I don’t miss the dark look he shoots me along with the question.
She mumbles something affirmative, and he presses a kiss to her temple. Jenny doesn’t even look back at me as she carefully makes her way back into the hotel lobby. I can tell she’s still furious, her shoulders tense and her hands fisted at her sides, but she’s probably too drunk to really lay into me.
I have no doubt I’ll get the full force of it tomorrow.
“You fucked up, Lukey,” Elias says from a few feet away.
I always hated that nickname back in high school. It doesn’t sound any less grating now, but I bite back my instinct to lash out.
Already did that, and look where it got me.
“I know,” I grit out. I force a harsh sigh out through my teeth before turning to look at him. His top lip is crusted with blood, and he’s wincing from the pain. It’s not the worst I’ve ever fucked someone up, which is a small comfort. “I’m sorry, man. I didn’t recognize you, I swear. I thought some asshole was trying to take advantage while she was drunk. I just… I’m sorry.”
The apology tastes foul on my tongue, heavy with the sour flavor of guilt and shame. I’d rather swallow the words down and run off to hide somewhere instead of facing my actions, but Elias deserves it.
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Elias says sharply. His eyes go dark, threatening in a way that actually makes me a little scared of him. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful you’d look out for her like that. But that’s not what I mean, and you know it.”
I… really don’t.
I’m also exhausted and feel awful for hitting him in the first place, so I dip my head and brace myself for whatever he has to say.
“You want to chew me out?” I ask, more sullen than angry now. “Go for it.”
Elias chuckles unkindly. “God, do you always roll over this easily? Or is it just because it’s Jenny?” I don’t answer that. I don’t want to answer it, not even to myself. “You fucked up tonight, sure, but she’ll forgive you for it. You were trying to keep her safe. That’s not the issue. The issue is that you fuckingruinedher when you left. I’d have beaten you bloody if you did that to me and then came back around pretending like everything was fine. Have you even thought about what it was like for her after you ditched her?”
I snap my head up, searching Elias’s face for some sort of explanation. What is he even talking about? Jenny was pissed when we broke up, but she wasn’thurt. At least, not enough for Elias to be talking like this. I spent damn near a year crying myself to sleep over the lack of emotion on her face when she told me to fuck off for the last time. She didn’t even give me a chance to ask if she’d visit me, or to ask if I could visit her, if we could at least try to make things work long distance.
She just wrote everything between us off between one breath and the next.
And he asks if I thought of her after? I didn’t do anythingbutthink of her.
“Look, I kind of hate you, dude,” Elias says with a long suffering sigh even as he claps a hand over my shoulder. The gesture is almost friendly if you don’t pay attention to the way his fingers dig meanly into my skin. “ But you should apologize to Jenny. For real. Like, sit down and talk to each other kind of apologize. If you want to stop things like this from happening, you need to actually talk.”
I stare at him for a stretched out moment, hardly breathing as I try to figure out what he’s trying to hint at. The look in his eyes makes me think there’s something he’s not saying.
Somethingimportant.
Jenny may be right. I’m kind of stupid sometimes. Probably because I focus on myself instead of trying to read into other people’s words and actions, but I won’t deny that I miss things sometimes. Even I can tell that Elias is trying to nudge me in a very specific direction right now.
The only problem is that I have no fucking clue what direction that is.
“I—what are you?—”
“I’ve helped you enough,” Elias says, ruthlessly cutting me off. “I’m not saying any of this to helpyou. You can rot for all I care. But Jenny deserves an apology. An explanation, too. In return for me spelling that out for your pea brain, you’re going to make sure she gets to her room safe and sound, and you’re going to spend the night thinking of one hell of an apology. Got it?”
I blink at him, shocked at how certain of himself he sounds. The Elias I knew way back when was a shy, quiet kid who wouldn’t stand up to a mouse.
And yet here I am,intimidatedby the guy.
What a fucking night.
“Got it,” I say. “Sorry about your nose again.”
He waves me off and stalks back toward his car without so much as a goodbye, and I’m left standing in the parking lot with nothing but the buzzing of the streetlights for company.
I shake myself out of my daze and lock the truck up after tossing a ratty blanket over the contents of the backseat. Elias made his expectations of me clear, and I have to admit that it’s kind of nice to have instructions to follow right now. I can barely think straight as it is, my mind swirling with confusion and leftover frustration from my brief argument with Jenny.
I have no fucking clue what I’m supposed to be thinking up an apology for, but that can come later. The first step is to make sure Jenny gets into her room safely.
