“Sebastian?” Luis said, but nothing could stop the roll our friend was on. He ignored him and kept spilling his guts to us.
“I wake up every fucking night thinking about what happened. How I failed you and what that caused. All I wanted was for you to forgive me. I guess I don’t deserve that, though. I get it now. Nothing I’ve been through can ever,ever, come close to what you experienced. All I can tell you is I’ve lived with the guilt since we got you back. No, I wasn’t there to guard and protect you. That doesn’t give you the right to use Luis against me. He’s as close to me as a brother.”
Maddy walked in the back door, her eyes wide in surprise. She’d probably heard the commotion. “What the hell is going on?” she asked as she took in the scene.
Sebastian looked at Maddy, and it was like someone had put a needle into a balloon. Sebastian visibly sank into himself. His shoulders fell, and the heat that had been in his voice faded. He took another backward step toward the door. He gave Luis and Abi a dejected and defeated look. “You know what, Luis? You can have her. I’m done trying. Abi? You can hate me if you want. I’ll stay out of your life.”
Without another word, he stomped away and slammed the front door as he left. Luis put his hands to his forehead. “Fuck. I’ll go and talk to him,” he said and made to go after him.
“No. Not alone, you won’t,” I said. “If you go by yourself, he’s liable to start swinging fists before he’ll hear you out. I’m going.” I looked at Abi again, doing nothing to disguise my irritation with her. “I told you this would happen. I told you.”
Luis headed out the door first as I followed, not even sparing a second glance back at Abi. I tried to tell myself that she’d been through a lot, but she’d known what she was doing. She might be trying to make it right now, but that didn’t change how fucked up she’d made this situation.
Sebastian was only part of the way down my driveway. He was kicking small rocks across the blacktop in anger. I called to him. “Sebastian? We need to talk.”
“About what?” His voice sounded more exhausted than I’d ever heard it.
“About Abi and Luis,” I said.
Sebastian turned and saw that Luis was with me. His eyes went hot with anger. “I don’t want to talk to him right now,” he said, leveling his finger at Luis.
“Enough!” I pushed my aura out toward both of them like I’d done to the townspeople the day before. “Shut up and listen to each other for fuck’s sake.”
Both of them cast their eyes down, pushed into submission by their alpha. I hated doing that, especially to my friends, but I didn’t know another way to get them to calm down.
Luis spoke first. “Bro, I promise you” —he put his hands together like he was praying— “nothing ever happened with me and Abi. Ever. I’d never do something like that to you.”
“Why were you always hanging out with her, then?” Sebastian asked. I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like he was on the verge of tears.
“Because Abi wanted him around. It was her way of hurting you,” I said.
Sebastian flinched at the words. “To get back at me?”
I sighed. “Yes, you big dumb fuck. You were supposed to be watching her the night she got taken. Instead, you bounced to get your jollies off with some chick you’d met three minutes before. Is that pretty much accurate? Because if so, then I’d have tried to make your life a living hell too, if I were her.”
Sebastian lowered his head. “I fucked up. I know.”
“Bro, I honestly only thought she wanted me around because I made her feel safe,” Luis said. “I never would have hung around her if I’d known it was all about rubbing it in your face.”
I held up a hand. “I think itwasabout safety at first, but then she saw how crazy it made Sebastian, and it was her way of getting back at him. This shouldn’t be a total Abi-bashing session.”
“Right, right, yeah,” Sebastian said.
“You do believe me, right?” Luis asked.
Sebastian took a heavy breath and sighed it out, shrugging. “I do. I was angrier at myself than anything. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to be sorry. I should have seen what was going on and shut it down before it got this bad. At first, I thought it was a little funny how mad you got, but then I could tell it was really getting to you. No excuses. It was stupid,” Luis said.
“Is this all good now? Everything in the open and done?” I asked.
Luis nodded. “That’s what Abi came to tell me today. She was apologizing for using me against Sebastian. She was trying to ask me how she could make it up to you.”
“Maybe you should go back in and talk to her,” I said, nodding back toward the house.
Sebastian shook his head, setting his jaw. “Nah, what’s done is done. I’ll never be able to get her to forgive me fully. We’re done.”
I sighed and shook my head. “That isn’t how it has to be. You know that. Come with us, and we can hash it all out.”
