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Larissa grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself and came into the house. “My stuff is in the bedroom.”

Shit.

“Get the fuck off me!” Mike yelled.

Larissa made concerned eye contact with me. Then Mike came down the hall into the kitchen with Xavier and Jesse on his heels. He paused in the doorway and spotted his ex-girlfriend. His face fractured the second he saw her.

I’d seen my best friend heartbroken before. I’d seen him during his parents’ divorce, during breakups. I’d been with him that day in the hospital when the doctor told him he’d never play professionally. I saw all his goals and aspirations and dreams go up in smoke. But I’d never seen him in pain like this.

He looked at her like she’d died. Like his soul had been ripped from his body.

“Babe,” he gasped. “Please…”

Larissa looked at him with wide eyes.

“Please, babe, don’t leave me…” he slurred.

She took a step back. “Mike…”

Xavier grabbed his arm, but Mike shook him off. He pushed past me and cornered Larissa against the counter and put her face in his hands. “I can be better,” he whispered. “Let me try, I promise.”

“Mike, get off me…” she said, a touch of panic in her voice.

He put his forehead to hers.

She tried to wriggle away. “Mike, I mean it, let me go.”

“Hey, Mike, let her go,” I said, putting a hand on his arm.

He ignored me.

“I love you,” he said. “I love you so much. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. What’s wrong with me?”

She pushed uselessly against him. “Mike!”

He pulled her in and kissed her.

Her eyes flew open. He wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug and doubled down, kissing her harder.

She made a frantic noise in the back of her throat and I grabbed his arm. “That’s enough, get off her!”

He was like a vise grip made of rock-solid muscle. I couldn’t move him. Woofarine started snarling and pulling on his pant leg. Jesse and Xavier took him by the elbows and the three of us managed to peel him away, sobbing. The second he let her go, Larissa staggered backward against the kitchen counter catching her breath, and I put myself between her and my wasted best friend. Heather, Samantha, and Becca were coming in, the cold blast of air from the slider blowing through the kitchen while Woofarine barked.

Mike was wailing. Guttural, heartbroken wails.

“Go get you stuff,” I said over my shoulder. “Now. Go now.” Larissa didn’t move. I turned to look at her. She had her fingers on her mouth.

“What?” I asked.

“Did you eat nuts?” Larissa asked, her voice shaking. “My lips are tingling. Mike, did you eat nuts?”

The whole room froze.

Mike didn’t answer. He was in his own universe, tears streaming down his face, too drunk to even comprehend the situation.

I looked at him. He had crumbs on his shirt. Rainbow crumbs.

My heart started to pound.