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My gaze turns to Melissa. “You won. You got exactly what you always wanted. A two-timing QB that just got his ass kicked on the field. You did me a favor and made me realize how much of a liar he really is, and that goes for you too, Gina. You are all a bunch of shitty liars.” I step back toward Exie’s car. “You guys all deserve each other.”
“You are just mad that he dumped you for me.”
“Whatever you want to say to make yourself feel better.” I wave my hand with my palm facing up. “Go right ahead, Melissa. He is all yours. But he never dumped me.”
“Aura. Please don’t leave like this. Where are you staying? We can talk,” Marcus pleads.
“Why would you need to talk to her? You told me it was over,” Melissa chimes in perplexed.
Exie places her hands on the top of her driver’s side door with a fat grin plastered on her face. “Oh, you don’t know?” she asks Marcus.
“Know what?” Marcus asks.
Exie smirks. “Who she lives with? Whose parents are her guardians.”
A loud rumble of an engine as the black sports car I ride to school in each morning pulls up. Everyone’s attention is on the blacked-out window that lowers, revealing a dangerously hot Kalum.
Kalum glances at me. “Are you okay?”
I nod, not knowing how to respond. He’s here making sure I’m okay. He doesn’t have to worry about me, but the fact he took the time to make sure I’m okay means a lot right now.
“Make sure she gets home safe, Exie.”
Exie nods, and Kalum glances at Marcus.
“Don’t worry about Aura. She’s well taken care of.”
“You motherfucker,” Marcus says, his voice laced with steel.
He rolls the window up, ignoring him, and drives away, the loud engine of the car coming out of the exhaust as he pulls out into the street.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Marcus grumbles. “You live with the St. Claires?”
“Yep, she sleeps in the room next to his, and he takes her to school every morning,” Exie says with a knowing smile. “Let’s go, Aura. We have somewhere to be.”
“Aura, wait,” Marcus pleads.
I’m confused as to why he wants to talk. There is nothing left to say. There is nothing left for me here.
I slide inside the passenger side of Exie’s silver Lexus. He walks up to the car before I can close the door.
“Whoa. Back off, cowboy.” Exie points at Melissa. “Your girl is over there. You clearly made your choice.”
I look up at Marcus as he tries to lean into the car. “We went from being together almost every day to never being with each other. It’s okay to forget me, Marcus. Nothing is left to say except goodbye, and I wish you the best with Melissa. Now you two canbe together. I’m not in the way anymore.” His face falls. “It’s okay if you’re happy,” I say softly, closing the door like the page of the last chapter in a book.
He flinches like I slapped him. Watching him from the window, I see his expression is laced with regret. Melissa tries to wrap her arms around him, but he shrugs her off while Exie pulls out of the parking spot.
“You handled that with grace, Aura. If it was me, I would have torn her eyes out and then turned on him.”
“Doesn’t change what he did. He lied to me for two years, and nothing will make me forget that. He could have said he wanted to be friends with me from the beginning or when he felt I wasn’t what he wanted. He could have told me, and I would have understood. Sometimes, people take advantage, but it’s their loss because, in the end, they don’t get you. Sooner or later, their true self appears, and they will hate what they see. A liar.”
“I love that about you, Aura. You have this fresh outlook about life even when you have endured loss and pain.”
If she only knew that sometimes, just… sometimes I wished I had been in the car with them. It’s something I have never said to anyone. The judge appointed a psychiatrist, but the doctor said I’m grieving but not in a way that I would try to hurt myself. You can never stop grieving the loss of the most important people in your life. That is the part they don’t tell you. It never stops hurting.
We arrive at Brian’s, and it’s not too far from Kalum’s house. Parked cars line the street. It is dark outside, and people are milling about in their respective groups, talking and shooting the shit.
We enter the lavish home through the double doors. The house has cream-colored walls, traditional furnishings, and paintings that must cost a fortune by the way they are framed.
