“Oh my god,” I breathed. “You’re serious.”
“It’s a perfectly reasonable qu—”
“Actually, Dad, it’s not. It’s presumptuous and irrelevant.”
“It’s hardly irrelevant if you have plans to date the girl,” his tone was scathing.
My blood boiled beneath my skin. All this time I’d been reassuring Mya that her skin color wasn’t an issue, failing to realize that it might be a problem for my own father and his ideas of my future.
“And if I do want to date her?”
Silence filled the line, making my body tense. Finally, my old man released a heavy breath. “I’m a man of my word, Son,” he said. “You still have until the end of senior year. But just remember, Asher, the mistakes you make now will follow you into adulthood.”
I wanted to ask what the fuck that was supposed to mean but I didn’t want to enrage him. Not when he and Mom seemed to be going through a calm period. The fact she wanted to decorate for the holidays was a telltale sign things were okay between them.
“You don’t need to worry, Dad,” I said in an attempt to placate him, and get him off the phone. It was bad enough they were coming home soon without spending my last couple days of freedom arguing with him.
“Very well, we’ll see you soon. Invite the guys to join us for dinner if you’d like.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Although after confessing everything to Mya, I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep lying to them.
“Yo, Ash, you down there?” Jase’s voice rang out through the house and I dropped the free weights, grabbing a towel to dry off. I’d barely made it off the bench when he and Cam appeared in the door.
“How long have you been down here? We’ve been calling.”
“A while.” I caught the bottle of water Cam threw me, uncapped it and took a long pull. “Thanks.”
“You look like shit,” Jase remarked, arms folded across his chest, eyes narrowed with scrutiny.
“I’m okay.” After the conversation with Dad and finding out Mya had gone back home for a couple of days, I’d hit the gym. Pushing my body to its physical limit. The adrenaline didn’t erase the memories, but it helped temper the frustration swimming in my veins.
When my friends didn’t reply, watching me as if I was a freak show, I added, “It takes a lot of hard work to look this good, you know.” My lip curved convincingly.
“So this hasn’t got anything to do with the fact Mya just up and left to go back to Philly?”
“Nope.” I said, dropping back onto the bench and staring up at the ceiling.
“Did something happen between the two of you?” Cam asked.
“Yeah,” that was Jason. “Because I tried to get it out of Felicity, but she wouldn’t give it up. Not even after I did that thing she loves with my ton—”
“Whoa, too much information,” I protested, throwing an arm over my eyes.
When I’d been working out, the pain and resistance had demanded my full attention, but now I was done my muscles slowly began to contract and relax, letting in the torrent of thoughts I’d rather keep out.
“So you and Mya?”
“There is no me and Mya,” I grumbled.
She’d run.
For all I knew she was headed straight back into her ex’s arms.
My fist clenched against my thigh.
Fuck.
“But something did happen?”