“Have you dropped that loser yet?” I asked through my clenched jaw, hoping tonight would signal the tail end of this relationship fraught with problems.
I heard her long inhale through her nose, to give her patience or to keep from crying, I couldn’t tell.
“It’s not that easy, T.”
Her thin words only made me want to snap my steering wheel in half. My knuckles burned from the grip I couldn’t seem to loosen. With a glance out of the corner of my eye, Amelia appeared to retreat back into herself as she sat there next to me, a reaction that never would have happened before she met Daire. Amelia had always been bigger than life and sassier than any woman I’d ever met. What was it about this guy that made her small? Made her shrink into a helpless version of herself?
“It can be that easy. Just rip the Band-Aid, Lia,” I begged her, resorting to the nickname I’d used our whole lives. Back before Daire created a chasm between us that no amount of cajoling on my part could fix.
Amelia snorted, and while that wasn’t the retort I wanted, at least it showed some attitude. Some semblance of the backbone I’d always thought was lined with steel. The lights from the deserted highway flashed through the windshield as I put distance between us and that damn bar. Amelia deserved to go to five-star restaurants, not seedy bars outside of map-dot towns. He’d probably driven them there on the back of his Harley without a single thought about her short skirt or carefully flat-ironed hair.
“Amelia,” I began again.
“Enough, Jackson!” she cut me off, the use of my last name a purposeful verbal jab.
I let it go, on unfamiliar ground now that Amelia and I had drifted apart. A few years ago, I could have joked her out of her bad mood in a matter of ten minutes. This new Amelia seemed broken down and bone-tired, unable to grasp on to the lifeline I kept throwing her way. I nearly bit a hole in my lip keeping my mouth shut. Instead, I stewed on what to do. And I would do something. Mark my words.
All too soon, I pulled into the driveway of Hell Hotel back in Auburn Hill, where Amelia worked and lived as the manager. I kept the truck running and spun to face her. She stared out my windshield, catatonic.
“Lia. Are you okay?” I asked softly, like I would an injured animal.
She flinched, but still her eyes stayed dry. The girl was practically famous for never crying. Claimed her tear ducts were broken. My theory was that Amelia simply channeled all her emotions into anger instead of sadness. Her anger bucket overflowed on a daily basis, causing a slow leak of sassiness that accompanied her wherever she went. She backed down to no one, which was why this thing with Daire had me spooked.
She finally turned her head to me, giving me her eyes for the first time that night. She was so fucking beautiful. Anger spiked in my chest again at that asshole for treating her like she didn’t matter.
“I’ll be okay, T. Thanks for picking me up.” She leaned over and pulled me into a hug.
My hand found her back, her bare skin a temptation I couldn’t indulge in. She hadn’t hugged me in almost a year and I wouldn’t risk making her pull away. All too quickly, she let go and grabbed for the door handle.
“Stop.” I gritted my teeth and slid out the door, willing my body to ignore the desire that coursed through it from innocently touching her. She needed a friend right now.
I came around the hood and opened her door, helping her down. She flicked glances at me, trying to figure me out and it cut deep that she didn’t know what to do with a guy holding her door or making sure she got home safely. I clenched a fist and promised myself it could connect with Daire’s face later. She wobbled away from me on her high heels, that damn skirt inching up with each step. She kept tugging it down, probably aware of a draft in sensitive areas. My eyeballs couldn’t seem to tear themselves away from the sight. I waited until she got inside the hotel before I got back in my truck and headed home.
The shitbag house I rented was dark when I pulled in. Rip must already be asleep, which was probably for the best. I had too much angry energy burning in my gut to be good company. While Rip and I had been friends since kindergarten, I’d been best friends with Amelia since junior high. I remember the day it all happened like it was yesterday.
Amelia got in an argument with some girl at school right after the bell rang to let us out for the day. The girl’s boyfriend got involved and soon it was two against one. Not one for fighting, or for seeing a girl get ganged up on, I’d marched over to put an end to it. And I did end it, but not before I’d had to subdue a flailing Amelia, who was dead set on pulling every single hair out of that girl’s scalp.
She was a wild child. I was hooked.
Amelia had let me have it for letting the girl go before she could make her pay, but I’d stood my ground. I dropped a joke, and her voice came down a few decibels. I told her a funny story, and she forgot the scuffle entirely. She’d grinned, her metal braces flashing and my pubescent-boy body had never seen a happier sight. By the time I’d walked her home, we’d come up with a special handshake and made plans to walk together every day.
Amelia was just like that. She either loved you or hated you almost instantly. There was no in-between.
I locked the front door behind me and
