She takes his hands and rather than retreating, she steps closer to him. Reaches out and touches him.
Desmond slaps a hand on my shoulder and my gaze jerks toward him. “You need to fix this.”
“I’m trying.”
“Try harder.”
I tug away from him. “She’s letting everyone else inbutme.” Even I hear the bitterness in my voice. The second I see Jordy pull her into a hug, I see red. I want to punch the fucker in the face, to hell if he’s one of my best friends.
“I know this hurts, man—”
“Hurts?!” I turn to him, eyes wide and a sneer on my lips. “You think this hurts? Fuck you. I wish all it did was hurt. This shit right here”—I wave in their direction—“it fucking guts me. My girl won’t talk to me. Won’t look at me. Almost die—”
Desmond grabs me and shoves me inside an empty classroom. “Keep your goddamn voice down,” he whisper-shouts.
I’m shaking my head, hands already forming fists. I need to hit something. Or someone. I need to funnel all of whatever it is that I’m feeling intosomethingor I’m going to lose my goddamn mind.
Des gets in my face and it takes everything in me not to draw back and hit my best friend.
“This sucks. You’re pissed off because you know you fucked up. You had a good thing going and she got hurt.” I open my mouth, but he cuts me off. “But you’re still not getting it Rafe.Shegot hurt. Her. Not you. You don’t get to be pissed off at her or anyone else because you’re a jealous asshole used to getting his way. She deserves better than that.”
“Get off me.” I shove him back. He takes a few more steps away, his jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed.
“This isn’t about you. Not what you want or what you think you need. If you want to get her back, then stop being a selfish prick and realize this is about her. What she wants and what she needs. That’s all that should matter right now.”
I work my jaw. The asshole is right and I hate it. My eyes fall to the floor and I force myself to take a deep breath before dropping down, my ass hitting the cool linoleum with my back against the wall. My eyes hit his once more. “What do I do?”
He rubs the back of his neck, a weary expression on his face. “I don’t know, man.”
“She won’t talk to me,” I say, my words hollow and empty.
Des sighs. “You’re making this about you again. It’s not just that she won’t talk to you. She can’t. You saw what happened before. She freaked out and damn near had a panic attack.”
Fuck.
An idea forms and suddenly, I know what I have to do now.
I push to my feet and head for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“Out.”
“What do you mean, out? We have class.”
I shake my head. “I’m skipping. I have something I need to do. Just—” I pause. “Watch out for my girl.”
I head straight to the parking lot, ignoring Mrs. Ford when she pokes her head out of her classroom and asks me where I’m going. Season’s over. She can give me all the detentions she wants.
I spot Liu in the parking lot getting out of his Subaru WRX and make a split-second decision to call out to him. “Yo, Liu.”
His head jerks toward me and he scowls.
“Come on, we’re cutting.”
“What?”
I stalk toward his car and open the passenger side door. “Get in the car, Liu. I need a ride. Let’s go.”
