Wright Rival (Wright)

“What…what’s going on?” I asked, my voice breaking on the words.

Hollin pushed Tori back a step. “Piper…”

My eyes tracked between the two as Tori slowly turned to face me standing in the doorway. She bit her bottom lip and took another step away from Hollin.

“I don’t understand.”

“This isn’t…it isn’t what you think,” Hollin said.

I almost laughed, but it came out as a muffled sob. “Isn’t that what August said?”

The blow landed, and he winced. “I’m not anything like that fucking idiot. Nothing was happening here.”

“You’re alone with another girl.”

“I’m just going to…” She gestured to pass by me.

But I blocked her path. She wasn’t going to get to just leave.

“Aren’t you here with Chase Sinclair?”

Hollin wrinkled his nose. “Seriously, Tori?”

She shrugged at Hollin. “I thought it’d piss you off the most.”

I looked between them. My confusion deepened. They seemed to know each other. And here I’d thought, he was stupid enough to go back to his old ways. Give up on our relationship and fall for some other vapid girl. But it was more than that. Like I was missing the key to open the vault that explained how any of this made sense.

“I don’t give a fuck who you’re here with,” Hollin growled.

And he looked angry. I’d seen him look like that before when dealing with August. It didn’t absolve him of what the fuck was happening right now.

“Then, why are you down here with me?” Tori asked.

“I’d like to know that, too.”

Hollin looked up at me helplessly. I didn’t like that expression on him. He’d been caught, and now, he was acting the part of the prey. When I’d only ever seen him as the predator.

Tori sighed. “Just tell her.”

“Tell me what?” I asked, hugging my arms to my chest.

“Tori is my…ex,” Hollin finally said.

“So? Aren’t there a hundred of them?”

“No,” he said softly. “There’s…just Tori.”

I looked between them one more time, and it all fell into place. The ex-girlfriend who had wrecked his life. The one who had abandoned him after years of bullshit and left him in shambles. The very reason he’d been an asshole to my friends. The reason he hadn’t dated since. Until me.

Lucky me.

“Okay,” I said slowly. “The one who ruined your life?”

Tori huffed and stared at the ground. “Really, Hollin?”

“Shut up,” he snapped.

Tori looked up at me and frowned. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Piper. I really did like you.”

I blinked at her. “It sure doesn’t seem like it.”

“Wait…how do you even know each other?” Hollin asked.

“She works with Peyton,” I said. “We’ve been getting lunch and stuff for a while. I’m going to guess that you knew the whole time that I was with Hollin.”

“I figured it out after you told me about the concert.”

I winced as I remembered divulging to her about the tour bus sex. It had been fine because I was talking to a stranger. Not realizing I was talking to his ex-girlfriend, who apparently still had designs on him.

God, I felt like an idiot.

“I don’t deserve this.”

“Please,” Hollin said, reaching for me.

“Don’t touch me!” I yelled at him. “Don’t you dare touch me. I don’t know why you’re down here or what you’re doing with her. But it all feels like a cosmic joke at my expense.”

Hollin sighed heavily. “It’s complicated.”

“Complicated,” I repeated. The word tasted like cyanide—acrid and bitter. Suddenly, that empty feeling evaporated, and all that was left was a burning, seething rage. “Complicated is bullshit. You’re a hypocrite. You were jealous and angry that I was even talking to Bradley out in the open, where anyone could see, obviously doing nothing nefarious. And now, you’re here in your office with her instead of at the wedding. You didn’t tell me what you were doing or who you were doing it with. So, forgive me if I don’t give a single fuck about your complicated situation. The fact of the matter is, you hid this from me.”

Tori reeled back at my anger, but I was still blocking the exit. There was nowhere for her to go.

“I did, and it was stupid. Tori has been texting and emailing me for months, and I wanted to make her fucking stop,” Hollin said, gaining his own anger back.

But at those words, I stumbled back a step. “What? Months?”

“She emailed when she moved back into town around Christmas and more aggressively since the concert,” Hollin said. “I didn’t know why, but I guess I do now. She’s trying to come between us.”

“You know why I did that,” Tori gasped. “I did it because we were supposed to be together.”

Hollin rounded on her. “Shut your mouth.”

“You could have told me,” I yelled back at him. “You could have told me that your ex was reaching out to you, but you didn’t. Think about why that is.”

“It’s because she didn’t matter!”