Micah
Greasy food is my go-to hangover cure, so when I wake up Saturday morning—okay, afternoon—feeling inhuman, I text Beau and ask him to meet me at the diner across town.
Before I leave, I move our spare key to a different hiding place and change the code on our security system. No way in hell is Alora sneaking her way into my house ever again.
It’s nearly two by the time I get to the diner, so the place is almost empty. My gurgling stomach stages an angry protest against the alcohol I’d consumed after Daphne left last night. An extra-large plate of fries and a burger should fix me right up. At least, I sure hope it does, because I feel like shit. Then again, maybe I deserve to feel like shit. Food might help cure my hangover but it’s nowhere near enough to fix the chaos Alora caused last night.
Until Daphne, I had never experienced the anguish of looking into the eyes of someone I care for this much and seeing such distress and shame there. Knowing I’m somewhat responsible for it—for not finding a way to stop Alora—has almost broken me.
Now we have to figure out how to handle the fallout. I’m seriously worried about how things will go down at school on Monday, how much more Daphne will have to be subjected to—that’s if she shows up at all. She’s innocent in all of this, caught in the cross fire between me and Alora. And the fucking stupid part is that there isn’t a “me and Alora.” There never was. It’s all in Alora’s fucked-up head.
One thing’s for sure: that psycho is fucking dead to me.
“How’s Daphne doing?” Beau slides into the booth across from me. When I don’t immediately answer, he scans my face, grimacing. “Lemme guess. You haven’t talked to her?”
I shove a fry into my mouth to keep from having to answer. Glancing around the restaurant to make sure no one from school is within earshot, I murmur, “I feel fucking awful about the whole thing.”
“Alora is ridiculously desperate. I’ve cut her loose, too. I can’t fucking handle that kind of drama in my life.” He steals one of my fries and then another.
“Dude. Did you want to order?”
Beau snickers. “Nope. I showed up because you sounded like you needed to talk some shit out. The repayment for my advice is some of your french fries.”
I sigh, then speak low enough so only the two of us can hear. “What are people saying?” If there’s gossip, Beau’s going to have the details. I don’t know who his sources are or what he does to get information from people, but he’s the king of the Rosehaven gossip mill.
“Well, it sounds like there are two camps—those who thought it was hot and those who couldn’t believe someone would do that to another person. I mean the fact that it was recorded on the sly, not the act itself.” He holds his hands up in surrender. “What Alora did was seriously messed up, but I can’t deny that video was fucking hot as hell.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
That makes him laugh, the asshole.
I huff out a breath, rolling my eyes. “Seriously, bro. I was hoping that since the video has already been shown that the heat was off of us with Alora, but Daphne is really upset.”
“I’m not gonna lie. After publicly making out with Griffin and now this video, some people are definitely going to talk shit and say she’s a—”
“Don’t fucking say it.”
“I wouldn’t, man. But people will think what they want, is my point. She’s been through the wringer in the last few weeks.” He grimaces, running both hands through his hair, gripping and tugging on it. “There was all that stuff with those douche nozzles, too. Don’t forget that.”
Shayne and Carter.The thought of them with their hands on Daphne makes me want to jump up and punch something. And I’m sure they’ll probably say that the video proves their point about her being the school’s newest slut.
“Yeah. Assholes. You or Xander haven’t heard anything out of them, have you?”
“Nah. Not since practice that one day.”
“Good.”
Beau sits back in the booth, crossing his arms over his chest. “I feel so bad for her. Think about it—shy girl dates a popular football player, gets an immediate target on her back, and ends up with her very own sex tape that half the school sees? She’s gotta be fucking mortified.”
“She’s mostly mad that she’s caught between us. She feels like Alora is never going to leave her alone. She feels attacked. I can’t blame her. Because that’s exactly what it was—a fucking attack.”
“Any idea how Alora managed to pull it off when she wasn’t at the house?”
“No. But it was clearly all planned out. She had to have set it up before she snuck into my bedroom because she left right after that. So I don’t know what the fucking point was in coming upstairs to talk to me. I guess she was delusional enough to think I’d actually be up for fooling around.” I rub my hands over my face. “Fuck. This is all getting so messed up.”
“All I know is this”—he rubs his hands together—“if you didn’t have some very real feelings for Daphne, this wouldn’t be an issue at all. Because you do feel that way about her, you’re able to brush Alora aside like she’s nothing.” He snatches another fry and grins as he pops it into his mouth. “Nothing but a fucking head case,” he mumbles as he chews.
I shrug. “Yeah, maybe.”