Still letting my ex-best friend take over my brain, I asked, “But why would River lie?”
“I don’t know,” Annabelle stated. “But he did, and you need to leave it at that. You do not need the added stress, especially after what happened with Killian.”
“I miss Killian,” Millie interrupted, kicking her feet back and forth on the barstool. “He would have gotten me pizza instead of forcing me to eat nasty carrots.”
Killian had a soft spot for my niece. He spoiled the girl, always buying her pizza and sweets, so she didn’t have to eat her vegetables. While Mills understood what a breakup was, she hadn’t yet caught on to how ill-mannered it was to bring up how much she missed my ex in front of me.
Anna shot me a sympathetic smile. “You should go to the bar or a frat or something. Get your mind off both of them.”
“Dad says it’s a waste of time when I could be studying instead,” I muttered. “But maybe you’re right. I could go on Friday if I can get a friend to go with me.”
Annabelle sucked air through her teeth, eyes wide and slightly guilty. “I work that night. I need you to keep Millie.”
My lips rolled together as I tried to hide my annoyance with her contradictions. First, she told me to go out, then, in the same breath, told me I can’t.
Seeing my irritation at her springing it on me, she gave a helpless shrug. “I picked up an extra shift on Friday night. I’m sorry. Are you okay with watching her?”
At this point, Millie was just as much my kid as she was my sister’s. She spent at least five out of the seven days of the week at my place. It wasn’t always ideal for me, but it had been like this for so long that it was normal.
Millie’s big eyes stared up at me with anticipation and a toothy grin.
“Of course I am.” I rubbed the top of my niece’s head. “Maybe I can do something on Saturday.”
“I work that night too, remember?”
Oh.I agreed to that a while back, like I agreed to the other three days this week.
“But next week.” She dropped the cutting board into the sink. “Or on a random Wednesday if you’re wild like that, but we both know that you aren’t.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “I’d go out on a Wednesday night.”
“And Millie’s favorite food is carrots,” Anna said, sarcasm dripping from her tone. “In the meantime, do not think about River. I know you, Alexander Roscoe Pierce, and the last thing you need is to obsess over some guy who is acting like he doesn’t know who you are.”
I shuddered at the use of my full name. No one called me it but Dad. The icky feeling I got was why Anna enjoyed using it.
“Got it,” I said. “Do not obsess over River.”
I wondered whether she knew I was lying.
I was not trying to obsess over River, but I also knew I was not going to stop miraculously. My brain liked to constantly think of questions that had been left unanswered, and River was the epitome of unresolved issues. How could I not think about him?
River used to come to my house multiple days of the week after school, and sometimes we would play basketball on my driveway because it was his favorite sport. He would beat me every time, and I used to joke that when he one day made it into the NBA, he would get rich and forget about me. His response was that we’dbothbe rich because he could never forget me.
I remember we used to cause trouble during class. They were small disruptions—the normal amount that any decent kid made—but my parents acted like we were performing talent shows in the middle of lessons. I was sent to the principal’s officeonce,and all of a sudden, I was on the path to becoming a criminal. And for some fucked up reason, they correlated that to River.
Despite my parents’ disapproval, I grew attached to him. He was the only best friend I ever had, and he understood me better than my sister. The bond felt irreplaceable.
I should not have wanted to talk to River with the way things went between us, but I did. It was taking everything in me to stay away. Completely staying away from River was nearly impossible when he and my roommate were teammates.
Salem gave me no warning each time he let him into the apartment. Luckily, River never stayed. They were always getting ready to go somewhere, though I still migrated to my room the second he walked in.
And that was working. River had no intention of talking to me, and I was making it even easier by avoiding him like he had a disease. We danced around like that for a month.
Today I was running late for my communications class, which was on its way to giving me hair loss from the constant stress-pulling I did at my ends. I shouldn’t have even needed the credit in the first place; I was a biology pre-med major, for fuck’s sake.
It was my smallest class, so small that I could recognize faces, which made it more personal. Exactly what I did not want for a class where I had to speak in front of everyone.
It also meant that the professor took more notice of late students, which was why I was speeding through campus with a coffee in my hand. I was pretty good at weaving in and out of morning crowds because I ran late for this class most mornings. Thinking I was a pro at distracted speed-walking, I took a sip from the drink. The only thing I ended up being successful at was taking my attention away from the path ahead of me, and hot liquid burned my chest when I slammed into someone who happened to be standing up at the same time I was about to trip over them.
