Great. Just the subject I was dying for.
“Oh! Yeah, I don’t know whether I’m going back yet.”
I wince internally. What if he was about to suggest we drive down together?
“Seriously?” He frowns, crossing his arms. “But you always spend it with your family.”
“Things change,” I say defensively, clutching my bag to my chest. “Friends invited me over.”
“Those friends?”
He points behind me, and I whip around to see the Campus Drivers, right there in their usual spot in the cafeteria along withBecca and Carrie. I can hear them laughing from here. I nod despite myself.
“Since when do you hang out with that kind of crowd?”
Kirk’s tone is biting, and I don’t like it one bit. I’m about to tell him that they’re actually kind of nice, when he cuts me off.
“I know you’re screwing the guy you’re staying with, but is Lewis getting some action, too?”
His words hit me like a knife to the heart. I step back, shaking my head, replaying the words he just spat my way, double-checking I didn’t imagine them.Did he really just…
“Excuse me? How do you—”
“How do I know you’re living with O’Neill? I heard Donovan and Lewis talking about it at training. Now I get why you’re always hanging around my building.”
I open and close my mouth, unsure what to say next. Electricity is coursing through my body, pulsing in my throat, as if somewhere deep inside me, a floodgate is about to burst open.
“Nothing to say?”
“Since when do you even care?” I spit. “This is the first time you’ve so much as looked at me in over two months, and this is all you have to say?”
“I don’t know who you are anymore,” he says icily.
Is this some kind of sick joke?
A fresh wave of rage ripples over me.
“You’ve been acting like I don’t exist since classes started,” I start.
“I needed space, Lois.” The chill in his voice just deepens the pain. “We spent four years attached at the hip. I needed to shake things up.”
How many times have I imagined this conversation? I wanted this moment so bad, but I never dreamed it would pan out this way, and it stings—like reliving the breakup all over again. Except this time, there’s no surprise factor to soften the blow.
“It doesn’t matter why you did it—it’showyou did it. You just tossed me out like I meant nothing, Kirk. You dumped my stuff tothe super like a selfish asshole and just disappeared,” I start. “It was a dick move. You didn’t even stop to wonder what I would do or where I would go with just two days until school started. Do you evenrealizehow cruel that was? After four years and everything we went through, you just threw me out of your life and apartment like trash, and despite it all, I gave you your precious space. And now you’re all up in my face with insults?” My voice rises as I start poking him in the chest. “Now you think it’s okay to shit all over the people who helped me up when I was down?” I laugh humorlessly. “I’m embarrassed for you.”
As the red mist lifts, I take in his crumpled face and muster up every ounce of coolness I can find inside me.
“I don’t even know whoyouare anymore.”
I turn on my heel and leave him there, striding over to Lane and his gaggle of friends. For the briefest of seconds, I consider swinging a left and hitting the streets to walk off my anger, but my feet have ideas of their own. I’m drawn toward my roommate, and as soon as Lane sees how overwhelmed I am, he frowns.
I shove my way into the middle of the fold and stare him straight in the eye.
“Hand over the burger, sir.”
He freezes mid-bite, his mouth falling open as I hold out my hand. He knows better than to deny me my carbs right now.
“Why, hello to you, too.” He waves the bun at me. “You know how many calories are in this thing?”
