“That depends. What’d you do?” Ben questions, keeping a hold of me.
“Fucked Hayley.” He grins with blood-stained teeth.
“Again?”
“Was I the only person in this fucking house who didn’t know?” Liam rubs his temples.
Porter is back from getting Jackie out of our faces. He gets Woodrow away from Liam and me while swearing he didn’t see Liri or Hayley anywhere on campus. Said that Jackie is a damn mess. I might be inclined to feel sorry for her if she wasn’t a crazy bitch intent on ruining my life. She’s fucking dead to me. I flex my busted knuckles and take a half bag of frozen pizza rolls from the freezer to ice them.
I grab the bottle of liquor Liam was downing and chug.
**
Later Liam and I are sitting out by the firepit shooting the shit and drinking. What else have we got to do? “Did you mean what you said about wanting to get an apartment?”
“Don’t fucking matter now. I don’t have Hayley. I really fucked up with her earlier. I couldn’t even look at her. I liked knowing that the rest of these assholes hadn’t touched her and now that was just a lie.”
“Fuck this house and these assholes. You and me. We’ll get us a damn bachelor pad.” Between the two of us we can afford something that won’t be a complete shithole. I light up a cigarette. Liri’s voice nags in the back of my mind. “Smoking is unattractive.” I shake my head and take another drag.
She’s not here.
She walked away.
Fuck her.
I don’t need her.
I’m Killian Hendrix.
I don’t need anyone.
Yes I do.
I need her.
I need Liri more than the air that I breathe.
Chapter 26
Liri
“I’m happy you girls decided to come early. Are you hungry? You must be starving away at school with no one to feed you a good home-cooked meal that will stick to your ribs. Are you eating enough?”
“Mom. Chill.” Hayley giggles. “We had fast food on the way here.”
“Well let me look at you.” Sandy approaches me and looks me up and down. “Hmm,” she murmurs. “You resemble your mother, but I can see touches of James in you. You have his eyes.” The woman bursts into tears and pulls me in for the tightest hug I have ever received in my life. She has larger than life blonde curly hair that looks straight out of the 1980s. But other than that, she looks like an older version of Hayley with wider hips and bigger boobs.
“Okay. Can’t breathe,” I croak and push on her shoulders. She doesn’t stop hugging me though.
“You don’t know how happy I am to finally see you. I’ve not laid eyes on you since you were seven. You’re all grown up now.” Finally, I can breathe once she lets go of the chokehold she had on my neck. “I’m sure you girls are tired and want to turn in. Tomorrow you are coming downstairs to my salon and I am treating you both to day of pampering. The guest room is made up for Liri and Hayley, you can take the couch or sleep with me like you did until you were ten.” She smiles.
I want to ask Hayley why she doesn’t have her own bedroom here but then I remember her parents were divorced a few years ago and she lived with her dad. He sold his house this past summer and took a new job in Phoenix. He wanted her to transfer to a University there, but she didn’t want to leave Liam.
I wonder if she regrets that decision now that they have broken up. Before we got here, she made me swear not to mention the breakup with Liam. I promised her I would stay quiet as long as she doesn’t bring up Killian or Jackie. The thought of him has pain shooting through my chest.
I should have known things with him were too good to be true. Everyone tried to warn me including Hayley. But I was blind, and maybe I still am because I miss him already and wish I hadn’t told Hayley to wipe all traces of him from my phone.
We’re too different and we so don’t want the same things. I want to be with someone who I can see as my best friend as well as my lover. I want what my mother has with Theo. The fairytale. And sure, I didn’t expect to find it straight away, but the connection between us was strong. Maybe it is hormones and lust.