Shatter (True Believers #4)(57)
Author: Erin McCarthy

I was already opening it, figuring the hell with it. She could be pissed at me if she wanted for invading her privacy. But it was my father and his . . . “Oh my God! It’s his f**king dick!”

“Shh!” Devon shot a frantic look down the hall. “I know! What the hell? Who sends a picture of his junk to a student?”

“I’m not sure which is worse! That she’s his student or his son’s girlfriend. Oh my God, I’m going to lose it.” I paced back and forth, shaking with anger. “Oh my god, oh my God, oh my God.”

“It’s not even good junk,” Devon said. “From what I can tell, he’s only semi-erect.”

I held my hand out. “No. Just no. We are not going to study the junk in question and evaluate it, for f**k’s sake. I’m going to throw up, seriously. Never under any circumstances should a guy’s girlfriend see his father’s semi-erection unless the bathroom door lock is busted and she accidentally walks in. This is just beyond wrong.”

“Sorry.” Devon looked contrite. “I think I need a drink. Want to do a shot with me?”

“No. Yes. No.” I started scrolling back through the text exchange. “He has been texting her for three days. Three days. And every single one is an exercise in dirty old man.”

We can work something out. You just have to use your assets to advantage and you have some serious assets.

The only thing that would be better would be if you had a uniform. Haha.

The more you’re willing to do, the better the grade. Since you’re failing, you’re going to have to work hard at it, from all angles.

I tossed the phone down, hand shaking. “I’m going to kill him. I’m seriously going to kill him. That is my girlfriend he is sexually harassing.”

“So why didn’t she say anything to you?”

“I don’t know.” Maybe because who wants to tell someone their father is a pervert? “But the truth is, until the penis pic, he didn’t said anything that was technically inappropriate.”

“Oh, come on. You’d have to be a moron not to read the truth there. It’s screaming innuendo.”

“Kylie’s answers are just in response to his. There is nothing suggesting she realizes what is happening. I don’t think she knows he is being disgusting.”

“Oh, come on!” Devon looked at me in disbelief. “Seriously, Darwin? Look, I know Kylie isn’t the brightest bulb in the pack. Far from it. But a girl like her knows when a perv is hitting on her.”

Now my anger shifted to Devon. “And what kind of girl is that, can I ask?”

“Don’t get all worked up. You know I like Kylie just fine, and I’m jealous as hell that you get to sleep with her. But come on, she is not a smart girl, plain and simple. She can’t understand basic math and science. She thinks the Big Bang Theory is just a TV show and that a tomato is a vegetable. Her whole life has been about her looks, and she knows when a guy is looking to click her LIKE button.”

“Shut the f**k up. Seriously.” I was so angry I couldn’t even see straight. I’d never felt rage like that. Between my father and Devon, I was barely containing a tight, raw, explosive anger.

“So that’s what you think of me?” Kylie asked, in the doorway, in my sweatshirt and basketball shorts. “I guess I can tell you honestly, then, Devon, that I’ve always thought you were an arrogant ass**le who was compensating for a small penis.”

“Hey, hey, now!” Devon protested. “Don’t be pissed, Kylie. I wasn’t saying anything negative about you.”

“Calling me a moron isn’t negative?” Her eyes snapped and she glared at him, then me. “What the hell is going on?”

“My father sent you a picture of his dick.” I waved her phone in the air. “And you’re right. Devon is an ass**le.” I glared at him. “Don’t ever talk about Kylie like that again.”

“If you are both going to persist in ignoring the obvious, which is the IQ elephant in the room, go ahead. Be my guest.” He stood up.

Which was when I shoved him. It wasn’t premeditated. It just happened. But seriously. Enough was enough.

He shoved me back but I had better balance and stayed mostly in place.

“Stop it!” Kylie yelled at him, and maybe me, I don’t know, inserting herself between us. “Just knock it off. Devon, keep your opinions about my IQ to yourself, please, since Jonathon is your friend. And Jonathon, what are you doing? Why are you going through my phone?”

“Because it was sitting on the table and we saw that my dad texted you. So we looked and, lo and behold, Professor Penis. A picture of his junk.”

“No. He couldn’t have.” She reached for her phone. “Let me see.”

“Hell, no!” We had a bit of a thumb wrestling match for her phone, which I won. “You are not looking at my father’s nasty text!”

“He’s only semi-erect, anyway,” Devon said. “You’re not missing much.”

“You’re not helping!” I turned my back so Kylie couldn’t snag her phone back. “And I’m deleting this.”

“Don’t delete it! Don’t you think the department should see that?”

I paused. “The department? What do you mean?”

“Well, I suspected that he was hitting on me, offering to bump up my grade in exchange for sexual favors, but I couldn’t prove it. I figured if he texted me, then people would have to believe me.”

“So you knew? You knew and you let it keep going?” Was she for real? Was she insane? “My God, Kylie, how could you be so f**king stupid?”

I knew it was the worst possible thing to say the minute the words left my mouth. I didn’t mean that she was stupid, stupid. I meant that entrapping my father was a serious lapse in judgment.

But immediately her face froze then crumpled, before tears sprung to her eyes.

“Kylie, I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant . . .”

She smacked at me when I reached for her. God, why did I use that word? It was her personal Achilles’ heel, her insecurity, and there I had just blasted her for it.

“You’re right,” she said. “I am stupid. Stupid for believing that you could love me for who I am.”

“Aw, baby, come on, you’re not stupid. I do love you exactly as you are. I love everything about you.”

“But you think I’m too dumb to figure out your dad is hitting on me?”