“Oh shit.” His face pales. “How?”
“They showed up at her apartment and were there when we got back. It was bad.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want it to be real.”
“So you decided to beat the shit out of me instead?”
I wince. “I deserve that.”
“You’re lucky I like you, you asswipe.” Marcus gives me a friendly shove, the fight from earlier now forgotten.
At least that’s the one good thing about our friendship. In all the years we’ve known each other, we don’t let things fester.
If only I had talked to him instead of punching him to start with. Might have saved our asses tomorrow.
“What’d Angie have to say about all this?” Marcus sits on the bench next to me.
“She’s been ignoring me.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah.” I drag a hand through my sweaty hair. “I don’t know what else I can do. She’s not answering my calls or texts. The last thing her dad asked was if she was going to pick me over her family.”
“Troy. You should’ve told me this. That’s fucked-up.”
“Don’t I know it.” My laugh comes out bitter and depressed. “Angie’s family is everything to her. I can’t ask her to give them up for me.”
“Why are they asking her to give you up at all?”
“They can’t see past my father and their history.”
Marcus shakes his head. “This isn’t the Gladiator I know and love.”
I bat my eyelashes at him. “Aww…you still love me?”
He pats my cheek in the way only a friend can. “Why, I don’t know. But if you’re going to act like a dick from here until eternity, you need to figure something out.”
“How? It’s either me or her family. There’s no way she’s picking me.”
His answer to me is an eye roll. What an ass.
“Have you thought that maybe you should, I don’t know, talk to her family?”
“Talk to them?”
“I know it’s a novel idea, but yes, you idiot. If you love her as much as you say you do?—”
I stab a finger at him, cutting him off. “I didn’t say I loved her.”
“So this is not for love then?” He points at his jaw.
My hands move on their own, thrown up in defeat. “Fine. Continue.”
“If you love her like you say you do, you can’t take this lying down. Reach out to her dad.”
“But what if he won’t listen?”
