I turn on them.“I have to go to her.”
“You’re drunk,” Anders says.“Sit down.Sleep this off.Give her space and figure out everything tomorrow.”
“If you get behind the wheel, you’ll get arrested,” Reeves adds.“And she doesn’t want to talk right now.”
“SHE DOESN’T GET TO WALK AWAY.”The words explode out of me before I can contain them.
This cannot be happening.She needs to understand.I love her, she needs to know.
I shove past them, stumbling toward the door.
“No, fuck no, I’m going to her.”I fumble for my keys.“She thinks it was all fake.She left me.”
Reeves grabs the keys from my hand.“Absolutely not.”
“GIVE THEM BACK.”
He refuses.Colby tries to step between us.I shove him hard enough that he stumbles into the wall.Everyone freezes.The look on their faces almost breaks me.
Almost.
“Somebody drive me,” I snarl.“Or I will find a way on my own.”
The silence stretches.
Reeves sighs, defeated.“Fine.I’ll drive you.But Nate, calm the fuck down.We warned you that this could happen, and I am warning you now that if you go after her like this, it will not end the way you want it to.”
“I will calm down when she’s back.When she is mine again.”
I don't remember the drive to her place.I feel hot and agitated.My pulse is racing out of control, and my chest feels like someone is squeezing it.I’m out of the truck before it stops, stumbling toward her house.
“Tessa!"
My hand is on the railing when I hear voices, then the door unlatches, and she steps out.Her beautiful blue eyes are tinged red.She washed off her makeup, but there are still mascara streaks under her eyes and if she hadn't broken my heart by leaving me, seeing her like this would have.She has an old sweater wrapped around her like she's using it as armour.
“Nate,” she says softly, “go home.”
“No.”I shake my head, fighting the spin of the world.“We’re not done.We are not.Tessa,we’re not over.”
“Nate,” she whispers.“Go home.Sleep it off.And think about what you did tonight.Think about what is in those binders.”
“You’re not walking away,” I lash out.“I’m not letting you.”
“You don’t get to ‘let’ me do anything.”
“Then come with me,” I demand, reaching for her.“Come home with me right now or I stay here.I stay, Tessa.I’m not leaving without you.”I can hear the fear in my voice, but it sounds like it's above me or behind me.The world spins, and I close my eyes to stop myself from falling.
“Go home, Nate.”
“No!”My voice cracks, too sharp, too loud, too desperate.
Behind her, footsteps approach.Adam steps onto the porch, jaw set.
“Everything okay out here?”
Something in me snaps.I point at him, venom rising like bile.“Oh, perfect.Perfect.You call him the second we have a fight?What, picking out your next safe, happy, whole family already?”
Her eyes widen.“Nate.You need to stop before you say something you cannot take back.”
