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ALLIE
Nicole sped out of the parking lot while I stood there in complete and utter shock. No, no, no, no, no. I couldn’t have fallen for Jace’s stupid little games again. I couldn’t. I …
My chest tightened until I felt like I couldn’t breathe, until I had to open my mouth to gasp for breath.
It couldn’t be true.
But it was because Jace stared at me with those wide brown eyes, like he had been caught doing the same thing he had done to me sophomore year. He had that same guilty look on his face, that same pain, that same hurt.
“Wh-what was that?” I whispered to him, wanting it to not be true.
Jace stepped toward me. “Allie, please, it’s—”
Some of Jace’s friends and teammates looked over at us from their cars. I moved back and wrapped my arms around my body, so I wouldn’t tremble, but tears were already welled up in my eyes, threatening to spill down my cheeks.
“Don’t tell me that it wasn’t what it looked like.” My voice cracked. “What was that?” I repeated, voice shakier.
Jace looked down at his feet and shrugged. Not even giving me the damn respect by looking at me.
I barreled forward at him, anger taking hold of me. When I shoved my hands into his chest, he stumbled back. I did it again and again and again until all his damn friends were looking over at us, wondering what was happening. But I didn’t give a fuck about them.
“Look at me when you answer,” I demanded, tears rolling down my cheeks. “What was that?” My voice was filled with such heartbreak and hurt. “What was it? Tell me. Are you fucking sleeping with her again? Huh? Just say it.”
Jace grabbed my wrists and stopped me from shoving my hands against him again. “Stop shoving me, Allie, and drop it. I told you to stay out of my business. Stay out of my fucking business.”
“No.” I shook my head, not believing that Jace couldn’t fucking own up to it. He’d had no problem owning up to it sophomore year. “I’m not going to drop it. This is my business, Jace. So, tell me. Fucking tell me!” The tears were coming so much quicker, and I couldn’t stop them.
Jace threw my hands back to me and shook his head. “What do you want me to say?” he shouted back. “That I’m sleeping with her? Is that what you want to hear, Allie? Do you want to hear all the fucking things I’m doing with her that I used to do with you?” Jace glared at me. “Why are you making such a big deal out of this?”
“Because I love you, Jace!” I shouted so loudly that everyone heard.
Everyone fucking heard me confess my never-ending love for my stepbrother.
I dropped my hands, chest tightening at the mere sound of saying it out loud. It was out there in the world, and I had finally given myself permission to feel everything I had sophomore year. All the pain, all the hurt, all the anguish I’d had to endure the days, weeks, months after Jace Harbor—the man I’d thought I was going to marry—broke my heart into tiny pieces and stomped on them to make sure I could never truly love again.
Stepping away from him, I stared at the ground. “I love you, and you can’t love me back,” I whispered. I shook my head, unable to keep the tears from spilling down my cheeks. “You can’t.”
The cruel and angry expression on Jace’s face shifted to one of hurt. He furrowed his brows together for the slightest moment, his pupils dilating. He blinked a few times as the silence captured us.
“You love me?” he whispered so quietly that I didn’t think I’d heard him. But then he said it again, this time a bit louder. “You really still love me?”
My glasses fogged up from all my heated anger and all the damn tears falling down my cheeks. I ripped them off, so I wouldn’t look stupid, standing in front of him, and wiped the glasses with my thumb. When I pushed them back on my face, I swallowed hard and turned away from him.
Imani stood by her car, arms crossed over her chest and a frown on her face. She hurried over to me, ready to capture me in her arms and drag me back to the car, where I could cry in peace without the entire football and cheer teams watching.
Jace snatched my wrist. “Allie, wait.”
I ripped myself away from him for the last time. “No, I’m not waiting for you anymore. I waited for you for two years.” I pushed some tears off my cheeks with the back of my hand. “Go be with her, Jace. You’ve always wanted to be with her.”
Go be with the girl you left me for sophomore year, the girl who cheated on you, the girl who will never love you with her entire heart the way I do.
Imani enveloped me in her arms, opened her car door for me, and pushed me into the car. When she shut the door, she turned around to say something to Jace that I couldn’t quite hear while I curled into a ball, my knees to my chest, and screamed through the tears, through the pain, through all those memories that I couldn’t stop from running through my mind.
