That all happened toward the end of the school year, junior year. Summer vacation came, and I never saw him again. I moved to Arizona to do my senior year of high school, living with my two aunts, to establish residency and qualify for in-state tuition at Arizona State University. Even back then, I knew my goal was financial freedom, and I had no intention of graduating from college saddled with a mountain of debt.
I turn my face to him and nod. “I remember.” My feistiness, and the gin, get the better of me, and I’m in a pissy mood anyway, ready to destroy everything in my path.
“So, did you ask her?” I scoff.
Pain and shadows fill his eyes as he looks at me. “Yes, Aspen. I did,” he says through his clenched teeth. “And my parents got divorced.” My smirk fades. I almost liked the way he said my name, but the anger lacing it scares me now. And the part about his parents getting divorced… well, I didn’t know that.
He stands up, and he reaches into his wallet and pulls out a hundred-dollar bill and puts it on the bar. He grabs that black leather journal and turns without a second glance at me, and he walks away. My gut twists like I’ve been sucker punched. A flurry of strange emotions swirl inside me… dread, sadness, loneliness, and what’s that other thing… lust?
I watch him walk out the back door to the parking lot, a little of the air in my lungs going with him.
Divorced?
Wow. I had no idea. I never imagined my little barb would cause his parents’ marriage to fall apart. Hell, I was only a kid. But is that what he’s saying? That it’s my fault his parents divorced? That I’m the reason?
“Hey, Jerry. I’ll be right back.” I jump off the bar stool and run out to the parking lot after him.
6
Ryker
“Hey, Ryker!”
I stop, my keys in my hand. I already have her voice memorized. I should get in my car and leave, but I turn around. Aspen marches up to me, the white lines on the asphalt marking the parking spaces between us.
She plants her feet in a strong pose and puts her balled fists on her hips like she’s some kind of superhero. Her eyes sparkle like diamonds, even under the cloudy, chaotic sky, and the wind picks up speed, blowing the blond wisps of hair framing her beautiful face. Then she fires her words at me, sharp as a whip. “What the hell are you talking about? How am I the cause of your parent’s divorce?”
“Because you are,” I snap, and that puzzling pull makes me step closer to her. I should get out of here, but for some reason, I can’t bring myself to turn away from her.
I don’t want to.
Ominous clouds roll overhead, and a loud clap of thunder booms in the distance. She jumps, and her eyes dart upwards, and when the lightning cracks the sky, it lights up her face, highlighting her high cheekbones. I inhale sharply, and her eyes flick back to me.
“Look, Ryker, I was not the reason your parents got divorced! If anyone hates anyone here, it’s me who hates you!” she says, with an icy gaze.
“Wait. What?! What the hell are you talking about?” I ask, my shoulders rigid.
“I remember that question I asked you, because I’ll always remember the shitty way you treated me in high school. You were a grade-A asshole, bullying me because my parents were divorced. I got tired of taking your shit, so I fought back. You were the dick!”
I stop.
What?
“I did what?”
“You were a bully, Ryker,” she says, her thundering voice now falling fragile, like a snowflake. “You hurt my feelings and embarrassed me, saying the meanest things about my family. You used to be nice to me, and then one day, you started talking trash. After a few days of it, I’d had enough. I told my mom. She told me to say that to you about your mom, which I did. And it worked. You never bothered me again. I never thought it would cause a divorce, but shit, that’s not my fault. I’m not the one who was having an affair. If you’re blaming me, you’re just blaming the messenger.”
I rub my hands over my face. My god, she’s beautiful.
My pulse is hammering in me everywhere… my eyelids, my neck, my cock. I shake my head once. I vaguely remember teasing her, I guess, now that she says it. But I honestly don’t know why I would have done that. Maybe I liked her back then, and she wasn’t paying enough attention to me. Maybe I was just an immature fuckwad.
Yeah, that’s possible. Well, if I’d wanted her attention back then, I sure got it, just not how I expected. I always had this idea in my head that she was the reason for my parents’ divorce. My immature brain thought it over and over, like a fucking mantra, and it stuck. I went years thinking she was the reason, and I was blind to the truth. How stupid of me. She didn’t literally cause the divorce. I knew Mom was the reason, but I never wanted to admit it, completely.
Fuck. I am an asshole.
I look at her, and her chest is still heaving, but less now. I like when her chest heaves. Then, the thunder shakes the earth again, and she flinches. I step closer to her, and she’s about to move back, but she doesn’t.
“Was I really that much of a dick to you in school?” I wince, and I almost want to laugh. It all seems so stupid now, including my behavior toward her the other day in the diner.
“Yes!” she says, and her expression tightens. She crosses her arms over her chest, a sexy pout on her succulent cherry lips.
A car pulls into the parking spot next to us, and four guys
