“What?” she challenged, wheeling around when she reached the sidewalk. “Let me guess. He made some asshole comment, and you just had to put him in his place, right?”
We shared a look that only infuriated her more.
“Butwhy? What does it matter what some asshat like Travis says if it ruins my night?”
Adam winced at her response, snapping his mouth shut. Now safely out of earshot from the rest of the party, we both knew she planned to keep yelling at us.
“Adam, if you pull that shit with the wrong person, you could screw up your chances for med school. Did you think about that?”
She forged on before Adam could respond, turning to me.
“And you! What happens when the next asshole you beat up gets you kicked off the football team in college?”
“Addie, you don’t?—”
“No!” She growled, dragging her hands through her hair in frustration. “What kind of petty comment from that asshole is worth losingyour dreamover before you even start playing for it, Blake?” She planted her hands on her hips. “Did you even think about that?”
I saw her point about our futures.
And I hated the thoughts that came with it.
My football scholarship was my way out of needing my dad’s help. My way out of following his plans for my life. If I lost that, I?—
Addie bristled at my silence. “Go on. Tell me.”
I seethed at her, hating that she was right.
Beneath the blood rushing past my ears, a tiny corner of my brain registered that this wasn’t the first time Addie had seen us do something stupid. It was on brand—us being reckless idiots while she steered us down the right path. Keeping me from fucking up my plans.
From deep under the haze of my sudden tunnel vision, I registered that.
But the part of my brain revved up by adrenaline? It sped by her logic. It shot straight past reason to fear over the consequences I’d escaped this time, and it dragged upwhyI’d done it.
Before I could stop myself, I opened my fucking mouth.
“Well, maybe if you weren’t half-naked on the dance floor gyrating like a stripper, we wouldn’t be fighting off fucking assholes in the first place!”
Her eyes widened in shock. “What did you just say to me?”
Adam shoved his hands in his pockets, walking backward, as if he wasn’t six foot-fucking-three and clearly visible.
I glared at him, but then I growled at her, furious that she didn’t understand. The way she affected people. The position it put me in each time. Every day for the last four years. Like I needed the constant reminder of what they all wanted and couldn’t have. What I?—
“Addie, you scold me for being reckless, ignoring that I stepped in tonight because those assholes were talking about you like you were nothing more than a young, cheap whore,” I spat the words, hating the way they tasted on my tongue. “Maybe next time, grow up and act right yourself!”
The second I said it, I knew I’d fucked up.
Addie’s mouth dropped open.
Tears brimmed her coal-lined eyes, and I winced.
But anger, pent-up frustration, and the sensation of something I couldn’t name spinning wildly out of my control kept me from retreating.
Until her voice gutted me.
“I can’t believe you just said that to me.”
Her quiet statement hit me like a ton of bricks. The pain in her voice drew me out of my haze and back to her.
