“Come on. Let’s torture him a little more.” Addie grins wickedly, pulling me to the center of the dance floor so we can dance with Camila, Leo, and his harem.
“I’m never drinking again,” I yell over Carly Rae Jepsen, singing “Call Me Maybe.”
“Mads.” I freeze at the familiar, deep voice, while Camila smiles over my shoulder at her brother.
“You’re very persistent.” She hugs him, her voice slurring.
His eyes hold mine, over Camila’s head. “Persistent, determined, whatever you want to call it. But I’m never giving up on my girl.”
“You already gave her up,” I shout, throwing my hands on my hips.
“Please.” His voice cracks with something raw. “I’ll get down on my knees and beg. I need to explain.” The vulnerability in his voice hits me in my already defenseless heart.
He makes a move to lower himself, and I hold up my hand to stop it.
“Fine,” I shout over the music. “You’ve got ten minutes.”
“You don’t have to,” Leo cuts in, stepping beside me.
Nate gives him a sharp look. “What the fuck?”
Leo doesn’t even blink. “She’s drunk, Nate. If she wants to talk sober, she can do it tomorrow. You’ll still be here.”
I throw my arms around him. “I love you for always protecting me like a brother, but I want to get it over with.”
“You stink like a bar.” He chuckles.
“That’s more from the amount of drinks that’s been spilled on this dance floor.” I turn toward Nate. “Let’s go.”
We walk out the front door, and when I see Mason making out with a girl against the brick wall, I turn the opposite direction.
The warmth of Nate’s body is close behind me, and I hate that I can already feel the burning of tears in the back of my eyes.
I hate him,I remind myself.
It still doesn’t stop the way my body aches for him, for his fingers to reach forward and link with mine, just a slight touch to ease the hurt that lives so deep in my bones.
No.
We make it far enough that the crowd is gone, and we can sit on a park bench to talk in private.
The second I turn to him, my defensiveness falls, and my emotions are at an all-time high. I don’t wait for him to talk first; I need questions answered, ones I never realized I had been holding on to for so long.
“Why?” My voice cracks as the words rip from my throat, and the tears start flowing fast. “Why did you break us? Why did you break me? How did I not see that you stopped loving me?”
“Hey.” He pulls me into his chest to soothe me, running a hand up and down my back, and I let him. I can’t pull back. I don’t have it in me. “I have never stopped loving you. Not for one single day since Camp Horizon,” he says softly, almost desperately. “You’ve always been my forever. I just…I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was doing it for you.”
I shake my head back and forth against his chest, relishing the familiar smell of his cologne and his body against mine.
“You never even called to check on me.”
“I was always checking on you. Always. I needed to give you space, and I know you’ll never understand until you hear me out, or at least I hope you will.”
Nate’s fingers run up my back, raking them through my hair, breaking the spell.
I jolt back, standing in a rush, my chest heaving.
I can’t do this.
