I froze, her words lashing my insides. Deep visceral cuts, splaying me open. But I schooled my expression and said with indifference, “I don’t.”
“Okay.” She frowned. “So I’ll just go.” Her blue eyes bore into mine. Daring me to say it. To give in. But I didn’t want to give her any power over me.
It was bad enough I’d barely gotten any sleep last night. I didn’t need to drag this out any longer than it needed to be.
So Harleigh was back. It wasn’t like there was anything left to salvage between us.
She was one of them now.
Her life was across the reservoir.
Everything we’d ever shared, everything we’d ever done…
It didn’t fucking matter.
“You might as well say what you came to say.”
Chloe inclined her head slightly. “She started DA today.”
Kye sucked in a sharp breath. “You’re sure?”
“How’d you even find out this shit?” Zane voiced my concerns. Well, the concerns I would be having if I could think straight for longer than a second.
My mind was a blur of questions. Things you tell yourself, things you tell each other to try to make sense of something.
Harleigh Wren was back. She was in Old Darling Hill, attending Darling Academy.
I never thought I’d see the day… but I could see it clearly now. She was right where she was always supposed to be.
Harleigh had always been too good for The Row. Too pure and innocent, she had never truly fit in here. It’s one of the reasons I’d taken her under my wing. Because I was made for a place like The Row. Born from it. Dredged up from the bottom of its soulless depths and spat out.
Not Harleigh Wren though.
Over the years, when her gaze would linger a little too long, or the lust in her eyes would burn too brightly, I’d tried to tell myself that maybe our stories were the same. That maybe we had a future… together. Outside of Zane and Kye, she was my best friend. My ride or die. The only girl in the world I could ever imagine sharing my life with.
But deep down, I knew we were too different.
She would make it out of The Row one day, and she would fucking flourish. Spread her wings and fly. While I would stay here and rot.
“Nix?” Zane nudged my shoulder. “You okay?”
“What?” I ran a hand down my face. “Yeah, I’m good.”
The three of them watched me with a mix of doubt and concern in their eyes. When Harleigh had left last year, I hadn’t handled things well.
“Do you want me to see what else I can find out?” Chloe asked.
“Why?” I snapped, my voice as cold as ice.
“I-I guess I thought… It doesn’t matter.”
“Seriously, Clo,” Kye jumped in, and I inhaled a sharp breath, forcing air into my lungs. “Do I even want to know how you know all of this? Don’t tell me you’re hanging out with someone across—”
“Relax, big brother.” She smirked. “I’m not committing an act of treachery. Brianne got a job working at Crêpe-a-licious. It’s popular with the DA crew. She heard some kids talking, and well, I asked her to listen out and… I can see that was a bad idea.”
Their gazes shifted to me again and I scowled. “What? I said I’m fine.”
“Oh, you look fine, man. You look totally fine.” Kye snorted.