Raising my head under the spray of the shower, I decide to tell him because I can’t keep it inside anymore. I can’t keep lying to him or avoiding the fact that Lucy is hurting and miserable and it’s all my fault.
I turn the water off and dry off, wrapping the towel around my waist. “I had sex with Lucy and I was her first. The summer before senior year at Hillside Academy. The following week, I told her we couldn’t be together because it would complicate everything with Aiden and our families. I felt horrible, but what was I supposed to do, Colton? I couldn’t just blurt that shit out and not expect consequences.”
I close my eyes, remembering how she pleaded for me to choose us. To make it work and try to be together.
“There’s more. Spit it out,” Colton says in a stern tone.
He is clearly upset and with good reason. I’m a horrible friend who slept with his best friend’s twin sister.
“She was the one standing at the entrance of the pool house when I was high and drunk as fuck and trying to get Gloria to suck me off, but I couldn’t. It looked like I was fucking Gloria too, even when I told you I didn’t want to touch her. I was high and drunk as fuck, and in my mind, I wanted to prove to myself I could get over her, but I can’t. You didn’t see her because you were nailing Gloria and she bolted crying.”
“Fuck. You are such an asshole.” Anger visibly courses through him. “You are so lucky Aiden hasn’t found out because you would be so dead. And I’m not talking so much about the fact you fucked his sister, but how you hurt her.”
He walks up to me. Bam! My head snaps back. He punches the shit out of my mouth. “That’s for hurting Lucy and keeping it to yourself all this time. That’s fucked up and low, even for you, Mase.”
I grimace, wiping the blood from the corner of my mouth that stings like razor blades. “I’m sorry,” I say in defeat.
“It’s a little too late for your pathetic excuses.” He points toward the exit, pulling his shirt over his head. “That poor girl has been watching the guy she gave her virginity to and cared about more than anyone fuck around in front of her face, and all you can say is you’re sorry?”
“I know, man. I fucked up and I don’t know how to fix it.”
He shakes his head. “There is nothing to fix. It’s too late. You should have thought of that before you stuck your dick in her.” He slides his feet into his Jordan sneakers. “Thinking about it, I hope she finds someone to make her forget your sorry ass.”
He walks out of the locker room without a backward glance and slams the door. I quickly get dressed and lick my busted lip, the metallic taste exploding on my tongue.
The parking lot is almost deserted, but Lucy is waiting for me inside her Porsche. I rode with Colton to the game, but I think he took Linda with him to the party and decided to still let me ride with Lucy.
Her head lifts, watching me approach the passenger side of her car. When I open the door, the scent of leather mixed with strawberries has me taking a breath, reminding me of when I would ride alone with her to our favorite fast-food spot. I open the rear passenger door and place my gym bag in the back seat.
I open the front passenger door and slide into the seat. She points to the left side of my mouth.
“What happened?” she asks.
“Colton.”
“Colton? Why would Colton hit you?” She places her cell phone down and leans over the center console to turn on the light.
She shifts closer to take a better look at the damage. When her finger touches my chin, electricity jolts through my body. “You’ll live.” She removes her finger, and I instantly miss the warmth of her touch on my skin.
“He knows.”
Her lips part and she swallows. “You told him? Everything?”
I nod. “He figured out that something was going on between us with what I said back there, turning Gloria down. I couldn’t keep it from him any longer. I’m sorry.”
“I know. You keep telling me that, but it doesn’t change how I feel or what happened.”
She puts the car in drive and heads toward the house we bought off campus. Her phone lights up with a text message notification.
“You tell your boyfriend that you’re taking me home?” It is a dick move, but I realize I’m jealous. I’m going to make it hard for her to forget me.
She glances at me with her hands gripping the steering wheel. “No, I was just letting him know I’m free to go out with him tomorrow night.”
My jaw tics and I slide my hand over my black jeans, angry that someone is taking her out. That she wants to go out with someone that is not me.
“When do we get to meet him? We should meet him.”
She snorts. “And risk you guys threatening him? I think I’ll pass. It’s just a date, nothing serious.” She places the car in park behind my McLaren P1. “And he isn’t my boyfriend.”