He nudged my shoulder, causing me to stumble forward, tripping over my own feet. Millie glared at him over her shoulder and hurried to get her things out so we could get a move on.
“Quit it. It’s not funny.” She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
I didn’t have to be looking at Griffin to know there was a smirk tugging at his beautiful lips. “Not my fault she can’t take a joke, four-eyes,” he teased, and I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. His teasing never strayed from me. Millie didn’t deserve it.
Whirling around, I jabbed my finger straight into his toned, hard chest. I hated that pain radiated up the digit while he appeared completely unaffected. “Leave me alone, Griffin!”
He grabbed my wrist, his long, thick fingers sending sparks of electricity through my whole body. I wished every day I didn’t still respond to him like this. I hated what he could make me feel.
“Now, now, no need to get your grandma panties in a bunch.”
Hunter and Graham chuckled behind him. Heat crept up mychest and into my cheeks at his crass comment. He loved to make me the butt of every joke, anything to keep him cool in the eyes of our peers. And that is what ruined our friendship all those years ago. His popularity and my lack of it.
Blinking back tears, my vision blurred, his haunting, gray eyes no longer hypnotizing. When he was like this, I didn’t remember the boy who used to come play at my house because his dad was in a mood or the boy who had held me as I sobbed into his chest the day I lost my dad. No, all I could see was the monster he’d become.
“Did you…forget?” I whispered loud enough so only he could hear me. “Did you forget what today is?” His fingers tightened their hold around my wrist. Pain flashed in his eyes, and I had the slightest bit of hope.
“That it’s Monday?” For the briefest moment, I thought maybe—just maybe—the boy I had loved wasn’t gone. But I was just a foolish, naïve girl wishing for something that would never be again.
Another stab to my battered heart shouldn’t hurt this bad, but it did.
“It’s been ten years, Fin.” My voice broke on his nickname.The one only I used.Regret flashed in his eyes as I yanked my hand back and turned away from him before I completely fell apart in the hallway. He wouldnotget to witness that today. He did not need any more ammunition to make me the laughingstock of River High.
He wasn’t supposed to forget. He wasn’t supposed to make my life miserable. Not today. Not on the ten-year anniversary of my dad leaving and never looking back.
But then again…Griffin was supposed to be my rock. And he certainly wasn’t that anymore. I shouldn’t have bothered with hoping today would be any different from yesterday.
Now…
Griffin was just my enemy. My tormentor. He stopped caring about me long ago when he stopped needing a safe place, but when the roles were reversed, he wasn’t mine.
And I would never be fool enough to forgive him.
The bus squeaked loudlyas it rolled to a stop. A few students grunted at the harsh stop, and others didn’t even wake up from their naps. Millie followed me off the bus. She was staying the night to distract me from the reality of my situation.
It was times like these that I was so grateful for her. She was a special friend, the kind you never let go of.
“Your mom really couldn’t have picked us up? Isn’t it like three miles to your house?” She shouldered the straps of her pink backpack and looked at me, her brows furrowing in irritation over her tortoise-shell glasses.
It was two miles, but there was no sense in arguing because my mom should have picked us up, but she hadn’t answered any of my last five calls. I assumed, based on the three bottles of wine that were beside her this morning, she would be out of commission tonight.
“Think about all the calories you’ll burn.” I tried to lighten the mood, and she snickered.
“You calling me fat? I’ll have you know I started doing Pilates two weeks ago.”
“Really? And how is that going?” I knew the answer but teased her anyway.
“Okay, so I’ve only been to one class. Sue me. I was so sore after I couldn’t face the next one. I wasrecovering.” She groans asthe clouds above us rumble, the threat of rain inching closer and closer with every passing second.
“Is this the same Pilates class that Drew was rumored to go to on Saturdays?” I look at her over my shoulder, and she blushes. Busted.
“Maybe, but he wasn’t there the time I went, and I was so disappointed. I even asked around about him, and he apparently hasn’t missed a session in weeks.”
Drew Mella had been Millie’s crush for the last four years. She stalked his socials, found out his favorite places to go, and in four years, the closest she got to him noticing her, despite many attempts to get his attention, was him asking her to pass him a beer at a party.
“I think you should move on. He’s so not worth the energy,” I commented and caught her eye roll.
“Says the girl pining over her bully.”
