“Is he mad that I’m out with you?” Josh asked before he sat back down.
“No, he’s just overworked and cranky.” I let out a long sigh. Overworked, cranky, and jealous. But not jealous enough to let Todd handle the meeting and spend the evening with me. I was overwhelmed with everything I was feeling—anger, hurt, confusion, guilt. It was an exhausting concoction.
“Would you mind if I called it a night?” My tired eyes met Amanda’s. “I have an early meeting tomorrow.”
“No problem, Bri. I get it.” She gave me a sad smile. “Get some rest. It was nice to meet you, Josh.”
“You, too. C’mon, Cupcake. I’ll drive you home.” He stepped off the chair and reached for my hand. I glanced at it for a quick minute before I took it. This was what we did, but the touches meant more now. Itallmeant more now. And now, I had to figure out what to do about it.
Josh ~ Past
“JOSH!” REID SNAPPEDhis fingers in front of my face as we strode down the hallway to our chemistry class.
“What?” I huffed. Agitation simmered in my gut. Reid droned on all the way from the school doors but I couldn’t repeat a single word he said if my life depended on it.
“Okay, what the hell is with you today?”
I picked up my pace and didn’t turn around. “Nothing. While you guys are worried about the sweetheart dance next week, I have real life problems to figure out.” I dropped into my seat and threw my book on the desk. A loud thump filled the room and all eyes drifted toward me.
“You can still go. Are you that deep in Gio’s payroll that you can’t go to a school dance? It’s not like you don’t have someone to ask.” He snickered as he settled into the desk next to me.
“Drop it, okay?” Everyone had questions—all the fucking time.When are you going to turn in these college applications? What are you doing every night for Gio?I needed everyone to slow their roll and stop nagging me, but that wasn’t the real reason I saw red everywhere I looked today.
Anthony Colon asked Brianna to that dance. That stupid dance I said I didn’t have the time for. She hadn’t agreed, or she hadn’t as of the last time I spoke to her last night. Anthony wasn’t a bad guy, and I always caught the double take in Brianna’s direction from him when he thought no one was looking. He’d come to her door in a nice clean shirt and pants that weren’t ripped, and show her a night fit for a damn fairy tale—like the one she wrote about in the book she only showed to me.Fuck.The thought of his hands on my cupcake made a hot rage spark inside me, and I was ready to blow.
“Brianna is going with Anthony,” I told Reid in an irritated whisper.
“She is?” Reid’s eyes widened and shook his head. “Brianna is going out with Anthony? Since when?”
“Since yesterday. I don’t know if she’s going out with him or whatever. She said he asked her after the basketball game last night.” I ripped the corner of my notebook as I tore through the pages.
“And she said ‘yes’?”
“No, she said she’d let him know.” I shrugged and focused on the blank chalkboard in front of me.
Reid covered his mouth with his fist as his shoulders shook with laughter. “The two of you are the saddest people I ever met. She told you so you could make a move, idiot.”
“We’re best friends.” Were we even that anymore? I hardly saw her, but she ran through my mind all day, every day. I was miserable all the damn time because I missed her so much.
“Please. You’ve been attached at the hip since I’ve known you. Well, you used to be. Brianna is alone a lot now, so I guess Anthony thought she was available.”
“Could you shut the fuck up?” I swiveled my head to glare at Reid. He was right, I wasn’t around much anymore. Life was getting to school late, getting home after eleven, handing my dad the money I made for the day and hoping he used it for bills. He was so out of it lately, he never thought to ask where his seventeen-year-old son was getting over five hundred dollars a week.
“Could you do something about the reason why you’re acting like someone pissed in your coffee?” Reid arched an eyebrow. “I’m not the one that’s gonna regret it when she starts dating that dude for real, all because you couldn’t take a hint. Or in this case, a hammer over the head.”
I shot a text to Gio as I jetted out of school.
ME:Could someone take over the run next Friday? I have something to do.
GIO:Something to do? Do you think you get fucking vacation days? I need you Fridays. Either do it, or I find someone else, and you can get a job at Sully’s and see if that helps you make rent.
A supermarket job wouldn’t help us. I had to accept that this was life. If we didn’t want to end up on the street waiting for Dad’s disability checks to come through, I couldn’t get caught up in bullshit dances or other high school garbage. Just graduate, work, and keep going. I wouldn’t split on him—onus—like my mother did.
“Josh!” Brianna called behind me as I climbed the stairs leading to my stoop. It caused me physical pain to look at her. She was more beautiful with each passing day. Any guy would gladly eat out of the palm of her hand, and yet she still wasted her time with me. There was no reason for the two of us to have a shitty life.
“Listen, I know you’ve been . . . working a lot, but my mom is making pot roast and I know how much you love it—”
“I can’t, Brianna. Some of us have jobs and real shit to worry about.” I stayed stoic and didn’t react to her grimace.
