Shit. He's the last person who needs to know what happened to my eye. I smile at him, fully prepared to deflect, but he interrupts my train of thought.

"I know you're selling drugs, and I'm asking you who you're selling for. Please don't be an asshole right now because this is already a courtesy you don't deserve," he tells me.

"What are you talking about?" I ask him.

"I'm talking about Ellie with Jasper. They're together, and I don't know if you knew that or not, but it's a fact, so know that I really want to punch you right now for keeping that from me, but also know that I'm trying to fucking help you despite it. Are you selling for Ben Hartley?" he asks me.

All of that is too much to wrap my head around. Jasper and Ellie together makes sense, but I'm fairly certain if they were really seeing one another regularly, I would have known about it. Which means Kyle is probably over reacting, but he doesn't look like a guy who is jumping to conclusions. He looks miserable in his certainty. And, there's no arguing that I saw Ellie at his house. I wrote that off as an odd occurrence and nothing more, but it happened nonetheless.

"I'm not selling for Ben," I tell him.

"But he hit you, right?" Kyle asks, and I'm amazed, once again by how much he knows.

"How do you know that?"

"I'm not as blind to everything as you seem to think I am. I'm not driving around in a Ferrrari because my dad got rich selling insurance," he tells me in a hushed tone, "If you're involved in this, you need to get uninvolved," he tells me.

"Why?" I ask.

"You seriously need a reason to quit selling fucking drugs?" he asks me.

There's the Amerson in him rearing its ugly head as usual. As it is, I need a damn compelling reason to quite selling drugs for his father. The two of us have an arrangement, and as long as Hollands keeping up his end of the bargain, I'm his bitch when it comes to this kind of thing. Still, Kyle's judgement stings in a way it shouldn't

"We can't all have trust funds, Kyle. Your dad wouldn't have offered, and I sure as shit wouldn't have accepted that kind of money from him if I wasn't earning it," I tell him, even though it's not the entire truth.

It's true. It's just not the whole story. Kyle has no need to know the whole story. In fact, my deal with Holland is contingent on Kyle not knowing about it.

"Ben is going to be busted tonight when his product is delivered. I'm warning you not to be involved then," he tells me.

How in the shit does he know all of this? He shouldn't even know his dad is selling. Alarm bells sound in my head because Kyle knowing this isn't good. It means someone else knows this too.

"I need to know what you know," I tell him.

"No, I'm just warning you," he says, starting to walk away.

I grab his arm, and I hold him in place. He attempts to free himself, so I tighten my grip, certain it will cause bruises, not loving the idea, but not really seeing a choice either.

"Tell me what you know. This isn't a game," I seethe in his ear.

"Let go of me," he snaps.

I do it, but it's temporary if he tries to walk away again. He surprises me by staying where we are.

"I was with Carrie Hartley when I was fifteen. I lost my virginity to her, but before that, I sent her a nude. She's the only person I've ever sent a nude to, so I knew when Ellie started saying she saw a nude of me from another girl, it was from Carrie."

I almost interrupt him because the last thing I want to hear about is his sexual experience, but I resist the urge to shut him up. Eventually he may get to the fucking point so my heart can stop pounding so quickly.

"So, I asked myself, why would Carrie send that to Ellie now? The answer came when your asshole best friend texted her saying he saw me at the party last weekend with another girl. Jasper's wanted Ellie since the first night we hooked up, so when I made the connection, I understood what it meant. Jasper's selling for Ben, and I assumed that meant you were too," he tells me.

"How do you know about the cops," I ask him because it fucking matters.

"Why'd Ben hit you?" he counters.

I want to throttle him. This isn't a time to play games. His knowing about the bust makes this weekend, a hell of a lot messier than I thought it'd be.

"It was business," I answer vaguely, hoping Kyle will give me something if I compromise.

"Hartley's business or Dad's?" he asks.

"Kyle," I say through clinched teeth, "Either way, if you're really interested in protecting me like you claim to be, I need to know exactly what you know."

"How deep are you in this?" he asks, sounding horrified by the thought that I may be in deeper than he originally thought.

I am. No doubt he didn't expect me to be our school's number one seller or the guy his father calls when shit hits the fans like it did last night.

"Answer my question," I snap at him.

"I borrowed Jasper's phone during gym," he tells me.

Fuck. That he got his information from Jasper's phone doesn't bode well. It can only mean one thing, and I know what it is before Kyle voices it.

"Jasper found out about the cops coming tonight, and he and Hartley were texting about it," Kyle says, "If you're lying to me, and you really are involved with Hartley, and he really didn't fill you in, then there's a good chance you're their fall guy," Kyle says.

