Nix
“We’ll be back,”I said over my shoulder to Miller and Zane.
“Ten minutes. You get ten minutes and then I’m coming after you,” Zane grumbled.
The motherfucker meant it too.
Harleigh didn’t resist when my hand slipped to hers, and I threaded our fingers together. I realized my error the second shivers ran through me. Touching her was like a zap of electricity rushing through my body, making my skin heat and my heart pound wildly in my chest.
It was probably all the alcohol and weed too, but everything was amplified with my hand wrapped around hers. It felt right. Normal. Nice. And I hated it. I hated that after all this time, she still wielded so much power over me.
“Where are we going?” she asked, with no trace of excitement or anticipation, just mild indifference.
“Just a little further,” I said.
I really didn’t want to have this conversation in front of Zane or Miller. Especially not Nate Miller.
Shit, hearing her voice and realizing she was out here with him, it had been like a punch to the gut. The idea that she had moved on, with some rich fucking prick who thought he was better than the likes of me.
Fuck.
“Nix.” Harleigh yanked her hand free. “Stop, just stop.”
I turned around, meeting her murderous gaze. She’d always been so soft, so quiet and shy. I wasn’t used to seeing her like this… with this fight in her eyes.
But I liked it.
I really fucking liked it.
“Birdie, I—”
“Don’t.” She gritted out. “Don’t call me that.”
“How are you?”
“How am I?” Bitter laughter spilled from her. “What are you doing, Phoenix? At the fair you told Zane to get rid of me and now you want to what? Hang out? Catch up for old time’s sake?”
“No, that’s not… I… fuck.” I dragged a hand through my hair and down the back of my neck. “You’re with him?”
“I’m not with him. I’m just hanging out with him.”
“Getting high…”
Who was this girl? Because she sure as shit wasn’t the Harleigh I’d known most of my life.
“Like I said, it’s none of your business.”
I took a step forward. “I don’t like it, B. This isn’t you; it isn’t—”
“You don’t know anything about me anymore and you sure as hell don’t get to swoop in and act like you still care. Not after what you did.” A shudder ran through her, and I fought the urge to pull her into my arms and hold her.
“I can explain…” There was so much I needed to explain. “I can—”
“No, Nix. It’s done. It’s in the past. We’re in the past. Zane was right.” Conviction glittered in her murky eyes. “This, us, it isn’t healthy. We can’t keep doing this, torturing each other. Whatever we had, it’s done. It’s over.”
“You don’t mean that, B.” Because it didn’t feel over. It felt unresolved: a dark cloud lingering over us, a storm brewing. Circling. And until it exploded, it wouldn’t pass.
She got right in my face, green eyes coolly assessing me. “I don’t know how many more ways to say this. I. Hate. You. Everything we ever shared… It was a lie. I realize that now.”