He has the audacity to try skirting around me, forcing me to pin my back to the door. Thankfully, I’m sockless, so my feet have some traction when he tries to heave the door open and slide me aside. Instead, he can only pry me forward about half a foot or so, placing me squarely in front of him.
“What happened to your face?” I demand.
Jase tries reaching around me to pull the door open further, but I lean against the frame, blocking him from the knob entirely.
“Who did that to you?”
“It was an accident,” he says flatly.
“What? Someone’s fist unintentionally pummeled you in the eye five times?” I snort. “You may not think highly of me, but you know I’m not an idiot. What happened?”
“Why do you care?”
“You just scared the shit out of me and put me into a compromising position. I don’t think I’m asking too much for simply wanting to know why.”
In the dark, I can’t see his eyes, but the way his head lowers ever so slightly makes it clear he’s not looking at my face.”You kept it.”
Jase says this like it might be a question, only annoying me further as he motions to the stuffed animal secured against my chest.
“Why wouldn’t I? It’s the last one Derek ever bought me, from my time in the hospital.” Well, the timebeforelast, but there’s no way in hell I’m getting into that mess.
Something about his demeanor shifts, and he looks back to the empty space where Swaddle had been sitting on the dresser. “Where is everything?”
“Why do you care?” I know it’s childish to mimic his own words back at him, but if he’s not answering my questions, why should I?
He looks across the room, at my desk, my barren bookshelves, the bland gray comforter on my bed. “It’s like you’re not even here.”
There’s something…mournful in his voice, and it only pisses me off more.
“Easy there, Rivers. That almost sounds like you might care,” I taunt, my tone dry and every bit mocking.
Now his eyes are on me, and I don’t need to see them to know he, too, is currently pissed. “What makes you think that I don’t?”
“Apart from experience?”
“And what precisely have I done since we met again that would put me back on your shit list? I’ve tried being nice—”
I laugh. There’s nothing else I can do to dignify such an answer. “That’s rich. Firstly, you’re not ‘back on’ my shit list, because you never left it. I already know what you being ‘nice’ will get me, so why the fuck would I trust you for even a second? And you know better than anyone what Trent and Patrick are capable of, yet you’re all too willing to rub shoulders with them again and yuck it up to get back on good terms with those fuckers. You’re just as much of a chicken shit as you were when we were younger, always ready to please and unwilling to rock the boat to—God forbid—actually stand up to them. Oh, and let’s not forget about your little stunt from this morning with my car.”
Even in the dark, I can make out the faint etchings to see he’s making a face.
“The situation with Trent and Patrick is…complicated, andI’mnot the one who took your car—”
“No, you just allowed me to come to the obvious conclusion and make myself look like an irrational bitch in the process.”
“It was a joke—”
“Did it look like anyone else was laughing? Because all you did was provide my dad with more proof that my stepmom is right about my ‘misplaced temper and paranoia’. So thank you for that. I bet that’ll really help make things a lot easier around here for me. But that’s what you want, right? To get back at me for ditching you the other night?”
Jase looks like he might say something but seems to think better of it.
“You want to know why I left the country club after I recognized who you were?” I challenge. “Maybe because the realization that I kissedyoumade me so nauseated that I couldn’t stand having to look at your face. Maybe becauseyoudeserved to know what it’s like waiting for someone who blewyouoff. Maybe because after what you did to me, I fucking hate you!”
I can’t keep my voice lowered at that last part, and now I don’t care. I don’t care if everyone in the house hears me. I don’t care about what he has to say. I don’t care what happened to his face. I don’t care that he’s looking at me likeI’mthe one who just punched him.
If anything, I wish I was.
“Climbing out of that window with you was the biggest fucking mistake of my life.” Tears burn my eyes, and it only makes me angrier having to acknowledge that he’s gotten under my skin, that he never truly left. They say ignorance is bliss for a reason. I didn’t know what I was missing out on until Jase came along. He opened the door, let me see what was on the other side, let me get a taste for it, only to slam the door back in my face. But that isn’t what hurts the most. “Not only are you spineless, but you tainted every last corner of this town and showed me just how ugly everybody else truly is.”
