I reach for my necklaces to tug at the delicate metal, and I panic, talking straight out of my ass. “I just came in here to talk to you because I miss you, and I’m not even sure that you miss me. Which is okay, but this has gone on long enough—” I stop abruptly, spotting his headphones, and now I’m even more embarrassed.
He pulls them out, and I shift on the balls of my feet, feeling the full weight of his stare.
“I’m sorry. I was looking for you because I . . .” I falter, glancing at the blank spot on the wall. I clear my throat, setting my shoulders back because I’m in here for a reason. “Because I miss you. We haven’t had a chance to talk about . . .” Fuck. I shouldn’t bring that up. “Well, maybe you don’t miss me since you’re content to pretend it never happened.”
Bailey only blinks in response, not revealing anything on his face, and the blankness hurts. What the hell is going on with him? Bailey, out of all the Walkers, has always been so fullof life. He’s loud, chaotic, and impatient. He’s never been silent.
I would do anything to make him smile. I’m starting to forget what it feels like to be the one he’s smiling at, and it feels like he’s ripped my heart from my chest only to discard it like I mean nothing to him.
The space between us might as well be an ocean, and I just need Bailey to give mesomething, even if it’s him telling me he hates me.
“Bailey, please, talk to me. Anything. Just say something,” I plead, but it feels like he’s not even seeing me. His jaw tightens, and he walks right past me, instead moving to grab a book off his shelves behind me. If he’s hoping I’m going to give up easily, then he doesn’t know me very well. “I didn’t mean for things to happen between me and Hunter. It just did.”
He keeps his back to me, and I wish I knew the right thing to say.
Instead, I take a chance by closing the distance between us to wrap my arms around him from behind. I press my cheek to his shoulder. Bailey stiffens, and I hold tight, refusing to let him throw our years of friendship away.
I’m proud of myself for taking the leap of faith by kissing him, even if it’s ended with me crashing and burning harder than I ever anticipated. I didn’t think I’d ever lose Bailey, but maybe I was wrong.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I messed everything up. I don’t know what to do, but I really miss you. I wish there was something I could do to fix this, but I need you to tell me what.” His hands land on mine, trying to pull me off him. “Please, B,” I beg, feeling tears well up in my eyes as I fight to hold onto him like it’ll keep him from slipping through my fingers.
Except he’s not mine to hold onto, and once again, Bailey pushes me away.
I wish he’d look at me to see how badly I want to make thisright. I want him to know that I still love him, because at this point, I don’t know how not to. It’s a part of me, even if I’m falling for Hunter.
Bailey keeps his head down, and without sparing me a single glance, he walks out of his room, taking a part of my soul with him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Bailey
PAST
I’m already second guessingmy decision, but I can’t change it. Mirabelle and Henry know everything, and it’s only a matter of time before they tell everyone else what I’ve done. It makes me nearly sick to my stomach to think about how Henry looked at me while he pulled my sister away from me. Like I’m the dangerous one in the family?
Don’t they know how much their fucking secrets and lies hurt everyone? Mirabelle’s caught right into our parents’ web of lies, and there’s nothing I can say to convince her otherwise.
I’ve been to Carter’s apartment enough times over the last couple of months that I’m able to find it easily after walking from the bus stop. I’m just hoping he’s there because I don’t have anywhere else to go.
Fuck, I can’t believe I left.
I really did it. Maybe it was just supposed to be one of those things you say in the heat of the moment, but I don’t have another plan if Carter decides I can’t actually stay with him. All I can do is hope he really meant it when he offered it before.
I feel naked without my phone, and I’m not surehow I managed to decide which essentials to stuff in my backpack. I stole money out of my parents’ safe, and I have a few changes of clothes. It was a last-second choice to grab the picture of my family off my desk, and I’m not sure what I want it for.
Wiping my electronics before I left was liberating, but now I’m just mentally exhausted from the last twenty-four hours. I’m tired of all the lies. I couldn’t do it anymore.
But Mirabelle knew.She knew, and she even tried to defend them, insistingmyinformation was wrong.
How could she say that?
The adrenaline coursing through me has worn off, and I’m doing my best to keep my head down. As much as it’s never bothered me in the past, my parents’ fame extended to all of us, but it’s been especially worse since Mirabelle and Henry’s scandal broke two months ago. I didn’t leave everything behind just to be found by some stupid teenager thinking they recognize me and post it online.
I also deleted all of my social media accounts so they wouldn’t be able to find any of the messages between me and Carter. I don’t want to be found. They didn’t care enough before, so they shouldn’t care now.
If I’m lucky, my parents won’t tell anyone I left because they’ll be afraid of what it will do to their perfect image. That’s all that really matters any way. Why else would they have pretended Carter didn’t exist?
“Fuck, I really hope he’s here,” I mumble under my breath after catching the door on someone’s way out of the entrance to the apartment building he lives in. It’s just my fucking luck that Carter isn’t home, and without a phone, I have no way of letting him know I’m here.
