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I hold out my hand. “Give me my keys.”
Watching Dylan train on the otherwise deserted track, he drops the keys in my hand. “You didn’t win anything, you know?” he says. “In a week, they’ll be spinning a story about how we gave it to Weston out of pity.”
I nod, running down the narrative they’ll likely spin. “The fumble looked so real… Kade’s just so amazing, selling it as well as he did…. So self-sacrificing,” I coo. “Let’s all go suck his cock.”
He smiles and stands up straight, turning to face me. I do the same.
Darting out his hands, he shoves me in the chest. “Are you coming home now?”
I stumble, laughing under my breath. “I might.”
He shoves me again, and I stop the grunt of pain before it escapes fully.
He gets in my face. “Is that a yes or a no?” he bites out.
I hear Dylan’s bike close in again. I keep my hands to myself.
“I like it across the river,” I tell him. “The teachers are cool, and Farrow’s a fucking slob, but he has my back.”
Kade’s glare sharpens because he’s never backed me up.
“T.C., Anders, Luca, Calvin, Constin, Mace, Coral…” I list off all the other friends I’m lucky to have. “Yeah, I like it there.”
He grabs me by the back of the neck and yanks me to the ground, the pavement cutting into my back. I growl as he straddles me and squeezes my throat in his fist, hitting me across the face.
“Guys, stop!” I hear Dylan somewhere off to my left.
But Kade doesn’t. “You don’t give a shit about our parents!” he screams at me. “They want you home!”
“Stop, or I’ll call the police!” Dylan yells.
I shove Kade to the side and leap to my feet, facing him as he rises.
Dylan takes a couple steps toward us. “Enough!”
I only stare at Kade, though. “I like it there, so it works out for everyone. I can stay in Weston, then there’s nothing standing in your way,” I finish explaining. “Because she won’t have me like this. She doesn’t love me!”
“Hunter…” Her voice cracks.
“But maybe…” I say, no longer yelling, because sadness swells in my fucking throat. “Maybe, eventually, she’ll love you, and maybe you’ll be happy, and you’ll get off my fucking back!”
I don’t know what the hell he wants!
“She doesn’t love me,” I tell him again. “There’s no reason to hate me or to be jealous of me—”
“I wasn’t jealous of you!” he bellows. “I was jealous of her!”
I go still, Dylan and I falling silent as tears shake in Kade’s bloodshot eyes, threatening to spill.
His breathing is hard and heavy, and I turn the words over in my head, trying to understand. Jealous of her?
“What?” I ask, confused.
What does she have that he wants?
He turns a little, hiding his face as a bitter laugh that sounds almost like a sob leaves his throat. “Fuck…”
We all stand there as the anger dissipates, Kade calms, and he inhales and exhales deeply.
