“Lewis is having a meltdown,” Amy hisses.
Don appears to my right. “What’s the problem?”
“That’s our business,” I say.
“Nope.” He shakes his head. “You guys have a problem, it becomes our problem. Amy, you—”
She looks him dead in the eye. “I slept with Lewis.”
Don turns to stare at me. Lane does the same.
“Fuck, dude!”
Amy glances back and forth at the three of us. “Don’t sweat it, Donovan—all part of the training plan, am I right?”
I don’t care that she just let that slip—what I care about is how bitter she sounds. She’s snarling like a wounded animal.
“You wanna talk about your training plan?” I glare at her. “You think the way you’re acting right now is worthy of a Campus Driver?”
“Good news—I quit.”
“Greatnews,” I bat back.
“That way you can pick your next mentee yourself.”
“I can’t wait. I thought we were back on track, but hey—I guess you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, right?” I shrug. “You haven’t changed a bit. Still just looking for gangsters to ride…”
Adam gasps. “Lewis…”
I’m being hard on her, I know—and it’s not like me. But I don’t care. Not even my oldest friend can stop me now. All I can think about is how Amy looked with her tongue in Esteban’s mouth.
“Since when doyougive a fuck?”
Her voice rings out clear and calm, and the betrayal cuts me deep.
Without thinking, I go in for the kill, unleashing a torrent of abuse on her, hammering her with words, and even when I see the hurt etched into her face, I don’t stop.
“I give a fuck now that I know you get around, yeah. I nearly barebacked you, remember? You make me sick.” I spit. “Still—good job. You stopped me before I went there. Fuck knows what I could’ve caught.”
The slap she delivers rings out, my cheek burning from the sting. This whole conversation is a hot mess; an ugly mash-up of Campus Drivers stuff and blind jealousy. I look at her. Amy is as cool and calm as ever, swinging her backpack around to her front now, zipping it open to fish out the pink tee I made for her, shaking it out and pulling it tight, flashing me a glimpse of what she’s scrawled over the back in black marker. She’s crossed out the “Property of Lewis Conley” and replaced it with “Fuck You.”
It’s happening, then—this is really happening. Her time with the Campus Drivers is over.
“Guess you’ll need to find yourself a new outlet,” she drawls, before turning to Carrie and Lois. “How did he put it, exactly? Oh, that’s right—‘a cheat day.’?”
“What the hell are you talking about? I never…”
My mouth snaps shut. Now I remember. That’s word-for-word what I told Adam when I got back from Atlanta, and hearing Amy echo the line back to me makes my stomach churn.Why did I even say that?I know my best friend would never have told her what I said, which can only mean one thing. We were meant to meet up, and I thought she’d left—but she was there all along.
“You were there that day?”
“Surprise! I was right there at your front door. Front-row seats. I came by to ask what the deal was with us. I guess you could say I sure as hell found out.”
I glance at Carrie and Lois.All three of them were there that day.Now I get why they were acting so shifty—and I finally understand why Amy is spitting with rage.
She nods at me slowly. “Guess we’re finally on the same wavelength.”
Before I have a chance to reply, she’s scrunching the tee into a ball and throwing it in my face, and it burns more than a slap ever could. She jostles past me, shoving me aside with her shoulder and striding off down the parking lot alone, leaving Esteban standing there beside me.
