“You have spread yourself too thin.”
I shake my head. “I’m used to it. I’ve been...” I try to explain, but she interrupts me, not letting me finish.
“I know, you’ve always been a hardworking girl, and not just that, you’ve always had a big heart. Always giving to others, always trying to help.”
Not everybody sees it that way.
Now it’s time for you to move on.
“Maybe I gave too much,” I murmur softly. The pain isn’t as intense as it was yesterday, but it’s still a constant hum under my skin.
“What happened with that boy?”
We had fun, but now that fun is over.
You should know better than to fall for a player.
“He said he can’t do this anymore.” I shrug. “But is it even surprising? Just another man who didn’t think I was worth fighting for.”
Stay.
How many times did he say that word to me? Asked me to stay, when all I wanted was to leave. I should have been smarter from the start. Should have guarded my heart better, if I had I wouldn’t be in the position I am now. Heartbroken and alone.
Stay.
It’s you who left, dammit.
A silent tear slips down my cheek, but I don’t bother wiping it away.
“I’m so sorry that he hurt you, Yasmin, but you have to understand, he’s hurting. You should give him time.”
“Well, I’m hurting too!” I jump to my feet and glare at her. “And he’s the one who’s responsible for all of it. Besides, whose side are you on, anyway?”
Mom gets up and grabs my hands in hers. “Yours, always yours.”
Exhaling slowly, I nod.
A small smile tugs at her lips. “You know what would make this better?”
I look up and see a hopeful smile on her lips that makes the corners of my mouth twitch.
“Dessert for breakfast,” we say in unison, chuckling softly.
It used to be our thing. Every time things got hard, or one of us was sad, we’d get dessert for breakfast. It didn’t make our worries go away, but it soothed our pain, if only for a little bit.
Did Jade and Nixon have something like that with their mother?
“Clean up and you can show me around.”
Is he still on campus? And if he is, did he spend the night with Karen or any other girl from the party?
The mere thought makes my stomach turn.
“I’m not sure that’s the best idea.”
“Well, I think it’s a great idea. C’mon now, I have a surprise for you.”
Chapter Forty
NIXON
I moan in protest as I hear the sound of hushed voices somewhere close by. My head is throbbing like a ticking time bomb. Shifting in the bed, I burrow it further into the pillow.
“I don’t care!” I hear somebody hiss in the distance, the sound so loud it’s like a stab in my brain, then quiet.
Utter.
Blissful.
Silen—
Splash.
I jump upright in bed as ice cold water is poured over my head. It takes a moment for my body to catch up to what happened, but when it does, a shiver runs through my frozen limbs. “What the fuck?!”
“Great, you’re awake.”
“Callie?”
Wiping the water from my eyes, I lift my head, and sure enough my best friend’s girlfriend is standing by my bed, a bucket in her hand, and a scowl on her face.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Her eyes narrow even further, if that’s possible. “Well if it were up to me, I’d have cut your balls off…”
“You’ve got me to thank for stopping that,” Hayden says, peeking his head through the doorway.
“So, I had to get creative.”
“What did I ever do to you, Cals? I thought we were friends.”
“Friends? If the last few weeks, especially last night, are an indication of how you treat your friends, the people you love, I want no part in it.”
“What—”
Callie releases the bucket. It falls by her side with a loud, resounding thud. She points her finger at me. “I warned you, Cole. I warned you what would happen if you broke her heart. And what the hell did you do? You went ahead and did exactly that.”
“Dude…”
I rub at my temples, still feeling the constant ache behind them. What the hell is she talking about?
Callie swiftly turns on the balls of her feet to glare at Hayden. “You shush, I’m not done.” Then her attention is back on me, and I wish it wasn’t. Callie is pissed. “If anybody can understand, then it’s me.”
“Callie…”
“No, don’t you dare Callie me, Nixon Cole!” This time when her finger stabs into my chest, her nail scrapes at my skin. “I know how it feels to lose somebody, and not just somebody, but a parent. I lost my parents when I was barely sixteen years old to an accident. I didn’t have time to prepare. I didn’t have time to tell them I loved them. They were here.” She snaps her fingers. “And then they were gone.”
Callie sniffles as tears fill her eyes.
“I’ll never forgive myself that the last words we spoke to each other were said in anger. So no, Nixon, you don’t get to pretend you’re all alone in this because you aren’t. And while your mom’s death is terrible and premature, you had time. You had time to be with her, you had time to show her how much you love her, you got to be by her side all the way, until the very end. I didn’t get any of those things.”
There is movement in the background. Hayden comes in, wrapping his arms around Callie and pulling her into his chest. This time, she doesn’t resist him.
“We got a lot, but we were robbed of so much more.”
“You were,” Callie agrees, sniffling softly. “But you’re the one who’s robbing yourself of even more with the way you’ve been acting. You only had to say the word and we’d have been by your side the whole way, helping you with whatever you needed, but instead you pushed us away. You still keep pushing us away. But that’s not even the worst part. What do you remember from last night? If you remember anything, that is.”
I gulp, trying to think of what might have happened to piss Callie off this much. My memory is hazy at best. Dad. Dad came to the house. We fought, and I threw him out. Fight with Jade. Coming to Blairwood. Drinking and then… nothing.
I rub at my face. “It’s all fuzzy.”
“You drank your body weight in alcohol, no wonder it’s all fuzzy. You had a bunch of people over, and you all got drunk off your asses. And when we asked you to stop and talk to us, you refused to do so. I called Yasmin, because I knew if you’d listen to anyone it’d be her.”
My heart skips a beat at the mention of her name. I haven’t seen her or talked to her since she left with the rest of them back to Blairwood. Since I made her go.
It was for the best.
“Why did you call her? You know we…”
“Oh, I know that you acted like a dick and asked her to leave with the rest of us, but I also know that girl still loves you and wants what’s best for you. I thought you’d finally get your head out of your ass and realize you feel the same. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe you just needed somebody to be by your side for a while. Yasmin gave you everything, Nixon. She was with you when you were at your lowest, she was there to hold you when you were falling apart, she failed a fucking class for you! She didn’t deserve you to throw some hussy in her face and show her where the door is.”