“Mhm.” She scoffed.
“I really wasn’t. I’ve had a headache from hell for the last two days. I didn’t even go to the rink on Saturday.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. But I saw you-know-who.”
“No.”
“Oh, yes.”
“And?”
“He’d been with Jared. That fucktard pretended that he didn’t know about us not talking, and he asked me where I’ve been.”
“Is he stupid or what?”
“I mean, all of us used to hang out, and now they’re pretending as if I don’t exist.”
“Listen, boo.” She stopped and turned me to her. “I truly hope that all of them get diarrhea during one of their games, but you don’t need them.”
I did need Noah, and he abandoned me when I needed him the most.
“Besides, you have me, you have Riley, and you have your skates and your ice. If Noah and his buddies can’t see what a shining star you are, then they don’t deserve you.”
Her dark brown eyes shone with sincerity, but sometimes it was hard believing those words when that one person you thought would always be by your side, no matter what, decided to abandon you.
I had an amazing life. I had a family that loved me, friends that were always there. Noah wasn’t the only person, but it still hurt like a fucking bitch that I meant so little to him.
“Yeah, you’re—” But I was cut off mid-sentence, when a group I knew all too well caught my attention.
They were just behind us, walking in our direction, obviously going toward the front door of the school.
Out of all five of them walking and laughing, pushing each other, only one person caught my eye. Only one person could ever make my breathing slow down—Noah.
He was already looking at me, and I wondered how it was that we spent the last three months almost never seeing each other, to us seeing each other two times in the last three days. I was so careful, so obvious in avoiding him, and he never sought me out.
Did I expect him to, for the sake of our friendship? I fucking did. But hope was for fools, and I stopped hoping for him to talk to me over a month ago. I texted, I called, I tried to fix what happened, but he was the one that stopped talking to me.
He was the one that would look the other way every time he saw me in the hallway.
He was the one that told everyone that I wasn’t worth it. That one was the one that hurt the most. Maybe if somebody just told me that, I wouldn’t have believed them, but I saw that message with my own eyes.
So yeah, Noah Kincaid could fuck himself, for all I cared.
“Queen B,” Jordan hollered as they came closer to us. Noah still kept looking at me, earning a lifted eyebrow from me and a middle finger. “Whoa, you’re feisty today, Soph.”
“Bite me, Jordan.”
“Gladly, but—” Noah smacked him on the back of his head, scowling at me. “What the fuck, man?”
“Shut your mouth, J.”
Bianca looked from Jordan to Noah and then to me, confusion written all over her face. The confusion lasted for all of a second, when a wicked little smile appeared, and I knew whatever was going to come out of her mouth wouldn’t be good.
“Bianca,” I warned, but I knew it was too late. Whatever it was that she thought was going to bite us all on our asses, and I wouldn’t be able to stop it.
“So, boys.” She grinned and looked at Noah. “We’ve just been talking about an interesting little thing.” Fuck. Me. “Sophie met this guy from college…” You know the sound of brakes screeching on the pavement? My face most probably looked like the driver’s would, a second before stopping at the red light, praying to all saints that he or she didn’t go through the red.
