“Do you need a ride, Wren?” he asked, and I shook my head.
“No. I’ve got my car.” I jogged toward the garage, opened the side door, and tossed my bag in the passenger seat of my Bronco. I’d just gotten it for my sixteenth birthday.
There was only one place I could go.
Something happened. I need you.
Cowboy
Should I get in the car or are you coming here?
I’m on my way.
Cowboy
I’ll be waiting for you.
I let myself cry for thirty minutes as I drove to the city. My mom called, but I didn’t answer, because what was I going to say?
“Hey, I just saw Dad banging his secretary in your bed”?
He was right. It would crush her.
I could call Collin, but he was just so unavailable lately, and he probably wouldn’t even take the call. He wasn’t a sympathetic guy. He’d tell me to get over it.
That was his big thing. Shit happens. Get over it.
Plus he had finals, and he was stressed out about school. He would not want to deal with this right now.
After I’d driven into the city, I pulled into the parking spot outside Axel’s dorm before hurrying inside with my bag slung over my shoulder.
“Fuck off, Axel!” a voice shouted, and I cringed as Janet came storming toward me.
He shouted after her, “You’re being ridiculous.”
She gave him the finger and paused when she was right in front of me. “He’s all yours. I guess he always has been.”
I gave her a sympathetic look. “We’re just friends.”
She shrugged before stalking away.
No one understood our friendship. My one and only boyfriend had been jealous of Axel for the eight months we’d dated. I’d ended things with him because of it. Axel was a part of my life. Probably the biggest part of my life. We’d never crossed the line, aside from one kiss a few years back that was me proving that I knew how to kiss a boy.
He was my best friend.
My person.
He opened his arms, and I walked right into them.
“Jesus. You’re burning up, Wren.” He pushed the door closed and walked me over to his bed, where we both sat down. He studied my face, which was obviously swollen from crying all the way here. “What the hell is going on? You shouldn’t be driving when you’re sick.”
His roommate, Jason, had dropped out of school over a month earlier, so Axel had the room to himself.
“I just saw my dad in bed with Sabrina,” I said, my words breaking on a sob.
He asked several questions, and I gave him all the gory details.
“Fuck, Wren. I’m so sorry.” He pulled me onto his lap and wrapped his arms around me.
