Chapter 43

Sutter's POV

Bobby, Jesse, Fuller, and I roll up to the shack and notice just about half the school is there. All the outside table and chairs are overflowing with bodies, and the smell of the town's best hamburgers and fries is thick in the air.

This is what I missed the most, besides Lilly, when we moved, knowing all these kids like they're my own family. We only moved two hours away, but it was more different there then you could have imagined. Most of those kids went to public schools and didn't believe in having anyone else's back but their own. I can walk by any table or truck bed full of people, and someone will wave at me or yell my name in acknowledgement. Even after I left here and fucked things up with my girl. No one questions the black eye on my face, or the injured walk I'm sporting thanks to my earlier fight, but I'm still doing my best to play it off like I'm not sore as hell.

But thats just how the people in this town were, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Fuller stopped to flirt with some cheerleader, but Jesse and I kept walking because we noticed Nadine's Jeep parked near all the other senior vehicles.

My sister is leaned up against the passenger door, and a senior named Drew is leaned around her and has his forearm up above her head, extremely too close to her face. I can only see his profile, but I can read his posture and look from a mile away, and all he's trying to do is get in bed with my baby sister. Not fucking happening.

I start walking faster, but Jesse bypasses me and shoves the guy as soon as he gets close enough to reach him.

"What the fuck dude?" Drew says, instantly on the defensive side after being pushed.

"Standing a little to close to her, yeah?" Jesse says, and I can hear such a menace in his voice that even I stop walking.

"Jesse stop, we were just talking." Jo pushes Jesse back a couple of steps, trying to put distance between the guys.

"You think that guy wants to just talk to you Jo? C'mon, I know you're smarter than that."

Jo drops her hands and shrugs her shoulders. "Maybe I don't want to just talk either."

I did not just hear those words come out of my little sisters mouth, did I? "Jo, I swear to G-"

"He's what you want then? You want some guy who's just gonna fuck you, leave the next day and probably not even remember your name?" Jesse says, cutting off what I was about to say.

Jo looks back at Drew. "What's my name Drew?"

Drew opens his mouth to answer her, but then closes it again and a worried look flashes in his eyes. He looks around like he's searching for help, and it's obvious that he doesn't know her damn name even though Jesse and I have both just said it out loud.

"Josephine Lynn Mayfield is her fucking name, and come near her again and you and I are going to have problems, we clear?" Jesse is talking over Jo's head, directing his words to Drew, who just rolls his eyes and walks away. Jo at least has the decency to look embarrassed. "Stay away from guys like that, Jo. They're nothing but trouble."

Jo's eyes go hard as she looks at Jesse. "Stay away from guys like that? You are that kind of guy, Jesse! You all are. Except for my brother, who probably would be had he not met Lilly. You're all just a bunch of horny toads looking for some easy pussy."

I nearly choke as I hear my sister say the word 'Pussy', no guy should ever hear his sister say that word being used in that context.

Jesse looks at her as though shes lost her mind. "Why the hell would you think I'm like that?"

"People in this town talk Jesse, you think I haven't heard about all your conquests since I've been gone? You fucked about half of the volleyball team. 'Oh my god, Jesse is like such an ass, but best dick I've ever had.'" Jo mocks, using a preppy girl accent and then throwing her hair behind her shoulder as if to prove a better point. A group of people have started listening to their argument, and a lot of the guys and girls start laughing at what Jo just said.

Jesse silences them all with a look, then turns back to Jo, looking madder then I've ever seen him. Nadine walks up, assessing the situation, smirks, and starts eating her popcorn she must have got at the shack window.

"You always believe everything you hear?" Jesse asks.

"No, of course not."

"Then what makes you believe this is true?"

"Well did you fuck MaryAnne, and Carson that are on my volleyball team or not?" Jo asks, and crosses her arms over her chest. Jesse doesn't say anything, he just looks at her, but his silence is all the answer she needs. "Exactly what I thought."

Jesse throws his arms up in exasperation. "Okay, yes, so I've had sex with some girls. But I can promise you that I knew their names, treated them with respect the whole time, and never didn't talk to them again. If they call me an asshole it's because they wanted more and I didn't, which they knew from the start. And it's definitely not as many as you think."

Nadine and I are listening and watching intently, our heads moving to whoever's face is currently talking. Nadine all the while is steadily throwing handfuls of popcorn in her mouth.

"So that makes it any better?" Jo questions.

"I think so, yeah. I didn't lie to these girls and tell them I loved them and wanted to be with them just so I could get them naked. And I've never gone around and said a bad word about them. Ask Drew how many girls he told were the one for him, and he'd never leave them and then the next day doesn't know their name and never speaks to them again. So you tell me, am I anything like that?"

Jo doesn't answer him, just stands there quietly and never takes her eyes off Jesse.

Jesse lets out a big breath, and takes a step closer to my sister. "You're good Jo, too good for the likes of a guy like Drew. And you're beautiful, despite what you've let those asshole girls make you believe. Don't settle for anything less than what you deserve."

