“If you can’t take me home, I understand. I’ll get an Uber.”
“No. I’ll take you all the way back to New York. You won’t be able to get a train until tomorrow, and I don’t think you should be alone tonight.”
“Okay.” I didn’t say anything else until we were in his car and driving away from the party. “Did you leave me on purpose?”
“Not for the reasons you’re thinking, but yes, I did.”
“Okay.”
“Okay? That’s it? You don’t even want to ask why?”
“No. I don’t want to know anything else. Can we not talk? I really… I just… I can’t do this right now.”
“Whatever you need,” he agreed.
I needed tonight to have never happened. I wished that Grace never existed. I needed my best friend to wrap his arms around me and say he didn’t mean those horrible things he said to me and that he was sorry. None of that was ever going to happen, though. So, the only thing Ineededwas to go home and figure out how to disappear on my own.
FIVE
Scars
LOGAN
My heart hammeredagainst my chest as I guided Grace away from the stunned onlookers who had just witnessed my best friend in the world humiliate her. My emotions were like a fucking tornado tearing up my insides. I couldn’t believe my sweet friend had turned into such an awful bitch over the past year. Maybe she had always been a bitch and I never realized it because we were never in each other’s sphere long enough for me to see the real her. From the time my father sent me off to boarding school, I only ever really saw Aoife on summer break and holidays, then our every other weekend visits once we entered college.
I’d been so happy when I saw her at the party and fucking turned on by the sight of her in that dress. That lasted about twenty seconds before I noticed that her eyes were pinned to the floor in front of her. Once I noticed Grace there, all thoughts of how beautiful Aoife was evaporated. In the few steps I needed to take to get to Grace and help her up, I noted that Aoife never once extended a hand to her. She just stared at my soaked date for the night and seemed apathetic at best about the situation.
“What the fuck have you done?” I yelled at Aoife as I picked Grace up off the floor. The woman in my arms shook like a leaf as she quickly rambled in my ear about what Aoife had just done to her. My anger burned through any fondness I once held for Aoife. She had gone too far this time.
“Logan, she shoved me down and threw her drink on me. It was so humiliating. I didn’t even do anything. She screamed something about me stealing her man from her. She literally yelled that you were supposed to marry her and that she’d seen us dancing and looking like we were in love with one another.” Grace choked back a sob before adding the rest. “She said she had mafia ties that could take care of me. I’m so scared. Maybe I should just leave and never speak to you again.”
“Fuck that. I’ll handle her. She had no right,” I assured Grace as quietly as I could. Then, I turned to Aoife and unleashed a tirade that didn’t even cover just how fucked up this whole situation had been. How dare she threaten Grace with the very people Aoife had been trying to get away from?
“It was bad enough that you had to be a complete bitch to Grace, and she finally told me about all the other times you were mean to her during your visits here, but this is going above and beyond, Aoife. I thought you were better than this! I didn’t think you’d ever be so fucking cruel to another person, but here you are, behaving just like your dad and his fucked-up goon squad. You know what? It’s good that he plans to marry you off to some mobster because that’s exactly the life you deserve. Go back to New York because you’re not wanted here, certainly not by me anymore.”
If I had to name the emotion that was written on Aoife’s face, I’d say it was pure devastation. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but just as I thought to soften the blow I’d delivered seconds ago, Grace could no longer hold back her own emotions. She started to cry loudly and the only thing I could think to do was tospare her any further humiliation. I turned us around and took her back through the kitchen to get her cleaned up. I’d take her home once we got her dried off and calmed down.
The part of me who had a hard time letting go of a long-time friend wondered how Aoife was, if she would get home safely. Then I remembered how she threatened the only other woman I’d ever cared about and I managed to lock any thoughts of her up in a vault somewhere deep inside me. I’d deal with her, and those emotions, later. Right now, my focus had to be on getting Grace sorted because she didn’t deserve the way Aoife had attacked her. I felt like I’d failed because it hadn’t been the first time my former best friend caused problems and I never properly addressed the issue then. If I had, there’s no way Aoife would have shown up here and done this in public where there were a bunch of witnesses to her behavior. For her to do that, she had to think she could get away with it, and that was unacceptable.
After drying Grace off as best as we could, I tipped her chin up and kissed her nose. “I’m sorry this happened, baby. I’m going to get you back to your room-”
“No!” Grace shrieked and then tapped my chest twice with her hand as if she didn’t know what else to do with herself. “Please, Logan,” she begged as she clutched my shirt into her fist. “I don’t want to be alone after that. Can I come back to your room, instead.”
“Of course.” There was no hesitation. If she needed to feel safe, I’d do whatever it took because it was ultimately my fault she had been attacked. I wrapped her in my arm, tucked tight to my side, and started to walk us out of the party. Before we could reach the front door, I was stopped by a woman who looked familiar.
“Hi, I need to tell you what really happened there,” she insisted.
“I know what happened,” I told her as I tried to maneuver Grace and me to the door.
“No,” the woman yelled as she held out her hand to stop me, “you don’t.”
I felt the jerky motions at my side before I heard the sobs from my friend as she let loose another torrent of emotion, clearly embarrassed all over again by someone stopping us to talk about what happened. The woman who stood in our way pissed me off. Like I needed further clarification of what a complete brat my former best friend had been. Brat was a kind description considering she threatened to unleash the Irish mob on Grace. With that thought in mind, I was sick of people making my friend feel bad and pushed my hand out and scooped the woman out of the way. She stumbled back a couple steps before someone caught her.
“You put your fucking hands on my woman when she’s trying to help you?” A man yelled just before something hard connected with my jaw and then it felt like liquid fire raced up my jaw to the corner of my mouth. Molten hot liquid started to drip from me as Grace stopped crying, gasped loudly, and jumped back out of the way. The man who yelled at me stood there, wide-eyed with a broken bottle dripping blood and beer down his hands. My blood.
“Oh my God! Logan!” Grace yelled and it was her turn to rush me out of the party instead. She got us to my car and ushered me into the passenger’s seat before she climbed in and drove us to the hospital. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”
“No, it isn’t,” I started to say more but it felt like my lips might melt off my face as I formed words, so I stopped and took my shirt off to hold against my ravaged face.
