didn't feel bad about it. I reared back ready to do it again, but Konner grabbed my hand.

He screamed like the little bitch he was and I dropped him, letting him lay on the ground. "He's not worth anymore," Konner said. "We also don’t need to be arrested for assault."

Konner kicked him in the side, "If you so much as even look at my sister ever again I will fucking kill you."

We walked out of there, knowing we got through to him. He will never talk to Finny again, and I'm doubting that he will ever stand another girl up. 

When we walked back through the party, people moved out of our way to let us through this time. I'm sure that someone had heard us and rumors were going to spread, but I would shut every single one of them down. Finny didn't need anything else to make her feel worse. 

I took Konner to get his car and then headed home but I really wanted to go back to his house and make sure that she was sleeping. I didn't want her up any more worrying about what happened or feeling bad about herself. She deserved peace but I couldn't do that. I had to keep my distance and go back to the way things were before I kissed her. I can't lose control like that again around her because it would ruin the only family I had.

I walked into my house. It was empty and dark. My parents were gone once again. I'm not actually sure that they've been home for three weeks. They keep enough money in my bank account so that they don't have to worry about me. It's so fucking lonely when I come home. I can't wait to move out of this big fucking house. Only a year and a half left.