AllFreeNovel
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“Okay, is this whole call a guilt trip?” I run my hand over my face, knowing my time is running short. My pale hair is pulled up into a messy ponytail and my face is scrubbed free of makeup, and I have to leave soon, yet I don’t want to get off the phone with Jax.
“You know me better than that. I just don’t understand. Like, I get it, but I don’t like it. Have you even tried talking to Luca?” There’s a bitter edge to his words. He met them a couple of times back when we were kids, but I always got the impression that they only hung out because of me, not because they liked each other. That, and Jax already had a group of his own friends he came to the beach to see.
“Trust me, I tried. He doesn’t want anything to do with me, and I honestly don’t even really blame him. Maybe we’re better off just ignoring each other before this gets ugly.”
He makes apssshsound. “The dude’s a fucking idiot if he thinks he can ignore you. I know I can’t.”
I roll my eyes and laugh. “Now you’re just kissing ass.” I smile at my ceiling as I lay back on the bed, wishing so hard that Jax was here in my room with me like the old days. “I’ll figure it out eventually…I hope. On the bright side, I did meet this really cool chick that works down at the coffee shop in town, we’ve been hanging out a lot.”
“She’s not cooler than me, right?” he asks jealously and I just snort again.
“Like it would take much?”
I hear rustling over the speaker that goes on for a full thirty seconds. “Did you hear that? I just smothered the phone with a pillow and pretended it was your face.”
Laughter busts from me as tears build in my eyes. This time, though, the tears are ones of joy. Leave it to Jax to make me feel like things will be alright after all. I should have known a phone call from him would do the trick. I can already feel my mood lightening and the weight that’s been pressing down on my chest lifts just the smallest amount.
“What’s going on in here, Big City?” River’s bitter voice breaks through the peace of my bedroom. I hadn’t realized my door was cracked open, and he just saunters right in. The shock of seeing him hits me like a bus.
I can feel my limbs automatically lock up as my fingers tighten around my phone. Behind River’s head of long, blond hair, Luca reluctantly stalks in with him, moving slowly past the door frame until he comes to a stop near my vanity. Crossing his muscular arms over his chest, he leans against it, roving his eyes over everything except for me.
“J, I have to go,” I mutter into the phone.
“Everything okay, babe?” he asks as River’s head swivels to me, narrowing those shrewd eyes of his on the phone in my hand. Shit, I’m almost positive he heard that.
Wait…why do I care?
“I’ll Facetime you tonight...bye.” I hang up and toss my phone down beside me. I feel guilty, and it’ll probably take some groveling to appease Jax later tonight.
River walks past my window and pretends to be very interested in the ocean in the distance, but I can see the tension practically rolling off of him. Having him in my room is surreal. Having both of them here is worse. They almost feel too big and too vivid right now, and the warm flush spreading through my body shows that. I hate so much that they still have this effect on me.
“Is there a reason for this impromptu visit?” I snap, clenching fists tightly as my eyes flit between the two men. “Luca, your room is two down, one over in case you forgot.” They look like they’re here to cause trouble and I’m seriously not in the mood. As much as my stomach fills with butterflies, I need to get to the studio before Landy fires my ass.
River turns around to sneer at me, his face a mask of bitterness. “You’ve been gone for seven years and you’re already trying to get rid of us?” Hetsks. “Not nice, blondie.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re blond, too, you idiot, and you know I hate when you call me that.” My words might sound casual, but my tumultuous emotions are anything but at the moment.
He smiles bitterly. “Oh, I know you do.” Like an asshole, his words are only to goad me. “I didn’t know you were fucking that Jax guy. Did his balls finally drop and allow him to confess his obsession with you?”
“Don’t be a fucking ass. Jax and I are friends. Best friends.” There I go lying again, but he doesn't have to know that. He doesn’t deserve to know anything about my life and who I am or am not fucking.
He huffs. “Yeah, I call all my friends ‘babe.’ Right, sweetcheeks?” He looks over at Luca and winks.
“I have to get to Landy’s in like twenty minutes, so if you could just leave, that’d be great.” I hop off the bed and lean over to grab my bag. I try to avoid eye contact as much as possible, but it’s hard when both of them are blocking me in on either side staring at me, something I realize was probably strategic.
“You still dancing?” asks Luca, seemingly disinterested, but when I look at him, his eyes are locked on me a little too intensely. That's something about Luca I think I’ll never get over. His intensity is enough to make me squirm.
I level him with a dry look. “Is that a serious question?” With a sudden burst of bravery, I stalk over to him and his whole body visibly stiffens. River whistles from behind me. “Don’t pretend like we’re strangers.” I grab a bottle of sunscreen from beside him and smile to myself as he lets out a long breath and unclenches his fists. It makes me feel kind of powerful having this much of an effect on him.
“I’m just trying to be nice,” he murmurs and I snort loudly.
“Nice?” I pull back and arch a brow at his stoic face. “Is that what we’re calling it?” Turning around, I make my way back over to my bed and slip my shoes on before hefting my bag over my shoulder. “‘Nice’ would be sitting down and having a conversation with an old friend like an adult. ‘Nice’ isn’t threatening to make someone’s life a living hell if they refuse to leave. You don’t know how to be nice, Luca. Not anymore.”
“What did you honestly expect?” River asks, making me turn and face him as he broadens his stance in front of my window. His large body is silhouetted with the light shining in from behind him and there’s a slight glow coming off his blond hair. His eyes narrow and his lips tilt up. “You didn’t really think we’d just forget what you did, right? You left like we were something you could just cast aside when you were done playing with us. We waited for you for two whole summers before we finally knew you were never coming back. I called you a million times. I even tracked down Jax’s number and he told me to fuck off and that you never wanted to speak with me again.” The pain he’s trying to conceal breaks my heart. “After that, the years didn’t surprise us.”
I had no idea Jax had gotten that call. He never even told me. Anger wells up inside of me. Not necessarily at Jax, but at the situation as a whole. Everything was handled wrong.
My shoulders slump. “I don’t expect you to forget. I don’t expect that at all.” I drop my bag to the floor. Luca swivels my way, arms still crossed. “But I kind of hoped you would let me explain myself at least. I’m not saying that leaving the way I did was okay, but you have to hear me out. Even if you don’t believe me, I do have a reason for bailing. I’ve just missed you all so much—”
