Whatdid he call my friend?
All that anger explodes out of me, and I growl and lunge for him. His eyes widen and he stumbles back just as a pair of freakishly strong arms grab me around the waist and haul me back.The same arms that stopped me from attacking Chad Montgomery in a blind rage back onStarving with the Stars.
“Not worth it, Hobbit,” Jason says, as I kick and claw the air futilely.
Tate just gapes, and the way his face has paled is pretty satisfying on its own. “Whatever, I’m leaving,” he says, hefting his duffel bag dramatically before stalking out of the hotel.
I slump down, all the fight drained out of me, and Jason lets me go. “Is this my entire role in your life?” he asks wryly. “Keeping you from very public assault charges? Not that both those pieces of shit didn’t deserve your tiny-but-vicious Hulk rage.”
I shake my head, tears spilling over my cheeks. Again. “I’m so sorry.To both of you. I should never have said you were a player, Jason. I assumed shallow things about you the same way people always do to me, and I should have known better. And Emily, god, I had no ideaTate is such an ass. He’s always sonicewith the family, and—”
“I know. It’s okay, apology accepted,” Emily says, and she’s the one pulling me into a hug, and I weep against her shoulder and hope her nightie isn’t super expensive, because now it’s probably got my snot all over the thin shoulder strap. “It wasTate I was really mad at, and at myself for overlooking my instinct that he’s a total snake.”
“He is,” I mumble. I pull away from Emily just in time to see her give Jason a pointed look.
He clears his throat. “Yeah, we’re all good, Hobbit,” he says. “I’m never going climbing with you again, but other than that . . .”
Emily elbows him playfully, and they grin at each other, and a tiny bit of my cracked-open heart feels lighter.They do seem to bereallyinto each other. And maybe I was wrong. Maybe they would be great together.
I appear to have been wrong about alotof things.
“I am, however, taking Emily climbing,” Jason says proudly. “We’re going to scale the convention center, legality be damned.”
“Jason assures me illegal urban climbing is the best way to get over cheating assholes.” Emily winks at me, and I know very well that the climbing isn’t the way she’s most looking forward to getting overTate. Which, good for her. “But I do need to change into some more appropriate climbing clothes first.”
Jason shrugs. “Suit yourself. I did warn you, though, that I celebrate climbing a new building by getting naked at the top.”
Emily’s cheeks flush, and she looks like she’s about to say something flirtatious back, but then she seems to really see me huddled there, brushing away tears.
“Hey,” she says. “Are you that upset about what I said to you? Because I really didn’t mean to scream at you like that. I shouldn’t have—”
“No,” I say quickly, sniffling. “I mean, yeah, I felt really bad about doing that to you, but . . .” I look down at my feet, scuffing my sneakers on the hotel carpet.
Emily looks around as if she’s just realized something. “Where’s Brendan? Is everything okay?”
I didn’t think my heart could keep breaking over and over again, but it seems to be able to. “I don’t think so,” I say, thinking of Jane’s lips on his. Of me shoving him and screaming at him that I hate him, when I don’t hate him at all.
I just hate that I’m not who he really wants. And I hate that I let myself believe I could be.
Emily looks over at Jason. “I think I should take a rain check on convention center climbing and stay with her,” she says, but I shake my head.
“No, please,” I say, trying to make my voice sound as normal as possible. “I’ve ruined your life enough. Go have fun.” Emily looks dubious, but I squeeze her hand. “I’ll be fine. I just want to be alone right now, anyway.”
“Okay,” she says after a moment. “But remember, it’s you and Brendan. You guys can work anything out, and you will. Right?”
I nod, but it’s just to make her feel better.
She and Jason head off to change or climb or have sex (or most likely a combination of those three), and I go to Brendan’s and my room, alone, to fall apart even more—at least this time where no one can see me.
Twenty-four
Brendan
Isob all the way out to the hotel parking garage, where I climb into my car. It smells like Su-Lin’s perfume, Clinique Happy, which I’m a little startled that I know. She doesn’t wear it often but when she does . . .
I pound the steering wheel with the heel of my palms, then pull out my phone and call my mother.
It takes her four rings to pick up.
