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It felt like I’d thrown myself into the water back then to douse the flames, and now I was drowning in it. There was no escaping betrayal and the dark thoughts that came with that bullshit. It was so much more than shedding a few tears and moving on.
If things had been different, I would have been left alone.
No one had come after me.
No one gave a fuck.
I could only imagine the dark hellhole I’d be in right now without Reed pulling over that day and holding out his hand.
In retrospect, I should have seen it coming. When the shoe dropped, and the pieces fell into place, I questioned my intelligence.
Jade had planned the guest list, chosen the flowers, and she even picked the style of my dress and the color of Chad’s suit.
This whole time, she hadn’t been the best friend helping me planmywedding tomyfiancé.
She’d been planningherwedding tomyfiancé.
The wedding he wouldn’t give her because he was scared his parents would never approve.
Though I guess now they’d seen the alternative was a crazy bitch who uses the word fuck in church—Jade looked like a damn angel.
More ringing filled the small studio, and while I’d been happy to leave it alone before and let her sit and stew about what she’d done, I suddenly had a burst offuck that. I leaped off the floor, ignoring the screaming in my muscles as I quickly walked over to where my phone sat, Jade’s face lighting up the screen.
I reached for it, my anger almost making me toss it across the room before I could answer, but I paused and swiped, pressing it to my ear. “What the hell do you want?”
“Valen, I just need to talk—”
“No,” I snapped. “I don’t want to hear what you have to say. Actions, Jade! They speak louder than words, and the world heard yours.”
I thought I heard a sniffle.
Maybe that should have spurred me on, but really, it tugged at a string I wasn’t anticipating. Not because of the tears but because Jade never cried. I hadn’t seen a tear in her eyes the entire time we’d been friends.
Not even because of Maddie.
Jade was the only one of the three of us who was always so confident, so sure, so ready to take on anything that came her way.
At times, it drove Maddie and me crazy, but for the most part, it gave the two of us the boost we needed to take chances, to not be so cautious, to live life.
So I paused.
And I waited.
“I need to tell you…” she said quietly before clearing her throat and lowering her voice to a whisper. “There’s things I need you to hear.”
I looked up at Abby, who was standing a few feet away, shaking her head.
I know I should have ignored this.
I should have hung up and walked away.
But there was a reason this shit with Jade had hurt so bad, and it was because I did care about her… so much. She’d had my back at times when no one else had. She’d stood up for me, fought for me, and together, the both of us had fought back through the dark.
“Valen, p-please,” she pleaded again, her voice cracking. “Please, just hear me out.”
I stood a little taller, my heart and head battling inside me.
One saidlisten.
