“Hello?” My voice falters.
“Hey, Kass. It’s Luke. I’m so sorry I didn’t call earlier. You must’ve been waiting for me. I know we were supposed to meet at eight.”
A wave of relief rolls over me.
Then comes the guilt.
No, I wasn’t waiting for you. I was actually doing “things” with another guy, but thanks for calling.
Leave a message after the beep of shame.
“It’s okay, don’t worry about it.”
“I’m not going to be able to make it. I’m sorry. Believe me, I’d much rather be with you, but my aunt needs me.”
“It’s fine. Tonight’s not really good for me either,” I say, overly aware of Will hanging on to my every word. “Can I ask what’s going on? Is Isabella okay?”
“Let’s just say you and I are going to be seeing a whole lot more of each other.”
I peek at Will from the corner of my eye. He’s tense. His jaw, his fists, his shoulders—all tense as a rock. He looks like he could easily tear the tree house to the ground with his bare hands.
“How come?” I ask.
“My aunt’s training me to fill in as store manager. I’ll be helping out for a while.”
“Why? What happened?”
He gives me the missing piece of the equation.
“Jenny just quit.”
I’d like to say that I’m surprised. But all I can think about after hearing the news is “Of course she did.” There is no world in which this could’ve ended well for her. If she hadn’t quit, I would’ve, and she had no way of knowing if I planned on telling someone. She probably didn’t want to risk it and ran away so she could keep fucking her dean without issue.
“Did she say why?”
“Nope. Just said it was time for her to move on.”
Again, of course she did.
“Okay, then. I guess I’ll see you at work.”
“Yeah, see you, Kass. Sorry again.”
He hangs up.
The second I peel the phone from my ear, Will takes off. He gives me absolutely nothing: not a word, not a look. He just rushes down the crappy ladder and walks away.
“Will!” I shriek like a complete idiot.
I follow his lead, almost tripping on the vines covering the ground as I chase after him.
“Will!” I call again, but he doesn’t stop, striding down the rocky path. When I finally catch up to him, we’re standing in the parking lot where I left my car. The guy is fast.
“Wait.” I snatch his arm.
“What?” he drones, sounding uninterested. Bored, even. I’m a bit taken aback by his tone but try my best not to show it.
“Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine. Look, I have to get to training. I’m late. You should probably call Luke back. You know, so you can reschedule that date.”
With that said, he resumes walking.
“Okay, cut the crap.” I snap.
He stops cold.
“We just kissed, Will. Again. Y-You kissed me and you…” The words get caught in the back my throat. “You touched me. Please spare me the part where you pretend like nothing happened.”
“Fine.” He pivots. “It happened. What’s your point?”
He’s so detached, miles and miles away from the boy kissing me a moment prior. Is he faking it? Did I read this wrong? Does he really not care about me at all?
“My point is…” You can do it, Kass. “My point is we’re not fucking friends, Will.”
For a fragment of a second, my words seem to affect him, but he restores his default blank face too fast to tell for sure.
“What else would we be?”
For fuck’s sake.
He can’t do this anymore.
I gather all the courage in my body to say, “That kiss meant something, and you know it.”
“Fine,” he gives in.
Did he just… agree with me?
“You’re right,” he adds. “It meant something.”
I hold my breath.
“It means we had a moment and it passed.”
Ouch.
He turns to leave.
“Why did you kiss me?” I blurt. It’s a simple question. Yet, it all comes down to this.
He exhales, shaking his head as if to set his thoughts straight. “Fuck, I-I don’t know, okay? You were crying and you… you begged me to take your mind off it, so I did. It didn’t mean shit. If anything, it just means I was horny and you were there.”
My lips part.
It takes me a few seconds to realize what he just said. To process that I got rejected by not one, but two men I cared about in the same day. Swallowing the pill the best I can, I nod and mentally collect the pieces of my shattered ego.
He doesn’t like you.
He literally said it to your face.
Time to accept it.
“Message received loud and clear,” I reply, heading for my car. He stands there, watching as I unlock and open my door. Seconds before I slide in, I hear him curse beneath his breath.
“Kass, wait, I…” he tries—a dash of regret in his voice—but I ignore him, climb into the driver’s seat, and drive.
“I like this one.” Zoey squeals, parading around her bedroom in a glittery silver, fitted dress. Morgan and I have been watching her throw every outfit she possesses onto the floor for two long hours now.
On any other day, we’d be whining, making jokes about how there’s a whole world outside of her closet, but today? Today we keep our mouths shut and bend to Zoey’s every will. Because today is the most important day of the year in Zoey world.
Her birthday.
Zoey’s always been extra when it comes to celebrating her existence. Her absent mom usually rents out some ridiculously expensive place to host the thing, but this year, Mommy managed to steer clear of the birthday expenses.
How?
Sean.
Yep, Zoey recently got back together with her cheating, self-absorbed, selfish frat guy ex. How’d Prince Charming win her back, you ask? A text saying “Sorry. Miss u.”
And they say romance is dead.
I tried talking her out of it, but frankly, I’d much rather see her with Sean than barking up my brother’s tree, or worse, Haze’s. Not to mention Sean came back into the picture with an
