Aiden turned back to look at me on the ground, struggling tocatch my breath. Blurry vision slowly started to return to the eye he knocked out two minutes ago.
“No one wants you here, Chase.”
I could see an impressive amount of my blood on his knuckles.
“Been aware of that my whole life.”
“You can fuck every girl that pities you until the day you die, and nothing will change.”
I swiped one hand across my face, feeling the blood start to dry in places.
He doubled back quickly on his heel and gave me a hard kick right on my hip. Anna shrieked, but the pain was something I was used to.
My dad never drew blood from me, but his fist was more powerful than Aiden’s, anyway.
I focused on Anna’s sad eyes before Aiden pulled her out of the room.
It was nice, when she’d draped her arm over me.
It’s nice whenever anyone touches me.
I lean over the bar top in the Bellwood Hotel lounge, my thoughts swirling around the memory of Aiden and Anna.
That night feels like ages ago, now. High school was a different,farworse time in my life.
But history repeats.
Five minutes ago, I just saw my girlfriend walk by outside on the arm of a guy who looked like me but skinnier, with worse tattoos. They were arm in arm.
I’d suspected she was cheating, a couple of days ago.
But I didn’t actuallybelieveit until now.
“You don’t think it’s possible that my girlfriend is secretly married, right?” I ask Julian.
My brother is refilling simple syrup bottles beside me, focused on the task.
“The girl who said you were her sexual kryptonite?”
“Yes. That girl.”
“You think a married woman was pursuing you that hard? How well do you know her?” he mutters.
“Enough that she just told me she wanted to make it serious. Official. Whatever that means.”
“What’s her name again?”
“Madison.”
Julian shoots me a grin, his eyebrow raising. “Don’t you think it’s a bad sign that you knew her for a month yet you’d never even told me her name?”
I let out a long breath. “She seemed very into me. Until she started hiding her phone from me at weird times a couple of days ago. She told me she wanted to be my girlfriendlast week, so forgive me if I didn’t think she’d be cheating on me, man.”
Julian shakes his head. “Maybe she’s not cheating. You don’t know the whole story yet, so just wait it out, and talk to her the next time you see her. Don’t chew on it too hard.”
“Yeah. Maybe that guy is just her cousin, and cuddling up during walks is their way of expressing affection.”
Julian laughs. “Scandalous.”
