Page 61 of Hex You

The words wouldn’t leave Hunter’s mouth. It wasn’t a lie. Not exactly. But it also wasn’t the truth.

“I didn’t think about what would happen to you or to Jax.” The words hung between them like the blade of a guillotine.

Kylie’s eyes widened with disbelief, sorrow, pain.

Hunter pressed forward. There was no use in holding back now. Not after what she’d already done. “I wanted the power from the spell. That’s the only thing I could think about.”

Kylie wrapped her arms tighter around her middle, all traces of vulnerability and sadness wiped from her face. “You ruined everything, Hunter. You know that, right? Now we can never be friends.”

Slice.

The blade fell, beheading their relationship. It was a corpse between them; a dead, rotting thing that would take years to stitch back together. Even if Hunter could, it would never be the same.

The bell over the entrance chimed, and Hunter felt Jax’s presence before she looked up. He was a warm blanket, a bear hug, a sanctuary. Their friendship had changed, too. It wasn’t gone, slayed by Hunter’s sharp-edged lies, but it wasn’t like it had been. It was brittle and soft. A stale saltine dunked in soup. Whether or not he said it, she was on probation.

As he neared the table, Hunter offered him a sad smile beforeturning her attention to the wooden bench on the other side of the window. A newspaper sat in the middle of the empty seat. Its pages fluttered in the breeze, the headlines blurring into a black cloud as Hunter’s eyes filled with tears.

Sit next to me. Choose me. Choose me.

“Please.” Her whisper struck the window and slid down the glass like rain. She wiped her eyes and blinked back the rest of her tears as she dragged her gaze from the world outside Shake It to her plate of untouched fries.

Choose me. Choose me. Choose me.

The laminate squeaked as Jax sat next to her, his weight squishing the foam padding, pulling her in. Had they not been in public, she would have let herself sag against him, pressed her damp cheeks into his shoulder, and thanked him for knowing her, for loving her, especially when she didn’t love herself.

Hunter had won a tiny battle when Jax had chosen to sit next to her. Not a battle against Kylie. One against the world, this uncomfortable place she’d created and could not escape. But the victory would be short lived. She couldn’t celebrate until everything was crossed off her list.

“You good, Kyles?” Jax asked, frowning as he plucked a limp fry from Hunter’s plate.

“I will be.” She offered him a half smile, relaxing for the first time since she’d joined Hunter in the booth. “Thanks, by the way, for earlier. Everything you said…” Another soft smile. “You’re a good guy, Jax.”

Hunter dragged her pendant back and forth along its rope cord. “I’m glad you two are okay.”

Jax popped the floppy fry into his mouth. “Like old times.”

Hunter hiked one shoulder. “Except that Kylie and I aren’t friends anymore.”

Kylie’s smile faltered. “Don’t say it like that.”

“Say it like what?” Hunter asked as Jax reached in front of her for another mushy fry.

“All,I killed your puppysort of sad.”

Hunter frowned. “You did kill my puppy,” she said, their beheaded friendship twitching in front of her. “I like you, Kylie. I want to be friends. I want you in my life.”

Kylie shook her head, her strawberry-blond hair brushing her shoulders. “I can’t, Hunter. Not right now.”

“But…”Jax drew out around a mouthful of fry.

Hunter and Kylie exchanged a confused glance before blinking up at him.

Kylie’s thin brows lifted. “But what?”

“But maybe…”

“Maybe?”Hunter parroted, pushing the plate of fries in front of him.

He licked a blob of ketchup off his finger before looking from Kylie to Hunter and back again.“But maybe some…”