Nadine makes a scoffing sound, and I look over at her to find she's got her hand over her chest and tears in her eyes. Glancing around, I notcie that most of the girls have tears in their eyes. The guys have shocked expressions on their face, the same as me. None of us knowing what to think about the way Jesse just spoke to my sister.

It's true, Jesse isn't an asshole to girls like som guys, but he's not full of emotion and fucking flowers either, so why is he talking toJo like he is?

"And what do I deserve Jesse?" Jo asks, bringing us all back to their moment. Both of them seem to be oblivious to all the eyes and ears locked in on their words to each other.

"Someone who's going to worship you the way you should be." He says, and then closes the space between them and kisses my fucking sister.

My eyes widen and I take step forward, but all the girls start clapping and cheering, stopping me in my tracks. Jesse pulls back from Jo, and looks at her the way I look at Lilly. Like the world and sun revolve around them. Jo has a enchanted look on her face, and pure bliss. And its only for that reason that I don't march over there and get in my second fight for the night.

Jesse waves everyone off with his hand, using the other one to pull Jo into him.

"Well, thatwas quite the show." Nadine says, smiling like a fool at them.

Red tints Jo's cheeks, and Jesse smiles sheepishly. "Glad you enjoyed it."

Jesse finally looks at me, and I can see the apprehension in his stare, trying to guage my reaction to what just unfolded in front of me. He and I will have to have a talk later, when there arent sixty other people crowding around us.

"Hurt her, and i'll kill you." I say, settling for the best I could do right now. I knew Jesse was a good guy, and I knew he wouldn't just sleep with Jo for fun.

"I can't believe Lilly missed this! Where the hell is she?" Nadine asks, looking to Jesse and I for an answer.

Jesse, Bobby, and I lock eyes for a second, all of us mirroring a confused expression. "Lilly left Jesse's house over two hours ago, she was going back to hang out with ya'll." Bobby imforms them, neither Jesse or I look away from each other.

"She never came back, we haven't seen her since she left to go to Jesse's the first time. She didnt even tell us why, but i'm assuming it has to do with why your face is so busted up. What the hell happened to you?" Jo questioned, not looking away from the bruising on my face.

None of us answered her though. My mind was going a mile a minute, trying to figure out where she could be, and curving towards a thought was just me being paranoid. Because I know she wouldn't go to Cross's house, not after our fight. Not after what we said to each other. She knows that would do nothing but start another fight between us.

Because if that's who shes with, thats what will happen. I'm trying to do my best to have some faith that thats not what she did to me. I look at Nadine, but she's too busy looking at Jesse.

"Cemetery?" Jesse says, taking a guess.

"She hasn't gone there in a while, I don't think so." I tell him, knowing the last time she was there because I was the one who went with her.

"You don't think something happened to her, do you?" Jo asks, worry starting to etch it's way onto her face.

Jesse grabs her hand again to reassure her. "We have to pass Nadine's house to get here from my house, we would have seen her car. She's probably just gone somewhere else."

"She didn't go to Nadine's house." Bobby cuts in.

"How do you know?"

"She turned left."

       "Huh?"

       "Your house is a right turn out of Jesse's driveway Nadine, Lilly went left."

       Cross's house is to the left. But so is Denny's and so is the cemetery and plenty of other things. Again, I'm trying to not to jump to any conclusions, but it's getting really hard not to. And I'm close to losing my shit.

       "I'm gonna go-" I start to say, but I'm interrupted by a song about true friends being blared through Nadine's song, which I know is the ring tone Lilly and Nadine use for each other.

      Nadine reaches into her back pocket and answers the phone quickly. "Hello?...yeah..at the shack..why are you crying..no I won't...okay..be careful." She hangs up the phone. "She's on her way here."

      "Why was she crying?" I ask, feeling my heart and stomach clench at the thought of her driving when she's upset.

     "She said she was still upset about what happened with you but not to say anything."

     I know that's not true, because Lilly and I were fine when she left, unless she just let me think we were. Everyone around me continued to talk, while I walked off a little ways to think and prepare myself for when Lilly got here. I didn't want to fight with her, but I wasn't going to put up with her lying to me either. The air around me feels funny, and I wonder if it's because of the tension I'm feeling inside me thats starting to build up.

The wind starts to pick up and blows my hair off my forehead as soon as I see Lilly's car pull into The Shack parking lot. I see a glimpse of her face through the tinted window and she looks okay from here. She parks her car and gets out, instantly walking over to Nadine and everyone standing in their crowd, not noticing me standing off to the side. A couple of other guys from the football team see her and give her a small hug, and making small talk.

She puts on a good show, but I can see the distress behind the blue hue of her irises. She looks like at any given moment if someone said the wrong thing, she may collapse. Finally, she notices me standing off from everyone and walks towards me.

"Hey." She says quietly.

"Where you been?"

"Just needed to think."

"That doesn't tell me where you were."

"Does it matter that much?" She asks, a defiant spark igniting into her tone.

"You tell me." I say, because I know Lilly and I know when she's hiding something or feeling guilty. This is one of those times. "I'll ask again, where did you go?"

"No Where thats as important as me being right here." She deflects the question again.

I nod my head in the direction of our friends. "You can go over there with them, then."

