“For once I’ll be glad that I am then,” she retorted.
“I should slap some respect into you!” he said like a dark promise. And I don’t know what happened. A switch flipped inside of me and I took a step toward him.
“You ever fuckin’ touch her and I’ll kill you myself, Hardy,” I spat out, meaning every word of it.
Hardy’s eyes went even wider, and if I thought he’d hated me before, it was nothing compared to what he felt for me then. His face went red and his grip tightened on my shoulder until I knew it’d leave bruises for days, his eyes practically popping out of his head. But I refused to show any weakness. Instead, I gritted my teeth and held his stare as he squeezed harder and harder until I thought he was going to break my shoulder. And even then I refused to back down.
“Hardy?” Butch came to the doorway, his nostrils flaring and his eyes growing dark when he saw Hardy’s grip on me. “Gauge is on his way,” he said tightly.
Laney was so close to me that I could feel her own anger radiating from her body. Hardy glanced between us, his features softening fractionally as he took in my expression before he finally let me go with a push. I stumbled but righted myself and held his stare, my shoulders back and feeling like I had a renewed sense of power.
“If you’ve laid one hand on her—” Hardy began, his eyes still narrowed on me.
“He didn’t,” Laney interrupted. “I believe in free love but I’m not about to get myself knocked up like my mom did.”
My face was hot, my heart pounding in my chest so hard it hurt. I kept my hard gaze on him, not willing to back down that time, and I could see that it was getting to him, but neither of us were willing to break.
Laney pushed past all three of us and out into the hallway. “Men are pathetic,” she mumbled as she walked away.
I kept my gaze on Hardy and he kept his on me. Eventually he tapped the side of my face with his open palm, his mouth turning up into a sneer, before he turned away and followed Laney.
Butch looked at me seriously. “You okay, Jesse?”
My mouth turned up into a wide smile. “I’ve never been better,” I replied truthfully.
He smirked before turning and walking away too, and I closed my door behind them all and went and sat down on my bed. I looked up to the poster and the new doodle Laney had added to it and I smiled, despite myself and despite everything that had just happened.
And then I reached over and grabbed my pillow, pressing it against my nose and hoping that I could smell her on it.
Something had changed that day.
I knew it and Hardy knew it.
What the repercussions of that change would be were anyone’s guess.
