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A cool calmness settled over me as he grew more distressed. I was having a freakin’ out-of-body experience watching this scene play out. I was almost looking forward to seeing how the hell he was going to try to weasel out of this. Rationally, my first response should have been anger, disappointment, maybe even a little devastation to find out the guy I had been dating clearly had another girlfriend, but Jayden had yet to say anything, and the sheer audacity of him just sitting there was almost comical.
Girlfriend number two’s head switched between him and me like a Ping-Pong ball until they finally landed on him. He just sat there with his mouth opening and closing like a dying fish.
My hands clenched and unclenched, and my teeth ground together as I rolled my eyes at his inability to form a coherent sentence.
“I can’t believe I ever thought you were a decent guy.” I pushed back from the table, my chair legs screeching and drawing the attention of the entire restaurant. My cheeks flushed with their stares, and I felt the need to flee. Girlfriend number two’s eyes rimmed red and glossed over. Anything remotely funny about this situation died with the sheen of tears. I felt a pang of guilt in my chest.
“I didn’t know,” I said, hoping she could see the sincerity in my face.
A tear rolled down her cheek, and she asked, “How long?”
Clarification wasn’t necessary; this asshole had clearly been leading her on. “A month,” I said firmly, then stood, pressing both palms onto the table, and leaned over Jayden. Without looking away from him, I picked up my wine, swirling the dark red liquid in my glass, and then asked, “Have you been dating us both, Jayden?”
He smirked, his gaze flickering between me and his other girlfriend. “I guess you both just weren’t enough to satisfy my needs.”
“Wrong answer.” Indignation burned through my veins, and a delicious idea popped into my head. I lifted the glass and poured its contents over his perfectly styled hair.
Jayden straight up spluttered, but instead of looking at me, he looked at the girl to my right. “Hey, you know I’m sorry, right?”
It shouldn’t have mattered. I didn’t want him back anyway, but something about him choosing her in front of me had cracks of rage forming in my cool shell. She moved in closer, and I spun on my heels, grabbing my bag from my chair before I could see her entertain his bullshit for a second.
Hopefully she came to her senses quickly because there was no way that boy was changing. I sucked back a breath, holding myself together as I hurried out of the restaurant. My body vibrated with the need to run, powered by an overwhelming sense of embarrassment, but I kept my steps steady and my head held high.
I wanted Jayden to worry about just how okay I was. For him to know I didn’t care. All I had to do was get the hell out of here first.
In a few more feet, I was pushing out of the restaurant into the warm summer air. Even at night, the humidity made my clothes stick to my skin, and the curls I’d painstakingly put in my hair went limp. The road was lit by streetlights, and the busy sound of cars driving by created a low background hum.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, ignoring the slight tremble. I just needed to get home before Marcus and the guys. I’d told everyone I was going to Shana’s house because I’d planned on staying at Jayden’s place. If I was spotted, people would have questions.
Cursing that I hadn’t driven myself here, I started down the sidewalk toward my place onlya few kilometers away. I had another two blocks to go before turning right onto a winding paved path.
Thank God the guys didn’t know about Jayden, or they’d never let me live it down. I could already hear Marcus’s voice inside my mind, telling me he told me so. Even though he was only eleven months older than me, he treated me like it was his God-given mission to “protect me.” My mom had managed to convince our school to accept me early, so we were even in the same class. He had no right to treat me like some little kid. That didn’t stop him from going on and on about how all guys were assholes and that I needed to be protected from them. I bit back my infuriated groan. I couldn’t imagine the sheer size of the “I told you so.”
It wasn’t that I didn’t know guys could be assholes. It was that it was sexist as hell to decide I couldn’t handle it. Guess what? Girls could be evil too.
A shadow moved to my right, snapping me out of my thoughts and sending shivers down my spine. I strained my eyes, squinting into the darkness between the two restaurants, but the streetlight only covered the first few feet.
For a moment, I froze in place, listening to the sound of my own breath echoing in my ears. A second later, a raccoon popped its head out of the garbage, and my shoulders relaxed slightly.
Rationally, I knew that this was the same street I ran every morning, and the likelihood of anything going wrong was slim to none. But years of conditioning to never be alone at night had jitters dancing under my skin. I dialed Shana, hoping she’d talk to me on the way home, but it went straight to voicemail. No real surprise there. I could only hope her night was going better than mine.
My fingers tightened over my phone, and I weighed my options. I couldn’t call Marcus. I didn’t even want to think about how that conversation would go down. But I couldn’t shake the creepy feeling crawling up my skin being out here alone. It wasn’t even that late, couldn’t be much past nine, but once I’d passed the restaurant district, traffic died down, and most of the stores were closed. Unease settled over me, and I huffed out a breath, pulling out my phone.
There was another option, but it was hard to know if he was better or worse than my brother. On one hand, he’d be happy to lecture me, but on the other, I knew he would keep this to himself. So basically, my options were continue freaking out or call my brother’s best friend and risk a lecture.
I took a deep breath and dialed Lucas.
TWO
LUCAS
I got homefrom the gym, and my garage door was wide open, “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus blasting from my speakers. Jax must have taken over DJ duties for the night—he was always playing nineties music. As I walked into the garage, I saw him lounging on the couch with his legs sprawled out as if he owned the place, scrolling through his phone.
Marcus spotted me.His blond hair fell over his eyes as he lined up a puck and hit it effortlessly into the top-right target attached to the net.
“Hey, buddy, where have you been? I’ve been kicking Jax’s ass, practicing our shots for the last hour.” He spun and gave us a bow. Marcus was willpower and a bit of crazy all wrapped up in one. I had no doubt that’s why he was so successful on the ice.
“Fuck off, man,” Jax protested without bothering to look up from his phone. I smiled at the sight of them bickering like an old married couple.
