“Me, too, son.” My father’s hand clapping down on my shoulder took me by surprise. I was taken aback even more by the wide smile splitting his face. “You’ve done so well. Grown into such a young man . . . I’m really . . .”
Seeing how he was stuttering over his words made me believe them even more, somehow. But it was awkward as hell. Stepping in to save him, I said, “Thanks, Dad.” We exchanged a smile, and I was reminded of how much our relationship had changed in the last few months.
“Jude,” my mom called out, waving her hands over her head like a lunatic. “Come over here. We need a picture with you.” So if exchanging emotions with my dad was awkward, this was going to be much, much worse. “Oh, you two,” Mom gushed. “You both look so grown up.”
She snapped a few more pictures as Jude and I kept up the façade of being just friends. Even in a cap and gown, I wanted nothing more than to run my hands all over his body. This graduation shit needed to be over with soon. Just as I was about to come up with some excuse to get away from my parents, a teacher came over to us, reminding us that we needed to make our way toward the gym so we could get our diplomas and return our gowns. Mom said, “We’ll see you back at home,” as we walked away.
By the time we made it back inside, there weren’t many people around us. Everyone had somewhere to go—a party, to hang with their friends, to celebrate with their huge families.
Everyone except us.
Jude’s dad had been so hung over he hadn’t even made the ceremony. Broke my fucking heart to see him scan the crowd only to be let down.
As we walked past my locker, I let out a deep sigh. “Can’t believe we’re done.”
“You can’t,” Jude huffed. “I’ve been looking forward to this day for the last six years.” There was sadness in his voice. It lingered in his eyes, and I wanted nothing more than to grab him and do something, anything, to make him smile. “You go ahead. I need a minute,” he muttered. Stopping at his locker, just across the hall from mine, he leaned against it and slid to the floor. With his elbows balanced on his knees, he held his head in his hands, staring at the ground.
Unable to leave him there in whatever sadness he was experiencing, I sat next to him, letting my leg brush up against his. There was no one around, and I couldn’t bear to see him like this. “You okay?” It was a pointless question. He was clearly anything but okay.
When Jude rested his head on my shoulder something deeper than shock resonated through my body. “I’m just so tired. I mean I know I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up, but fuck, I thought he could at least pull himself together for today.”
He didn’t even pull away as I ran my hand through his hair. “I know. And it sucks. But look at it this way. If he had been here, you would have been worried about him making a scene. You would have been worried about taking care of him like you always do. Let him tell you how sorry he is tomorrow.”
After a deep breath, he agreed. Then he lifted his head from my shoulder, looked me right in the eyes and popped a quick kiss to my lips. It was over before I could even realize what was going on, but I was so damn proud of him. “Thanks. I needed that,” he said. As I moved to stand, he remained seated. When I held out my hand to help him up, he shook his head. “Just need a few minutes to myself. I’ll meet you down in the gym.”
Giving him the space he needed, I walked down the hall, a wide smile on my face. By the time I walked into the gym, there wasn’t much of a line left. Quickly, I returned my robe and retrieved my diploma. As I looked down at my name, standing boldly in the middle of the paper, I finally felt like I had found my place in the world.
The crowd had cleared out considerably, and after a quick scan of the gym, I couldn’t see Jude anywhere. When I walked back out into the hallway, I heard voices filtering down from where our lockers were. It only took me a few more steps to recognize the voices—Jude and Leon.
Breaking into a run, I needed to get to him right away. Despite Jude losing a shit ton of weight, and coming into his own with a brand-new confidence, Leon and his goons never left him alone. As I approached the two of them, Jude’s eyes locked with mine. There was something angry and heated pulsing there. His fists were clenched at his side, and I wondered why the hell he hadn’t knocked the shit out of Leon yet. True, I had no clue what was going on, but nothing with Leon was ever good.
“What the fuck are you doing here, asshole?” I seethed, dropping my hand to Leon’s shoulder.
Shock barreled into me as Jude pushed past Leon, shoving his shoulder into my chest. “Funny, asshole,” he emphasized the last word, keeping his eyes trained on mine. “I was just about to ask you the same thing.”
My brain couldn’t work quickly enough to register what the fuck was going on. So without saying anything, I listened as Jude laced into me with such anger, I almost didn’t recognize him as the man I’d come to love.
“Leon was just telling me about how well the two of you get along,” he spat, poking his finger into my chest.
“What the fuck are you talking about, Jude?” I bit back, not hiding any of my own anger. And out of the corner of my eye, I caught Leon grinning like a fool. “What the fuck did you tell him, asshole? What the hell are you up to?” Shifting my focus to Leon, I stepped away from Jude’s misplaced anger. Bound and determined to get to the bottom of this, I could only see it ending one way.
With my fist slamming into Leon’s face seconds before Jude and I walked away—fucking happily ever after.
But instead of that, Jude spoke the words that would forever alter my life. “Just get the fuck away from me. I want nothing to do with you, ever.”
Pain like I’d never felt in my life seared in my chest. Vomit rose in my throat, yet I managed to fight it back. He’d gone and done the one fucking thing I didn’t know how to deal with: He didn’t believe how much I loved him, how much I needed him.
Instead, he believed the words of the asshole who’d bullied him for the last six years. Anger flared in my veins, making me nearly spit my words. “Fucking fine. I’m gone.”
“You know, I finally figured it out a few months after you left,” Jude announced, walking up behind me. He dropped his hands to my shoulders, assuming to know what I was thinking about. Damn him for being right.
“And what did you discover? That I’d never rat you out?” Under my breath, I added, “Us. That I’d never rat us out?”
“Yes,” he admitted, lowering himself into the chair next to me. “And after you left, Leon and I had it out again. Turns out he didn’t know shit about anything. He was just being his usual asshole self.”
“Fucking hell,” I cursed, staring down at my metal arm. After the anger washed away, the confusion set in. “But I remember it clear as fucking day, you said that Leon—”
“He made me think you had told him something. I assumed it was about the two of us—”
