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If I didn’t want him to be on my side right now, I might call him out on his bullshit, but right now I need him to cover my own.
Ashton pushes into me just a little, letting me feel the heat radiating off of him before he pushes away with a shake of his head. “I am just sick of being the only one who sees that something more is going on.”
“More like sick of being the only one who hasn’t had a little fun with Bri,” Zaiden mutters under his breath.
“Grow up, Zaiden!” Ashton curses before he adds, “And besides, Hudson hasn’t been near her either, it’s just you two.” He points to Zaiden and I, but I note Hudson choke a little on his cereal before he gently lowers his spoon.
“Actually, this might not be the best time to say this, but I finger fucked Brielle against a tree last night,” he admits sheepishly and Ashton’s head snap towards him so he quickly adds, “But I totally do think Ashton has a point, she was being weird as fuck last night.”
Any anger that Ashton might have had towards Hudson in this moment is squashed by the mention of her acting strange. “What do you mean by weird?” he demands.
Hudson shrugs, picking his spoon back. “I don’t know, just different, sad, desperate, just not like her I guess.”
“We don’t know her anymore,” Zaiden cuts in, but Ash ignores him completely.
“Tell me everything,” he demands and Hudson raises his eyebrows.
“Everything?”
I tense a little and so does Ash because I definitely don’t want all the sordid details of what she got up to with Hudson. My jealousy is already eating me alive, there is no need to add to it.
Ash shakes his head and I can see his thoughts at war with one another about how much he wants to know about their encounter, but if what Hudson said is true, we need to know what he means.
“Just explain what you mean by strange,” I sigh. “Leave out anything personal.”
Hudson is quiet for a few seconds, thinking over last night no doubt, and the tension in the room rises as all three of us stare at him impatiently waiting for him to talk. Ashton is staring at him so hard I can see the muscles tensing in his neck and shoulders. Zaiden is leaning against the counter acting all nonchalant, but I note the clench of his jaw, he definitely doesn’t want a recap of what Hudson did with Brielle. And I’m torn between not wanting to hear it, and being desperate to know it.
Did she kiss him?
Was it the same way she kissed me?
Or would she kiss us all differently?
All those thoughts blur together until I feel like I want to scream on the inside, but on the outside I remain stoic and unmoving, waiting for him to talk.
“I found her drunk off her ass trying to walk home alone,” he starts. “She was talking in circles, not making any sense, and when I asked why she was leaving she said it was because Crawford got mad at her.”
Just hearing his name has me imagining ending him in so many ways I can’t even count. I always knew I disliked him, but the hatred I have for him now is something that has been growing since the second I walked out of that police station and saw his arm wrapped around Brielle in that instagram post.
Hudson continues, “She had been crying, her eyes were all red and puffy, her face a little swollen, she looked really beat up about it all.” Thinking about Brielle being sad does the same thing it always has to me, it makes me want to seek her out and take away her pain. Except I’m not allowed to do that anymore because she isn’t mine, she isn’t ours. “I offered to walk her home and then she started to ask me to make her forget her being sad, to make her feel good.” He starts to look uncomfortable as we move into more sordid territory before he quickly clears his throat. “By the time I got her back to the dorm she was barely talking to me, but when I tucked her into bed she said something funny.” He looks up at nothing as if trying to recall her exact words before it clicks and he says, “She said you’re always so good to me, that's why I’m saving you.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Ashton curses, swinging his gaze across all three of us as if we have the answers.
Hudson shrugs. “Who knows, man?”
That’s why I’m saving you.
Those words spin around on repeat in my mind. Saving us? Why the fuck would she need to save us? Save us from what? Heartbreak? Betrayal?
It’s a little too late for that.
“This is why we need to find out what is going on with her,” Ash demands. “I’m telling you, there is something we are missing and we need to find out what.”
Zaiden scoffs but says nothing and Hudson just looks conflicted.
I don’t want to think about it, but what if Ashton is right? What if we did miss something?
My mind runs through a variety of possibilities but still I come up with nothing, but the look Ash gives me cuts me in half. He looks desperate, devastated, and I can’t bear it.
