“Now that sounds like a plan I can get on board with.” Mya grinned, her eyes sparkling with eagerness, as if I was a project she just couldn’t wait to get her hands on.
“You know I’ve got your back, whatever you decide,” Hailee added. “Just because I have Cameron now, doesn’t mean I’m not one-hundred percent here for you.”
“Thank you. But first things first…” I dug my cell out of my pocket and found Jason’s number.
“Is that what I think it is?” Hailee craned her neck to get a better look.
“Yep. I need to draw a line under Jason and his games.” My thumb hovered over the ‘delete’ button. Drawing in a deep breath, I closed my eyes, and pressed it.
“To new beginnings.” Mya declared, raising her soda in the air.
“New beginnings,” I echoed, clinking my glass against hers.
But the sound of Hailee clearing her throat cut through our soft laughter. “Now are you going to fess up about what really happened between the two of you?”
Well, damn.
“Seriously? You want to know? I figured you were mentally scarred from New York.”
“I don’t want to know the graphic details, but yeah, I want to know.” She gave me a tentative smile. “After all, I need to know how badly I need to get him back for hurting you.” Her mouth curved into a devious smirk and soon the three of us were falling around my bedroom floor in fits of laughter.
And the ache in my heart faded.
Just a little bit.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jason
“Are you going to drill daggers into my head all morning?” I finally dragged my eyes to Hailee’s, and she clucked her tongue in disgust. “Whatever’s on your mind, just spit it out so I can finish my breakfast in peace.” I all but growled the words.
“I’m just wondering what made you this way. I know you have Daddy issues, but join the fucking club. Most of us have parent issues. Which makes me think there must be something else. A reason you’re so… so cruel.”
“I don’t have to answer to you.” My eyes narrowed.
“You’re right, you don’t. But I’m asking anyway.” Hailee glared right back. “Why? Why did you do that to her?”
“Am I supposed to know what the fuck you’re talking about?”
Her nostrils flared, a streak of pink coloring each cheek. My step-sister was pissed and instead of trying to cool the flames, I was stoking them. But she didn’t have the first fucking clue about why I did the things I did.
No one did.
“Felicity came to Seniors Night for you,” she hissed. “To be there for you. And you went and threw it back in her face. I know the two of you have been meeting. I know she slept with you… again. I know everything.”
It wasn’t her harsh tone that had me internally flinching, it was the fact Felicity had told her everything. Things I’d thought had been just between the two of us. Not that it mattered now.
None of it did.
“Yeah, well, it’s over.”
“Are you even listening to yourself? You were seeing her in secret… why?”
“I don’t—”
“Because you care about her. Stop pretending you don’t. You think we don’t all see the way you look at her? Even Thatcher and his goons noticed. You watch her. You watch her when you think no one is looking, so don’t stand there and tell me whatever was happening between the two of you was nothing.” Hailee slammed her hands down on the table, making the breakfast bowls clatter.
“So I care?” I yelled back, my thin rope of control snapping. “It doesn’t matter. None of it fucking matters. I can’t afford any distractions next year.”
“If you care about someone, they’re not a distraction, Jason,” her voice softened a fraction, “they’re a support.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Stop saying it doesn’t matter. It fucking matters,” she roared back, her chest heaving with the strain of her words. “Felicity deserves better. And you promised; you promised me you wouldn’t hurt her…” Tears pooled in her eyes, twisting my gut.
“No, I didn’t,” I said coolly.
“Yes, you did.”
“No, I didn’t. I promised to only ever do what I think’s best for her, and this… this is what’s best.”
Hailee shook her head, cussing under her breath. “That doesn’t even make any sense. If you wanted to fuck Jenna, you could have at least waited until Felicity left. She was right there and you rubbed Jenna in her face. So tell me, Jason, how is that what’s best for her?”
“She needed to know we were done.” The words almost got stuck in my throat and I sucked in a harsh breath.
“Oh my god, listen to yourself. You make me sick.” She slumped back in her chair defeated. “I really thought you were changing. I thought you’d finally shed that hard shell of yours. But it really was a game, wasn’t it?”
I gave her a dismissive shrug.
“You think the whole world revolves around you. That just because you’re some football god you can do whatever the hell you want. But this is high school, Jason. Soon you won’t be at the top of the food chain anymore and I hope you get a taste of your own medicine.”
“Are you done?” I growled.
“Done?” She smirked. “I’m only just getting started. You’re so self-centered you can’t even see what’s going on around you. You didn’t stop for a second to consider Felicity’s feelings. It never even occurred to you that maybe she has her own shit going on. You automatically assumed she was applying to UPenn to follow you there. Jason Ford. Football star and epic asshole.” bitter laughter spilled from Hailee’s lips, “but you couldn’t be more wrong.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Maybe you should have pulled your head out of your ass for five seconds and asked her about her own life. But now you’ll never get the chance.”
“Yeah? Why’s that?” I sounded composed but her words had completely disarmed me.
Hands pressed firmly against the table, Hailee stood slowly, the chair scraping against the tiles, the sound cutting me right to the bone. “Because, dear brother, you might have won the game but the only real loser here is you.” She walked to the door, glancing back at the last second. “And Jason?”
“Yeah?” I croaked.
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay away from Felicity. She doesn’t need you back complicating her life anymore than it already is.”
Her warning hung between us, and I knew whatever progress we’d made in patching up our relationship had just been torn wide open again.
And I only had myself to blame.
“Hey,” Cam said as I entered the gym. We had morning practice, and I’d been bracing myself for his tirade. So his greeting was unexpected to say the least.
“You’re still talking to me then? Because after the lecture Hailee gave me this morning, I wasn’t sure if I should wear body armor.”