"You should leave," I tell him.

As much of a preppy douche canoe the dude is, it doesn't matter. I don't want him caught up in the middle of this, and that's exactly where he is at the moment.

"Be straight with me. How bad is this?" Kyle asks.

"It's bad," I admit despite every natural fiber of my body screaming at me not to trust Kyle with this.

"But your telling me about it makes it a little less bad. Nevertheless, you should leave," I tell him.

"We can borrow Nick's car," he says.

"I can't leave," I tell him automatically.

As much as I'd like to get the hell out of Dodge at the moment, there's no way I can do it. It'd be suspicious as hell. Kyle looks at me like I'm the biggest idiot on the planet. I don't love the judgement, but I ignore it.

"It'll look weird," I say, and then, despite wanting to send him away, I realize something.

Kyle is Holland's actual son. If he leaves right before cops show, there's a good chance it implicates him in this to Hartley's guys.

"You can't leave either," I nearly whisper the words as their force hits me like a ton of bricks.

"What do you mean?" Kyle asks.

"It'll make you look like you're selling for your dad. It'll put a target on your back that wasn't there before. The target's been on my back for months, but we can't put one on yours too. After all, you're not selling at the end of the day.

"They know you're selling for my dad?" Kyle asks, finally putting two and two together about who I'm selling for.

"They found out last night when I showed up to defend one of your dad's guys at a party in Hillside. They don't know your dad's pulling the strings as far as I know, but I sure as shit don't want them to find out. If they know the cops are showing, they'll be watching who leaves early, and that person can't be you. Not only will it point at you, but it'll point a bright red arrow at your father," I tell him.

"And you suddenly care about my father? What happened to the guy who thought I was a little bitch last night for whispering around him?" Kyle asks sounding bitter.

It's a ridiculous thing to bring up in this situation. I shut it down as soon as the words leave his mouth.

"You know a dad who's gone for work almost every waking hour. Whispering around the version of your father you grew up knowing is silly. Whispering around the version of the man I know? Believe me, that version of the man is fine to tiptoe around," I tell him, remembering exactly why I'm in this situation in the first place.

"Yeah? Mom left when I was five, and she woke up in a puddle of her own blood with a broken nose and a dislocated jaw. It was the fourth time my arm was broken that year alone. Make no mistake, I know my dad," he says in a certain tone that sends a chill down my fucking spine.

His words cause bile to rise up the back of my throat. I had no idea. Every time I made a joke about his fear of his father enters my mind in rapid succession, and I feel downright queasy. Despite my attempt to use his lack of knowledge about his father's extracurriculars against him just now, I really prefer the alternative to reality where Kyle doesn't know how much of a mean bastard his dad can truly be.

I have no words to reply to that. I have nothing to say. Honestly, I think he knew the impact his words would have when he delivered them. They were delivered in a way that said he accepted who his dad is a long time ago. He shouldn't have had to though. His telling me this for the first time now, after all of the times over the years when I gave him the opportunity to, is what shocks me more than anything. All of the times I was calling him a spoiled rich asshole, he'd actually dealt with something real, and he held his tongue on telling me about it. Why?

And why does his admission now make everything else background noise?

For his part, once the words leave his mouth, he seems mortified by sharing them with me. I can't blame him, but I sure as shit have no intentions of using the against him. Is that why he didn't tell me before? The thought is too much to focus on. My chest aches, and I feel like he punched me in the face.

"I'm not looking for pity. I'm looking for you to quit talking down to me where he's concerned because I do know him," Kyle finally says after a long moment of silence passes between us.

I still have no idea what to say. I can't wrap my brain around the idea of this guy going through that so young. Up to this point, I thought he was a spoiled rich asshole without problems.

"Noted," I mumble, and my voice sounds scratchy.

I allow heavy silence to overtake the two of us again. I genuinely have no idea what to say and saying anything seems hard right now. Kyle breaks eye contact with me, and he looks out over the lake in front of us. I know we stand unmoving for at least fifteen minutes before Kyle breaks the silence.

"So your move tonight is to protect him?" Kyle asks bitterness about the idea lodging itself in his tone.

I'd like nothing more than to blow up Holland's entire world at the moment, but I have a deal with Holland, and he has to continue to hold up his side of the bargain. If I had another option, I would have taken it before I even started selling for him in the first place. In a moment of unfiltered honesty, I admit something to Kyle I've never admitted aloud to anyone.

"I have no choice," I mumble.