Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Needing to leave before I become a mockery of the entire school, I spin on my heels and storm away.
Cash doesn’t give up, though. “McKayla, for fuck’s sake, will you just come inside and listen.”
I continue walking, angering him more.
“You’re acting like an idiot.”
His focus shifts to his frat brothers when I snarl out, “Then that makes two of us.” I pivot around but continue walking backward. “You’re smarter than her.” I thrust my hand at Vivienne eyeballing our exchange like she needs a bucket of popcorn. “And you’re smarter than them.” This hand thrust is for his frat brothers. “But god forbid anyone finds that out. You can’t be smart and cool. It’s against the rules. Just like this is…”
Wanting Cash to feel the hurt I’m experiencing, I grab the first person I see, then lock lips with them.
It is only an innocent schoolyard peck, but my stupidity smacks into me hard and fast when I recognize the eyes staring back at me.
I once adored them.
I don’t anymore.
As I stumble back from Gabriel, my hand shoots up to scrub his lips from mine. I wasn’t thinking about the consequences of who I locked lips with or how it would make Cash feel. I wanted to show that he taught me that the rules are meant to be broken and we’re not all predestined to fit the same mold.
But all I did was break us further.
Cash is no longer following me down the cracked sidewalk.
He isn’t even outside.
He’s sulked back to his frat house where he yanks the stereo dial to the highest setting before announcing that it is “Time to get fucking smashed.”
Chapter 31
Cash
“Back off, Kam. I’m not in the fucking mood.” I stagger into my room. My unsteady footing means I almost put my fist through my wooden door when I yank off the sock covering it. “It’s not even my fucking sock.” I laugh like I’m at the comedy club. “How could she not know the difference between a pair of basketball socks and rugby socks?” Even though I’m asking a question, I act as if I’m not. “She’s a fucking genius, Kam. Her brain…” Spit flies in all directions when I make an explosive noise. “Out-of-this-world smart.” I flop onto my bed before murmuring, “But she let someone like Vivienne play her as a fool.”
“Play you both as fools.” He helps lift my legs that feel the weight of concrete onto the bed before removing the nearly empty bottle of whiskey from my hand. “Gabriel wasn’t standing where he was for no reason. He placed himself in prime position—”
“To be kissed by her.” I gag. “She fucking kissed him. My Einstein kissed him.” My anger builds all over again. “I should have rearranged his face with my fists.”
“Then you would have been kicked off the team for good.”
“Fuck the team.”
Kamil stares down at me like he knows there’s no heat to my words. “If that’s how you feel, why didn’t you react? Why didn’t you respond like you did when you walked in on him fucking Vivienne.” My silence seems to award him a heap of knowledge. “It’s because you know McKayla didn’t mean what she did. She got caught up in her jealousy and acted on the instincts of hurt or get hurt.”
“She kissed him. She fucking kissed him.” I fall back with a groan before throwing an arm over my bloodshot eyes. “And I let the prick get away with it.”
“Because you want to play.”
For the first time in months, I am honest. “Because I get why he’s mad at me.” I scoot up the bed before reaching for the bottle Kamil placed on my bedside table. After taking a hearty swig, I confess, “I picked my brother over his sister.”
Sutton isn’t Gabriel’s real last name. It is his stage name, so it took me until the day I faced charges for battery to realize why his face seemed so familiar when I pulled him off Vivienne.
Tiph was his older sister.
She was his only sibling.
“I tried, Kam. I fucking swear to you I did.” My voice cracks when I confess, “I just couldn’t keep them both alive. I had to pick.”
“Everyone knows that, Milo.”
“Gabriel doesn’t.” My laugh belongs to a broken man. “And neither does Trenton.”
“Trenton will come around. It’s still fresh for him.”
“And Gabriel?”
When silence reigns supreme, I lift my eyes to Kamil. He’s still and for once, silent.
As the tension reaches boiling point, he murmurs, “I don’t know, Milo. He wants you to fall.” He releases a big breath before saying the last words I want to hear. “And at the moment, you’re letting him win.”
The following morning, I thump my fist on my bedside table as ruefully as my temples thump my head. I’m hungover and angry as fuck. Now is not the time for the seven hundred alarms McKayla set on my phone to go off.