The phone fumbles out of my hands. “What happened? Is she okay? What’s going on?”
“Go ahead. Go inside and see her.” His voice was harsh, angry.
I run.
Inside the room, Julia is propped up on fluffy pillows and her arms are folded over her chest. She looks bruised and swollen. There are scratches on her face and arms. An IV juts out of one of her hands, and under the hospital sheets one of her legs looks to be in a cast.
“I can’t believe you did this to me,” she says.
I stop in front of her bed, confused. “I’m sorry, what did you just say?” I must have heard her wrong.
“I can’t believe you brought him here. That you called him and told him where I was.”
“Nate? Why wouldn’t I? Gail called me and told me you were in an accident and they wouldn’t give her any information. I called him because I thought you were together or he knew what happened—”
“I was withPierre Auden Luc,” she says.
Pierre Auden Luc, her ex? The prince of…somewhere. I stare at her, blankly.
“I didn’t know who you were with, Julia I—”
“Don’t look at me like that,” she says, averting her eyes. “You don’t understand.”
“You’re cheating on Nate?” I want to scream at her and shake her by the shoulders. Doesn’t she realize how lucky she is to have someone, someone like him?
“Pierre Auden Luc is like your Kiss Cam guy, Jane. He’s the one you find that stays in your heart and on your mind and no one else is ever as good.”
“But Jules—”
“Forget it,” she says harshly. “Just leave me alone, okay. Just go.”
I want to remind her of every time Pierre Auden Luc broke her heart. How he would swoop in and mesmerize her with gifts and trips and then disappear months at a time right after. How he leaves her stranded or alone every time.
But I don’t. I don’t say any of those things because she already knows them, and this is her choice to make even if it’s a poor one.
I back out of her private hospital room and walk out in to the hallway. From where I stand, I can see into the room across the hall, theprince’sroom. There is a guard standing near the window and I’m certain if I walk in, there’ll be a few more stationed around his private room.So that’s why Nate walked back and forth.
I walk back to the row of chairs I left Nate in and sit down next to him.
“Everyone told me to watch out for her. Everyone warned me. But she was so beautiful, too beautiful that I didn’t listen. I couldn’t listen.” He pulls at a string on the cuff of his shirt, fraying the threads.
I’m not sure what to say, so I nod and listen. It kills me, it hurts me so much to sit here and listen to how beautiful Julia is to him even after she’s hurt him. I want to reach out to him, but I’m too afraid.
“This is fucking hell,” he says leaning his elbows on his knees and hanging his head in his hands. “I should have just stayed sitting at that fucking baseball game. I should have just stayed and talked to you instead of running away to chase after Julia. I could have just secretly admired her from afar. Then none of this would have happened.”
Chapter 23
At first, I was blindingly happy with what Nate had said to me in the waiting area. I can admit that. I can also admit that it isn’t until later on, during the long three-hour ride back home that it occurs to me that what he said wasn’t all that nice.
Even though I thought our kiss was something epic love stories were made from, to him I was the second, safer choice.
Pathetically, I am so infatuated with him I’m not sure I’m truly upset enough by what he’s said.
Rationally, it sucks. I’m well aware of the total suckage that his words emit. However, I can’t help but think about the facts in the situation. Fact number one: Julia is and forever will be more beautiful, glamorous, and sexier than I could ever imagine myself to be. I mean, she’s done modeling jobs, and she’s slept with probably a hundred times more men than I have.
I can count on one hand how many men I’ve slept with.
So I get why all men would choose her, she’s unattainable to them. She’s the girl who looks like the girl postered up on the walls of their teenage bedrooms.
