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I don’t need to put up with this shit. As my best friend, she’s supposed to support me!
Like I want to have my deepest fears thrown in my face!
Hunching my shoulders, I wrap my arms around my stomach and dip my head, scuttling down the street and heading I don’t even know where.
Not back to my dorm, that’s for sure!
The tears I’m fighting continue to build. I rub my eyes, willing them not to fall as I try to get away from the one person who I thought had my back in this whole thing.
But she doesn’t.
And shit… what if she’s right?
CHAPTER 24
CASEY
Like some kind of miracle, I have the house to myself. Mick and Ethan left with Rachel and Liam to do who the fuck knows. It probably involves a lot of handholding, nose rubbing, goopy smiles, and giggling.
I roll my eyes, Caroline’s laughter floating through the back of my brain as I try to deny how much I love that sound.
Baxter’s buried in the dark corners of the library while he tries to get an assignment done, and Asher has some family thing on. His cousin, Harvey, goes to Lennox College (but we’ll forgive him that because he’s related to Asher), and they have some celebration thing he wanted the whole family to attend.
I smirk, thinking about our rivals. It’s lucky his cousin doesn’t play hockey, because I wouldn’t care whose family he belongs to out on the ice. Although Harvey is a pretty cool dude. We’ve partied together before. The guy’s a ladies’ man like me, and we’ve had some good laughs together, trying to top each other with the crazy-ass shit we’ve gotten up to.
I take my sweet time in the bathroom, watching YouTube on my phone while doing my business, before finally wandering back to my room. I’m not really sure what I’ll get up to this afternoon. I should probably clean up my room. I can’t remember the last time I could see carpet all the way from my door to my closet.
But… boring!
I’m used to the house being a hive of activity, and although I thought I’d love this peace and quiet, it’s starting to niggle like an itch I can’t scratch. I guess I like me some noise and distractions. Too much time alone makes you think deep, and that only leads to life sucking as you consider all that’s currently wrong with it.
Baby daddy.
The words taunt me, ringing in my head like someone’s just smashed a gong inside my eardrum.
I wince and rub my forehead, reaching for my grandpa’s old record player. He gave it to me when I left for college and made me swear to take good care of it. Flicking through the vinyls that came with it, I pull out my favorite glam rock album, because I’m by myself and no one can hassle me for it. Def Leppard starts blasting, and I sing along to “Pour Some Sugar on Me.” Yes, it’s weird that I like this old-school shit. Asher doesn’t get my obsession with music from four and five decades ago. I don’t get it either. It’s gotta be because my grandpa used to play it when I was a kid. He’s a bit of a metal head, and my grandma was into ’80s pop. I really had no hope, especially when he passed it all on to me.
“Carry on the legacy, son.”
Mom took us away from them when I was still young, and I only see them very occasionally now, but don’t they say that your first few years of life are the most critical? Shit gets embedded that you just can’t shake, so let me cling to my weird taste in music.
The thought hits me that if I have a kid, there’s a chance they’ll grow up with weird-ass tastes in music too. If I’m fully involved. If I help raise it, which I should. I mean, right?
My breaths get punchy as I flirt with a full-blown panic attack. Pressing my fingers into my chest, I bend over, sucking in what air I can find… until a voice distracts me.
“Hello?”
I bolt upright, spinning when I hear Caroline’s voice on the stairwell.
“Hey!” I shout, jumping out of my room so I can greet her.
Yes! Distraction!
Sexy times!
This is just what I need.
But the second I see her face, I can tell she’s been crying, and my gut pinches with a sensation I don’t think I’ve ever felt before. I don’t know what the hell it means, but it makes me want to maim whoever caused those tears, then cradle Caroline against my chest like she’s a porcelain doll I must protect.
