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Jacob looked past me, his eyes locking on the house. He smiled. I turned to look, watching as Bailey walked down the stairs towards him. Surprising me, she wrapped me up in a hug, holding on a bit tighter than normal. I blew out a soft breath and wrapped her up in my arms, burying my face in her hair.
“Thank you,” she whispered. I didn’t even ask what she was thanking me for. The fact that she was hugging me without me hugging her first fucking had me on the verge of tears. Today might be an okay day for her.
I swallowed thickly before I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I love you, sis. Call me if you need me, yeah?”
She nodded and stepped out of my embrace. I watched as she got into the passenger seat of Jacob’s car.
This was something Jacob and I had agreed on a long time ago—for him to drive Bailey to and from school, at the very least. Because I was terrified she was going to be so tired of living one day and intentionally crash her car in the hopes of killing herself.
And I couldn’t lose my little sister.
It would fucking kill me.
* * *
Bailey
Jacob followedmy line of sight to where I was staring at Seth, unable to take my eyes off of him. For once, he didn’t have a girl pressed up against his locker.
For the past few weeks now, he’d been making out with just about every girl he could get his hands on. And it had killed me to see him with other people. Every time I had, it felt like a fucking hole had been ripped into my chest.
But today, for once, his eyes were locked on me, and neither of us were looking away from the other. My heart was splintering in my chest at the agonized look in his eyes. I’d never seen him like this, and it was killing me. I just wanted to wrap him up in a hug and make another deal with him that I knew would end up hurting me more in the end.
But I couldn’t stand to see his pain.
“Come on, Bailey,” Jacob said softly, throwing a dirty look at someone who whispered something and pointed in our direction. “Don’t waste your time on him. He’s done enough to you as it is.”
Frowning, I turned away, but I knew Seth’s eyes never left me because I could feel his stare boring holes into my back. And when I glanced back at him over my shoulder before I disappeared around the corner completely, his eyes met mine again.
My heart broke a little bit more.
Why did he have to fuck up so badly? Why couldn’t he have just taken some time to deal with the mess in his head and then come back to me?
No. Instead, he ran, and he didn’t look back. In fact, this was the first time in weeks Seth had looked in my direction.
And I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to feel happy about that or angry.
* * *
I was slowly workingon my homework when Dad knocked on the doorjamb of my bedroom. I looked up at him, surprised he was out of his office. I knew he had something big going on today with his company. Big projects normally lasted him well into the night.
“I want to take you somewhere,” he said.
I frowned at him and set my pencil down. “Where?” I asked as I forced myself off my bed. I slid my feet into my shoes before shrugging my hoodie on.
“You’ll see,” he evasively answered. I sighed. I knew Dad well enough to know that if he wanted to surprise me with something, I wouldn’t get whatever the surprise was out of him. That wasn’t how he operated. And I didn’t have the energy in me to try to pry it out of him.
Dad pressed a kiss to the top of Mom’s head before we walked out into the attached garage where he and Mom parked their vehicles. It was a silent drive on the way to wherever he was taking me. I mostly just kept my gaze on my phone, scrolling through social media, ignoring the jabs at my pregnancy that people were posting.
I did my best to always ignore them, but they were becoming worse and worse, especially after news somehow got out that Seth was the dad. And because he wasn’t stepping up, I was apparently a liar. Because God forbid a guy be the father of a kid and not want anything to do with it.
I hated high school.
I was once well liked, and now, it had turned into a form of Hell.
I looked up when Dad suddenly parked the car. My mood instantly dimmed.
A therapist. Dad had brought me to a therapist.
