Managing Boys

Managing Boys (20)

Parker flipped through the textbooks on my bed, not paying attention to what any of them said as he informed me, “That bastard still talks to me as if we’re still friends or something.”

I turned toward Parker, who was on my bed while I was on the floor of my room in my mother’s house while I painted my toenails. This was something Parker was used to, since he was a lot more like a girl friend than he was a boy friend.

I reached for another bottle of pink nail polish, deciding to make it a pattern of white and pink. “Apparently he talks to Zoey like they’re still friends, too.”

Parker shook his head. “I really hate him.”

I shrugged, trying my hardest not to overreact every time his name was mentioned. “He obviously doesn’t think that what he did would make you no longer want to be friends with him.”

“Are you okay?” Parker suddenly asked me now. “You don’t make a lot of eye contact when you talk about Ian nowadays. You always look at your feet.”

I looked up at him and gave him a flat look. “I’m painting my toenails.”

“You know what I mean.”

I let out a long sigh. I really didn’t want to talk, or even think, about this any longer. But it was really hard to do so when the person I didn’t want to think about either spoke to me or stared at me every day.

“It’s just…” was all I was really able to say, even though I knew that didn’t answer his question. “I just… All he ever does is talk to me. He hasn’t tried to do anything yet, and I honestly don’t think he will.”

Parker blinked at me now. “Do you think he even knows that he did something horrible?”

This made me stop and think. Did Ian even know that he had forced me to have sex with him? I had told him no, and I had tried to push him away, but he might have just thought nothing of it. He probably thought that since we were dating, he was allowed to have sex with me.

I could feel my palms going clammy just thinking about it. I really had to stop.

“Well, at least Grim is obviously willing to protect you.” Parker shrugged, and this caused my breath to catch in my throat. He noticed this and smirked. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” I swallowed, my mouth and throat dry.

Parker smiled at me mischievously, his eyes sparkling. “You like him, don’t you?”

I stared at my best friend for a moment, not believing he had just said this to me. I had never thought of Grim that way, ever. Sure, I did think he was good looking, but I had a different feeling around him than I did with… Ash.

“I actually think I like Ash,” I confessed, pulling my knees up to my chin. “Even though I haven’t been thinking about it a lot lately, since I’ve had a lot of… other things to worry about.”

And Ian was only one of those things. Another was my father and Annabelle.

“Ash, huh?” Parker now questioned, seeming to think about it for a moment. For some reason, I felt terribly self-conscious as he did so. “I could see that, I guess. I mean, I haven’t seen you two around each other that much; definitely not as much as you’re with Grim. But I guess you’re with him a lot more because he knows about everything with Ian.”

I didn’t know what I was supposed to say about this. He was right; the only reason Grim and I were closer was because he knew what Ian had done to me. The other three boys of Hello Aria had no idea, and I was hoping that they never would. I didn’t want anyone else to know.