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“I’m a big girl, Rocky. It was a one-night stand. Good, but nothing that’s going anywhere, right?”
Her eyes held an expectation I didn’t know what to do with. All I could do was stare back at her.
“That’s answer enough,” she said with a sigh, shaking her head before she made her way to the cash register, where she waited for me.
How did that go so sideways so quickly? I was just explaining why we couldn’t be together and now I felt like some asshole who’d used her, when she wanted it as much as I did. I stalked to the register, paid, and grabbed her arm as I guided her from the diner. “I didn’t do anything to wrong you.”
She yanked out of my hold and glared up at me. “I never said you did. But let’s be honest, if this was something more than a night of fucking, you might at least consider treating Nolan like the adult he is, instead of like a child who can’t handle anything. If it could be more, like affection or, hell, maybe even love, it would be worth the risk, wouldn’t it?” Her chest heaved and her blue eyes were wild and filled with emotion. “It would be,” she finally answered her own question. “So, like I said, I got it. I’m not blaming you, just letting you know that I heard what you said. Now let’s go ho—back to your place.”
Shit. Something tightened in my chest.
Something that felt like loss for something I hadn’t even fully had yet.
Chapter 12
Peyton
“Hey, Lisa, it’s me.” My voice was small and quiet because that’s how I felt, like Rocky had taken my energy.
“Don’t you ‘hey, Lisa’ me when I have been going out of my goddamn mind! You haven’t answered any of my calls. And the fucking cops wouldn’t tell me anything, of course,” she shouted. “What if you were dead? What if something had happened to you?” Lisa breathed heavily into the phone, her worry palpable.
Guilt ripped through me and split my chest wide open. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered, “I sent you a text—”
“Yeah,” she interrupted, her voice even louder, “one that said your fucking roommate was fucking murdered and that you were going into hiding. What the actual fuck? What did you expect me to think after that?”
“That I was safe?” I said quietly, with a wince. Okay, when she put it like that…
“Well I was thinking the exact opposite, you giant fuck!”
“I’m sorry,” I repeat again. “A lot has happened.” I launched into my tale, telling her everything that happened from the moment I got home after graduation, until the moment I left the detectives in my room and ran to my car.
“Holy shit.” Her voice was quiet now, and she sounded shocked. “What the fuck?”
“Right?” A bitter laugh escaped, and I shook my head. “So this is my life now and I have to say, it fucking sucks.”
“No shit,” Lisa agreed. “Where are you now and why didn’t you call me sooner?”
“I was headed to you when I got the threat saying it was supposed to be me, and I didn’t want to put you in danger.”
“What are the cops doing?”
“What can they do? There’s been no further messages, and they’re still investigating Chloe’s murder.” I said in a resigned tone.
“And you’re out there on your own?” The high pitch of her voice told me she was about to freak out again.
“No, I’m not out here on my own, but that’s all I can tell you, Lisa. Don’t argue because I’m not going to tell you where I am.”
“Peyton,” she whined.
“No. You’re the only person in this world who gives a shit about me, and I won’t let anything happen to you. Never.”
“Well, damn.” I heard her let out a deep sigh. “Look, do you promise me that you’re safe?”
“Yes,” I tell her without hesitation.
“If I knew where you were, I’d approve?”
“You would.”
