She lifts her chin, unwilling to be intimidated. “Is that when your dad started locking youout?”
Pain has my gut twisting. “Still don’t wanna talkabout—“
“Fine.” Her eyes flash. “Then let’s talk about what happened when you came here and everyone at Oakwood fell in love withyou.”
Everyone?I want to ask, but she’s already goingon.
“I could handle the weird popularity thing. But at Carly’s party, the way we talked and laughed and…” She shakes her head, the expression on her face shifting from anger to longing in a way that has my abs tightening. “I started to think we could be us again, even if you had other friends. Even if we hadn’t talked inmonths.
“That’s why I made you Rice Krispies squares the next morning like we used to. I came here to talk, but you weren’talone.”
My heart stops because I’m starting to see where this isgoing.
Annie goes on, though I wish she wouldn’t. “There was a UT lanyard on the hook by the door, a girl’s boots on themat.”
“You were jealous?” My voice is hoarse with incredulity because of all the thoughts that’d occurred to me, that wasn’t one ofthem.
“No.” She shoves angrily at my chest, but I don’t budge. “But I overheard you tell her I was nothing.Nobody.”
Fuck.
“I’ve been called nobody before,” she goes on, her voice oddly hollow, “but I never expected it fromyou.”
That hollowness must be contagious because it takes up residence in my gut, spreading with everybreath.
I knew something had upset her, but she blocked me the next day with her phone. The day after with herheart.
She’d decided our friendship was over, and I let her doit.
It was what I wanted, wasn’tit?
The first thing Jax told me when he offered me this opportunity was to stay away from hisdaughter.
Now, I want to take it allback.
I want to tell her she’s moresomethingthan every other Oakwoodstudent.
I want to protect the heart she wears on her sleeve like a fashionaccessory.
“What do you want from me?” There’s desperation in my words. Anything she asks me for right now, I’ll give toher.
Her next breath fills her lungs, my ears. “I want to forgetyou.”
Fivewords.
Each one tears a layer off myheart.
It’s her pain, but somehow I’m the one feeling scraped andbloody.
My phone buzzes on the bed, and my stomach drops before I read thetext.
I squeeze my eyes shut as I tug on my hair hard enough my scalp hurts. “You gottago.”
“What?”
A knock comes at the door, and Annie opensit.
Trisha’s surprised face appears, and every curse word I’ve heard and some I haven’t stream through my head atonce.