Seth
This wasthe second time today I’d been woken up by my damn phone.
Reaching out, I went to grab it but just knocked everything from my bedside table onto the floor. “Fucker!” I swore under my breath. Despite sending everything flying, the phone still rang.
Grabbing it, I answered not bothering to hide my frustrations. “What?”
“Well, hello to you too, little brother,” Bryce replied way too happily for my liking.
“Fuck off, Bryce. What’d you want?”
“Bad day?”
“You have no idea,” I grumbled, scrubbing my hand over my face feeling the stubble beneath my fingertips. Pulling the phone from my ear I saw it was almost mid-day and I was still in bed. Or back in bed. I didn’t give a flying fuck though. It wasn’t like I had any real reason to get out. The longer I stayed here, the less chance I had of making things worse.
“Oh, did someone get in trouble for punching a drunk?”
“You know?”
“Dude! Everyone knows. That shit is all over the media. Especially after Claire’s little declaration.”
“Claire’s declaration? What the fuck are you talking about?”
“You haven’t seen it?” Bryce’s question was weighed heavily with surprise.
“Seen what?” I practically growled as I climbed out of bed and strode through the apartment to the kitchen.
“Keep your panties on, princess. I’m sending you the link.”
“Hurry up.”
Grabbing a bottle of water, I cracked open the lid and stepped out onto the veranda. Everything was wet and the rain was still falling softly. I didn’t care. It felt good against my heated back. And I sure as shit needed to cool off. Barely five minutes ago I’d been sound asleep, but the moment Bryce’s call had woken me, my shitty reality had come crashing back down on me.
“There, you should have it.”
“Thanks.”
“Call me if you need anything. It’ll all work out, Seth.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yeah. This time I actually do.”
Bryce hung up, and I clicked on the link he’d sent. Seeing Claire’s beautiful face, I didn’t know if I even wanted to hear what she said. After everything, I don’t know if I could take much more at this point.
But already it’d had half a million views, so someone was obviously watching it. I couldn’t be the only arsehole walking around having no clue what was going on. Taking a deep breath, I drained the rest of my bottle and opened it.
I don’t know how many times I watched it.
I couldn’t stop.
Claire had done this for me.
For me.
I didn’t deserve it.
I didn’t deserve her.
