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“No pictures,” Eli rattled off the stupid rules I had to follow while here with him. “I don’t need San looking through your phone and seeing this shit.”
“Sander does not go through my phone, and he's not even back from the police academy until the end of the summer,” I argue. Sander and I have been best friends for years, so it wasn’t unreasonable to assume he’d have access to my phone, because… well, he did.
I guess I’d have to change that once he returned home. Though, I wasn’t sure if he would be allowed to use information like that against me, or Eli, for that matter. Wasn’t there some law about that?
“The fact that your best friend is about to become a cop should probably warrant a little more concern on your part,” he said.
“It’s not like I can get in trouble for just watching the race,” I say.
“Wanna bet?”
I roll my eyes at his back, but I don’t argue. I don’t know whether or not I’d get into trouble. However, I’m not ready to find out, so I tuck my phone in my back pocket and swear to commit everything to memory. Who knows if Eli ever lets me come back out with him before I head off to cosmetology school in the Fall.
“And do me a favor, yeah?” Eli asks, stopping to face me.
“What?” I ask, glancing back and forth between his honey-colored eyes.
“Keep the giggling and girly smiles to a minimum; these guys will eat that shit up, and then I’d have to kill somebody,” he says, brows knit together in the center of his forehead.
Eli has always taken his role as big brother seriously, but he started going to different lengths after our dad passed away. The year I turned sixteen was the worst. I was a sophomore in high school, and it was Eli’s senior year. He made sure to let everyone know that if they had the balls to ask me out, they'd have him to deal with. I’d dismissed his threat, brushing it off as an overprotective brother thing, but I understood he meant well. Not that I had any time for guys outside of my friendship with San. He was probably the only guy I knew Eli didn’t hate.
“Calm down,” I chuckle, punching him lightly in the arm.
“I’m serious, Keat. Some of these guys are pigs,” he says, curling his lip in clear disgust.
“And yet you’re still friends with them,” I counter.
He isn’t amused in the slightest, and still, I smile innocently at him. He shakes his head before looping an arm around my neck and dragging me with him.
“Jeez, really?” I say, struggling to pull my head out of his hold.
“Just be glad I’m wearing deodorant,” he laughs, his grip around my head tightening.
“Elijah Alexander,” I cry out, my shouts muffled by my brother’s chest, “let me go!”
It's been years since we joked around like this. However, when we were young, Eli took every opportunity he could to use me as a sparring partner. Willing or not. And as hard as I’m fighting to pull away from him right now, I secretly love it and miss those days.
“Hey, hey, hey, what do we have here?” a voice I don’t recognize says as we approach.
Eli’s hold on me slackens and I pull free, my hair tousled and crazy.
A group of guys stands before us, congregating around the open hood of a car. A tall guy with golden skin and short, cropped, dark hair approaches us, taking Eli’s hand and pulling him into a quick hug. Tattoos cover his neck, arms, and hands. His smile is sharp and calculated. Even though his voice and body language seem relaxed, there is something in his eyes that tells me he isn’t someone to be fucked with.
“Hey, man, what’s up? This is my little sister, Keaton. She wanted to check things out today,” Eli explains.
"Sister?" His eyebrows rise to his hairline, and I feel awkward under his penetrating gaze.
“Yeah, sister.” Eli’s stern tone leaves no room for confusion.
His friend lifts his hands to say he means no harm and takes a half step backward, but his eyes never leave mine.
“Chill, E, I’m just playing,” his smooth voice sounds like manipulation and lies, and I don’t like it.
“Yeah, yeah,” Eli waves him off before turning to me. “This is Mateo,” he says, turning back toward me.
Mateo’s eyes darken slightly, but he hides it behind a sharp smile. Eli points out the rest of the guys, and I do my best to ignore Mateo’s eyes on me. Eli notices too, because his next words are not what I expected.
“Her boyfriend is away at the police academy for the summer, so she’s been following me around,” he reaches out and shoves me playfully, and I return it with a shove of my own.