Her eyes widen, clearly shocked by my words. "You don't want me over here with you?"

"Of course, I always want you with me. But I don't want you to lie to me, so you can go do that somewhere else."

"How am I lying if I'm not answering you?"

"You told me you were going to Nadine's when you left, and you obviously didn't go there, which means you lied to me about that. So where did you go?"

She doesn't say anything at first, just looks at me. "You really want to do this right now, right here? With all these people around?"

"If you want to do it in private, thats fine. We can get in your car and go and talk right now. But its not fair for you to lie to me and you know that." Lilly couldn't stand to be lied to, so the fact that she did it to me actually shocks and hurts a lot more then I expected it to.

She contemplates my words and then nods her head at me. "You're right, lets go somewhere private then." She starts to walk to her, and I'm a couple of steps behind her.

We don't make it there though before a familiar sports car whips into the shack, rock music blaring. Cross jumps out of the driver side and immediately starts searching the faces of people around him. He spots us and rage crosses his face.

He slams his car door and stalks over to us.

"Well I guess I know where you went." I say to Lilly at the same time I'm moving her behind me from Cross's view.

"It wasn't like that!" She insists, but I'm too busy focusing on my Cousin.

Jesse and Bobby block his path before he gets to us though, Jesse putting his hands on Cross's chest and pushing him back. "You sure you really wanna do this?"

As soon as Jesse laid hands on Cross's chest, about four lacrosse players jumped out of the back of trucks and swaggered up to have Cross's back, including Drew. "Yeah, I'm pretty fucking sure."

Jesse and Bobby nod to each other before moving back to flank me. Lilly moves out behind us and comes in front of me, trying to grab my face and make me look at her. "Sutter, no. Please don't do this. You could get arrested and then kicked off the team, its not worth this."

I grab her wrists and push her to the side and then keep her pushed back every time she tries to advance me again. "Go over there with Nadine, and Jo. Now."

"You always talk to her like that?" Cross asks, eyes glancing down every few seconds at my fingers still wrapped around Lilly's slender wrist.

"When its for her best interest, yeah I do. But its none of your concern how I speak to my girlfriend."

Cross raises his eyebrows. "Yeah? You know your 'girlfriend' was over at my house not even thirty minutes ago?"

"It wasn't fucking like that and don't pretend like it was." Lilly says sternly, and rips her wrist out of my grasp.

"My my my, Lilly, all we need is Denny here too and you'll have yourself just about every guy you could need all in one place." Drew says, laughing loudly.

"Fuck off, Drew." Lilly says. "Speak to her, or my sister like you have tonight and you and me are gonna be having some problems." Bobby and Jesse mumble their agreements behind me.

"You better not be trying to fuck my cousin and don't speak to Lilly like that again, or you can add me to that list too." Cross says, but never takes his eyes off of me. Drew listens to Cross and keeps his mouth shut. "As much fun as this has been again Sut, I'm not here to talk to you. I'm here to see Lilly."

"Actually you need nothing from her, so you can hop back in your car and be on your way. Before something gets said that can't be taken back."

"Lilly's a big girl, why don't you let her decide what she wants." Cross says, trying to instigate me by smirking while he says it.

I look to Lilly and shes already looking at Cross, trying to read his face. "I said all I had to say earlier, I told you that."

Cross looks at her too, and I swear to god I see his gaze soften on her. "You left in the middle of the conversation."

"It doesn't matter, I said all I needed to say to you a year ago. I just wanted to make sure you knew how much it would hurt me if you hurt him again."

"Yeah, I got that. Why do you think shit ain't happening between us now? I don't want to fight my own cousin." He says the sentence in a tone that makes it obvious he's trying to be better than me, and that just pisses me off. That, and the fact that he and Lilly seem to have some kind of connection.

"I wouldn't wanna fight my own cousin either if he wasn't trying to take away the purpose of my life. You've always known what she meant to me, but you did it anyway."

"She means so much to you that you left her here when she needed you the most?" He shakes his head in mock disappointment. "I'd hate to see how you treated someone that you didn't like."

"You already have, check a mirror next time you get the chance."

Cross stepped up to me at the same time I realized his intentions, and stepped right back up to him. Lilly jumped in between our bodies but our arms were already locked around each other, getting ready to shove.

Everyone started yelling around us and trying to separate our bodies, pulling us in opposite directions. Lilly was trying to pull my face down and talk to me, trying to say something to get me to calm down, but I was too past that point.

Right when I was ready to push Lilly into Jesse's arms, who was trying to pull Lilly out himself, knowing there was no reason to try and stop the inevitable, a noise blared into the chaos.

Something that stopped us all, and that we all knew as soon as it reached our ear drums. Same noise we were taught from a very young age, that you run to shelter or safety as soon as it goes off. Living in Oklahoma, you have that embedded into your mind.

The sky had turned black around us, and the wind picking up went unnoticed because we were so focused on what was going on.

A tornado was coming, and by the pitch of the shrill, it was a bad one.

A/N: ummm..so dont hate me. Is someone going to die? You'll have to wait and see (;

Xoxo, Bay