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“No, you look, dickhead.” She moved so gracefully, the action mesmerizing as she stepped between me and Gretchen, who was still sitting on the floor. Shaw’s index finger stabbed me in the chest as the pain in her eyes morphed into anger. “You can’t kiss me one weekend, then avoid me like the fucking plague for days, only to set it up so I would find you like this. You were the only reason I even came to this damn thing tonight, and you knew it!”
The knot in my throat only doubled, and I tried to push it down before shaking my head in denial. “Listen—”
“No,” she interrupted again, practically spitting the word at me. “You listen. You know how I feel. You told me how you feel too. I thought we had a chance. That we could be the next Violet and Luca. Have something amazing. But apparently you’re too much of a goddamn pussy to fight for us.”
Her voice cracked, and I could feel the hold I had on my own emotions beginning to slip. If I fell to my knees and begged her to forgive me, would she? But even as the thought of doing just that filled my head, I locked my knees and stood my ground. I wanted her to hate me, I reminded myself. The whole point of this night was to show her I wasn’t the guy who deserved her.
“I fucking knew you two kissed!”
I’d barely registered the sound of Cannon’s voice before he grabbed my shoulder and swung me around. I had only enough time to take in the wildness in his eyes before his fist blocked my view and I felt the punch to my face. The force of it knocked me on my ass, and I stayed there, knowing I deserved the hit and much, much more.
“Stay the fuck away from my sister,” he snarled at me, and I bowed my head. “And I told you, keep your distance from my best friend. You’re acting like a fucking slut right now, Shaw.”
I would have sat there and taken whatever the hell he threw at me, but when he started in on Shaw, I began to reach out and knock his feet out from under him. My only thought was to get him on my level so I could beat some respect for his sister into his thick head. Before I could move, he was suddenly beside me on the floor.
Dazed by the abruptness of his fall, I looked up at Shaw as she shook out her left hand. “And you’re acting like a fucking prick, asshole.” Her angry gaze went from him to me, and her eyes filled with disgust, making that damn lump fill my throat once again. “You know what? You two deserve each other. You’re both pussified idiots.”
As she stepped over me and disappeared into the kitchen, I just sat there, watching her walk away. This was what I wanted, I reminded myself yet again. It was the best solution for everyone.
“You were only making out with me to hurt that girl?”
Hearing Gretchen’s question made me remember that she was still there, sitting on the floor only a few feet away from me. Unable to get so much as a sound through the tightness of my throat, I shrugged.
Her brown eyes filled with just as much anger as Shaw’s baby blues had, but the sight had zero effect on me. “She’s right. You are a pussy. I’m out of here.” Standing, she grabbed a pillow off the couch we’d been making out on only minutes before and hit me in the face with it. When it grazed over the spot on my jaw where Cannon had hit me, I had to swallow a groan.
Shit, I was going to be feeling that for a while. I touched my jaw, checking the damage as I opened my mouth widely a few times. Nothing felt loose or broken, but the way my face throbbed, I was sure I was going to have a bruise.
Violet stepped over me, shooting me a dirty look before following after Shaw. Having sweet little Vi look at me like that made me feel like a piece of shit, and I forced myself to stand. Brushing off my jeans, I glanced at my best friend and then offered my hand.
Cannon slapped it away. “You had to go and fuck everything up.” He got to his feet on his own, then swayed once he was upright, and I realized he’d already been drinking. “I told you not to touch my sister.”
Angrily, I pushed him back when he started to get in my face. “You don’t tell me what to do, Can. I’ll do whatever the fuck I want. She’s not your property, and neither am I.”
“You’re my friend!” he raged. “She can’t fucking have you. I won’t let her.”
He sounded like a petulant little child, and I remembered what Mia had said the night before over dinner. My sister was right. Cannon was nothing but an entitled asshole.
“You’re pathetic,” I told him with a disgusted shake of my head. “Grow the fuck up, man.”
Turning in the direction Shaw just went, I started to follow her—tell her I was sorry and that I never should have picked Cannon over her—but he got in my face again. I pushed him back for the second time, and he swung at me. But he was already halfway to being drunk. I sidestepped him, and he landed on his face on the floor beside discarded Solo cups and other trash.
“Jagger.” I turned at the sound of Gretchen’s hesitant voice. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and he
r bottom lip pouted out. “I can’t get an Uber or Lyft. Will you take me home?”
Instinct told me to go talk to Shaw, to explain and fix things with us now and not later. After seeing Cannon clearly, maybe for the first time ever, I knew I’d chosen wrong. But I’d asked Gretchen to come with me to this party, and it was my responsibility to make sure she got home safely.
“Yeah, Gretchen,” I assured her as I changed direction and headed for the front door. “I’ll take you home.”
Chapter 7
Shaw
The sound of sobbing had me groaning and turning onto my stomach. Even lying down, I felt dizzy, but whoever was crying kept pulling me out of my drunken sleep. Some part of my brain kept telling me to get up, go to Violet and hold her. But I couldn’t remember why she needed comforting, and I was too out of it to do more than keep my eyes closed so I wouldn’t see the world spinning out of control around me.
A pounding roused me sometime later, causing me to jerk upright at the force behind it. “Violet?” I blinked in the direction of the voice, recognizing that it belonged to Uncle Shane. “Sweetheart, open the door. Lyric wants to speak with you.”
It was only then that I heard the sobbing again and blinked my eyes in an attempt to focus on my surroundings a little more.
