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He doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t stop me from touching his hand either. We sit in silence until his fingers move to hold my hand. My chest swells with hope.
“Friends, Mila. I want us to be friends. Nothing more.”
He doesn’t say anything else, and I don’t either. I understand what he’s saying. He gave me the best kiss of my life, and I will never get to experience it again. But, in return, I have his friendship, and that’s what I wanted to begin with.
As soon as the bell rings for class, I reluctantly let go of Roman’s hand and head to my locker. I’m grabbing my books when I see Roman, Jace, and Hunter walking out of the school. They have classes, but they’re leaving?
I follow them. I want to see what they’re up to, and I find them close to where Jace parked his car.
“Fuck you, the pact is total bullshit, and now you fucked up my chance to be with her.” Hunter shoves Jace, and I gasp.
Holy shit, they’re fighting over me.
Roman holds Hunter back as Jace puffs up his chest. “What happened between us…fuck, I want it to happen again, okay? You want me to say sorry? Well, I’m not. Just like Roman kissed her. He isn’t sorry.”
Roman shoves Jace then, and he stumbles back. Roman doesn’t say anything, and Jace continues to stand his ground.
Fuck, I can’t have them fighting. They’re best friends. Hell, they have a football game on Friday, and they can’t be fighting. They work together so amazingly on the field, and I don’t want to be the reason we lose another game. Not that I totally blame myself for that last one.
I need to talk to Jace and Hunter. Roman has already made himself clear, and I’m glad. Just like with Asher, we need to set some boundaries. When Jace swings at Hunter, I scream. Jace misses and stumbles.
“Stop, stop fighting.” I run at them. They all spin on their heel to watch me running, and I stop once I’m between Jace and Hunter.
“Just stop, okay? Nothing is gonna happen.” I look up to Jace. “Friendship is more important than what we did, okay?” I spin around to make sure they’re all listening. “No kissing or touching and no sex. Friends.”
There is a loaded pause in the air. I feel the tension crackling between them, and I look to Jace, thinking he’s about to explode. But it’s not him.
“You touched her?” Hunter growls out, as if that’s the only thing he heard.
I throw my hands up. Maybe we can’t be friends; maybe the whole sex thing is an issue. People used to tell me that I couldn’t be friends with boys. Males and females just can’t; they’ll always want more. I told them it wasn’t true. That we could all stay friends. Even though I went through periods of crushes on the boys, that’s all they were. I got over them, and we stayed friends.
“No, I didn’t touch her,” Jace replies.
That seems to calm Hunter down a little. I let out a sigh. How did I think this would ever work? Can I start today over again?
“She touched me.”
My mouth drops open, and I turn in time to see Hunter lunge for Jace. I step out of the way as Hunter gets Jace into a headlock.
“Fuck, stop it.” Roman grabs the back of Hunter’s shirt, and it rips while Roman tries to pry him off Jace.
Jace slams his fist into Hunter’s gut, repeatedly, and the two of them wrestle and grunt. I have no idea what to do. When they used to fight, it was easier. I could break it up. But now I’m almost a foot shorter than them; it’s a little hard to jump in and stop them.
“Jace, Hunter, stop!” Grady calls out as he runs to us.
He helps Roman pull them apart. Hunter’s face is flushed, and he coughs before trying to fix his tee. But it’s too far gone.
Jace shakes himself off and bounces on his feet, ready for another round.
“I was told there are three Rebels out here, fighting. Over a girl. Guess what?” Grady asks.
No one answers. Hunter and Jace just glare daggers at each other and ignore Grady.
“I knew it was you they were talking about the minute I heard it.” Grady lets out a loud sigh as he throws his hands up. “Go to class, and we can talk about this after training.”
All three of them look at Grady and nod. Roman is the first to leave. Hunter follows behind him, and Jace looks to me before cursing and walking to his car.
I move to call out to him, but Grady wraps his arm around my shoulder. “Leave him. He’s upset with what happened between him and Hunter. If you want, I can drive you home? I have study hall right now, but I can drive you home and come back in time for training.”
I nod. That would be for the best. I can feel the eyes of students watching me, and I just need to go home. I feel exposed in a way I hadn’t been expecting to experience today, and it’s too much.
I’ve made everything worse by returning here and thinking I can start up my friendships from four years ago like nothing has changed.
Everything has changed.
