CHAPTER FOURTEEN
AUBREY
TWO WEEKS HAD GONE by since my meltdown at the premiere.
Two long weeks of waiting for Jax to leave our little town to go back to his skyscrapers and flashing lights.
Also, two weeks of me moping because Jay would be flying out soon to Los Angeles to find an apartment and start his mentorship.
Vick tried to get me to go out to the clubs with them. She even admitted she’d gone out with them a few nights back. I wanted to accuse her of joining the enemy but I just quietly declined her invites. Every time, she threw her hands in the air and left me in my own misery.
Rome wasn’t so willing to accept Jax. He would stare at me like a pitiful puppy and then say he was going out. He didn’t go out with Jax though. He went out on his own a lot, probably to drink away his own demons.
Katie showed up and disappeared like she always did, but she never brought up Jax or Jay. They’d been a part of our lives too long, so she was used to my moodiness.
Then, my very small school break came to an end, and my only summer class started. After attending it, I found myself dialing Jay’s number. More like pounding his number onto my touch screen phone.
He grumbled something when he picked up, and I laid into him. “You told me this class would be a breeze. That the professor is all Hyde no Jekyll, Jay. Mr. Gremble or something.”
He mumbled something else.
I took a breath, trying to calm myself.
“The professor is more like a gremlin!” I screamed the last word, not calming myself at all. “You’d better be ready to teach me everything. You’re leaving in a few days, and I can’t fail this class.”
I sucked in air because if I didn’t I would panic.
“Shit, Brey, I didn’t know Mr. Gremble would be teaching it. He normally doesn’t teach summer classes.”
“You didn’t know? I told you probably five times. I specifically asked you about the professor. You waved me off and said I would do great and that this class would look wonderful on my—”
He cut me off. “Jesus, it doesn’t matter, Brey. You’ll be fine. Do we have to do coffee today? My head’s going to explode.”
I could practically smell the alcohol through the phone. “Fine? Are you serious? I can’t do just fine. I need good grades!” He was right, a B wouldn’t kill me academically.
Only emotionally.
And mentally.
I got straight A’s. Not A minuses or B pluses.
If I got a B, it would make all my work to get the A’s totally irrelevant.
I shook my head. “I’m already halfway to the café, and you promised. I can’t help that you infuse your blood with liquor every night.”
“What the hell time is it?” he asked, sounding unconcerned.
I hesitated on project rant-until-I-one-hundred-percent-find-blame-in-Jay. It wasn’t his fault that I made the horrible mistake of picking up an accelerated investment class for the summer or that the class started at seven in the morning. This class was supposed to add to my business major but the more I looked over the material, the more I dreaded it.
“Nine. You said coffee shop at nine thirty on Tuesday. Not me. I need your help on this or I will fail. Not just C or D grade but fail ...”
I heard a rumble of laughter that seemed all too familiar. At first, I was shocked, then furious.
“Do you have me on speaker phone while Jax is with you, you jerk?” I said far too loudly.
“Damn, Brey. Too loud. Seriously, I can’t talk about this right now ...” I heard rustling like he might be getting out of bed.
“Peaches ...” The voice I dreaded and looked forward to all at once rumbled through the phone. It sounded so close that it caused goose bumps to form along my neckline.