AllFreeNovel
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I hate that I know what TMZ is and that if I pull up my history in my cellphone’s browser, it’d be one of the last sites I visited.
Tommy starts pecking into his smartphone.
“Whatever you find, don’t breathe a word of it to me or you’re fired.”
He continues pecking and scrolling, tapping and scanning. I take my beer with me to the jukebox and feed a few bills into the slot. Bypassing any and every love song, I play some loud, thrashy heavy metal before retaking my seat. Tommy’s watching me, lips pressed together.
“Did you want to watch it?” he asks.
“I was there. I don’t need to watch it.” I remember what happened. Vividly.
“I think she thought you were playing along, man.”
“I was there, Tommy.” I drain my beer and point to his half-full glass. “Finish that up so I can go home.”
“What if she’s trying to get ahold of you?”
“She’s not.”
“What if she is?”
I sigh. “Then I should probably go home so she can find me.”
“Yeah, good point.” He guzzles the contents of his glass and we stand and walk out of there. I wonder as I drive him home if she did stop by the house to deliver my phone. What if I missed her? What if…?
I cut off my thoughts at the ankles.
I need a day when I’m not plagued by thoughts of Allie.
Maybe a few days.
After dropping off Tommy, I drive home, my head full of her despite my attempts to block her out. When I turn onto my street, I notice a woman sitting on my porch steps. Only she’s not the one I half expected to be there even though I was trying not to expect anyone at all.
“Jules,” I greet as I climb from the truck.
“I’m going to kill her. And you! Why haven’t you answered your phone?”
“Good to see you, too.” I select my house key from the ring. Jules intercepts me, grabs the keys, and blocks my way, an angry expression on her face.
As she studies me, her brows separate, the anger evaporating with her next breath. Then she crushes me into a hug, her arms strangling my neck. I embrace my twin sister, sighing in defeat as I hug her back.
“I’m okay, Jules. You can stand down.”
She hangs on tight for another moment and then releases me, hands on my shoulders so she can watch me carefully.
“I saw the video and I thought for sure Allie roped you into some weird role-play. But you did it, didn’t you? You broke up with her and then you tried a Hail Mary to win her back and she chose Xavier over you.”
“I didn’t break up with her. She just said that because…I’m not sure why. I was trying to help her out. The declaration wasn’t a Hail Mary, it was the truth. She has a career to look after. I can’t help her out in that arena. Xavier can.”
“If she chose him or her career over you, she’s a—”
“Don’t say it.” I’m literally weary from dealing with this shit. My life used to be simple. Work all day, work some at night on paperwork, go to my family’s house on Sundays. With Allie it’s complicated in that my time is split, but so is my heart. I want to chase her and hold her forever while simultaneously keeping myself out of reach so I don’t have to fucking feel like this ever again.
“Allie’s a shooting star, Jules. No one gets a shooting star for keeps.” I nudge my sister aside and unlock the front door.
“Do you have any wine?”
“No. But there’s beer in there.”
