That was all.
No look in my direction, pause, or anything.He just turned and walked away.Fast.Faster than he needed to.
“Aw,” Alice said, not paying attention to anything that mattered.“We scared him off with our athletic superiority.”
“Obviously,” Lark replied.
Wren was still looking after him with a faint crease between her brows, like she wasn’t sure she believed his excuse either.
I took another sip of my drink and told myself it was for the best.
“Come on,” Alice said, already scooping up the kickball again.“Rematch.Best two out of three.”
Lark groaned.“I knew winning that one would only make you worse.”
“It’s not my fault excellence is a burden.”
“Your ego needs its own zip code,” I muttered.
Alice grinned at me.“And yet you still love me.”
I rolled my eyes, but I was smiling again.
Because life did that sometimes.It yanked you around by the throat one second, then dropped you right back into laughter the next like nothing had happened.
The game started up again.
People drifted away from watching us.
The Social Club went on being loud and alive and full around us.
I threw the kickball when Lark shoved it at me, laughed when Wren accused Alice of cheating, and let the night carry forward without trying to figure out what had just happened with Jude.
Chapter Eight
Jude
I felt like death.
Not the dramatic kind where everything fades to black and angels start singing.
No.
The real kind.
The pounding, dehydrated, why-the-hell-did-I-do-that kind.
My head throbbed with every heartbeat, like someone had taken a hammer to the inside of my skull and decided to keep a steady rhythm just to piss me off.My mouth was dry, my stomach was questionable, and the smell of bacon drifting from the kitchen should’ve been a good thing, but right now it just made everything worse.
I sat at one of the long tables in the clubhouse, hunched over a steaming cup of coffee like it was the only thing keeping me upright.
Across from me, my dad, Maniac, watched me with way too much amusement for this early in the morning.“You look like shit,” he said.
I lifted the mug, took a slow sip, and immediately regretted it when the heat hit my tongue.“Feel like it too.”
“Good,” he said, leaning back in his chair.“Builds character.”
I gave him a look.“Pretty sure I’ve got enough of that.”
