“What do you mean? You guys are incredible.”
“Nah, it’s just that we haven’t updated our social media in months. But that all changed tonight, man!” he started to say, and I knew instantly what was coming next. “We got a social media manager. It’s going to change our lives. She’s fucking smart as hell.”
“That’s great. Is it Christina?”
“You know her?” He tossed his head back. “Shit. Of course you know her. But yeah.”
“Hey,” Mac said, hitting my shoulder, and I focused on the front door where Logan had walked back through with a shit-eating grin on his face.
“Hey, Jason. Was she with that guy tonight?” I asked, and he warily looked at me, almost too scared to give me the answer. “Tell me,” I pushed.
“They were definitely hanging out.” He backed away. “I gotta go pack up.”
“All right. Thanks, man. Good to see you. I’ll come to your next show,” I said as Jason headed back toward the stage, his eyes looking somewhere over my shoulder.
“Unless we have a game. Then, we’ll both miss it.” Logan’s voice hit my ears, and I saw red.
I turned slowly to face him, trying my best to keep my temper in check.
“What do you want?” I bit out, and he grinned.
“Surprised it took you this long to show up, Anders,” he taunted before shooting a glare at Mac. He obviously knew that he was the one who had ratted out his location. “Were you hoping to catch Christina?” he asked, his tone like a barb straight to my fucking guts, but I tried my best to pull myself together and appear unaffected. I couldn’t let him know he had me. “You just missed her. But don’t worry. She’s in good hands.”
“Yeah, her own since she’s not here,” Mac said.
I let out a hollow laugh, hoping my detached act would have its desired effect and Logan would back off, thinking I couldn’t care less that he was pursuing her.
But I cared too much, and Logan fucking sensed it. He was about to contradict what Mac had said, and I couldn’t stomach the idea of hearing it. I bailed before he could say another word about her or him or them. I heard Mac shouting my name from behind me, but I was too far gone to care.
I practically sprinted outside and exhaled, watching my breath fan out like smoke before it floated away. The night air was freezing, but I had my anger to keep me warm as I reached for my phone and fired off a single text message to Christina that read:
Please don’t go out with him.
Screw Cole
Christina
I stared at the unexpected text message, my heart lodged in my throat and my fingers hovering over the keypad on my phone. After seven months, this was the first text Cole had sent. No text had come after the slap at the party. No text after that awful evening in August when he’d destroyed whatever we had. Not a word until tonight.
I heard Lauren on the phone, her high-pitched responses reverberating through the thin walls of our apartment. I knew she was talking to Jason, the drummer, and I didn’t want to interrupt, so I couldn’t ask her for advice. Although I was pretty sure what she’d tell me to text Cole back. And it wouldn’t be pretty. Not that Cole deserved pretty.
He’d given Logan his blessing. His blessing! And now, he wanted to take it back? He wanted to tell me not to go out with him after he told Logan he didn’t care?
I wanted to respond to him in a hundred different ways. I wanted to tell him to fuck off, to ask him why he cared, tell him it was none of his business what I did, or say if it bothered him so much, then why weren’t we together? I wanted to remind him he couldn’t have his cake and eat it, too, although that was exactly what I’d been giving him the last three years. But mostly, I wanted him to leave me alone. Since we were not going to be together, I needed him to go away.
More thoughts raced. Like how had he even found out so fast? Mac, the other baseball player’s face, came to my mind. I remembered seeing him oscillate between watching me and Logan and typing on his phone. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Mac had texted Cole. But it did take one to figure out why Cole cared.
He had no right to ask me not to go. He had no say in my personal life after he decided that he didn’t want to be a part of it. I promised myself that when the time came and Logan decided to ask me out on a real date, I would definitely say yes. I deserved to move on.
Lauren’s bedroom door opened, and she walked out with an empty glass, surprised to see me still working at the kitchen table. “Oh. I’m glad you’re still up. I got some interesting news,” she said through a yawn.
“I got an annoying text”—I held up my phone—“but you first.”
“Apparently, Cole showed up at the bar. And he was looking for you,” she said as she filled her glass up with water.
“He was there? How do you know?”
“Jason told me. They’re friends, I guess. Cole was asking him about you. Jason said he looked scary.”
“Looked scary?” I said with a laugh because it sounded ridiculous. Then again, there were apparently sides to Cole that I hadn’t seen and didn’t know existed, so it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility.
“He was asking about you. He was asking about Logan. He was pissed. He and Logan had words. That’s all I know,” she said, sounding completely annoyed, before taking a drink. “Now, show me that text.”
I held up my phone, and she grabbed it before groaning. “This guy has some nerve.”
“Right? That’s exactly what I thought.”
“He’s such an asshole. The biggest game player and mindfuck I’ve ever met. And that’s saying a lot because, hello, we’re in college, and I’m majoring in psychology.” She sounded more wounded than I felt. “Are you going to respond?”
“No,” I said with finality.
“Good. Silence hurts more than any words ever could.” She gave me a quick hug. “You okay?”
“Yep.”
“You’re sure?” She jutted out her hip and waited.
“Promise.”
“Okay then. Night.”
“Night,” I said as she started walking toward her bedroom. “Wait.” She stopped and turned to face me. “How’s Jason?” I asked.
A huge smile covered her face, and she tried to hide behind her hand. “He’s so nice. And normal. I thought that since he was in a band, he might be more of a jerk than he originally let on, but he’s not at all.”
“I really liked him too. All the guys were super chill,” I said, giving her my approval that she hadn’t asked for and didn’t need.
“Agreed. Get back to work. And don’t forget”—she leveled me with an overly dramatic expression—“silence.”
I laughed. “You don’t have to worry. I’m not responding. I have nothing to say,” I reassured her, but I meant it. There wasn’t anything left to say to Cole that hadn’t been said a hundred times in a hundred different ways.
And I didn’t even feel bad about it. I felt sort of good, empowered even. For once, I was in control. Something I had rarely, if ever, felt when it came to me and Cole.