Sean rolled his car toward her, and she ignored him, biting into her toast.
“You can’t keep doing this, Pru. It’s not like you.”
She took a bite of her toast. She could do whatever the hell she wanted to.
“Do you really think you and Drake had any kind of future? You’re wrong. I can’t even believe you thought about being with him when I’m standing right here in fucking front of you.”
She finished off her toast without giving him a look.
“To the likes of him, you’re never going to be good enough. How can you even allow yourself to be with someone who only sees you as a means to an end?”
She kept on ignoring him, not wanting anything to do with him. They came to a crossroads and Sean swung his car around, blocking up her path.
She paused, watching him as he climbed out of his car and grabbed her arms. “Will you stop this? It doesn’t make you look tough.”
Pru couldn’t believe it. She laughed at him. “You think I’m doing this to make myself look tough? Are you freaking kidding me right now?”
“I don’t get you, Pru. I don’t know what the hell is going on with you.”
“There isn’t anything going on with me right now, Sean.”
“I’m your best friend.”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Don’t do this.”
“You know what a best friend does?” she asked.
“Pru, I don—”
“They don’t go trying to hurt them by taking away one of the people they love. That’s right, Sean. What I had with Drake wasn’t us messing around. I love him. I know he feels the same way about me, and because you didn’t come to me, you could have ruined that for the two of us.”
“You never told me.”
“Because I knew you’d act like this, and I didn’t know if I could trust you. Actually, I wanted to tell you. Drake said you wouldn’t understand and so I agreed with him. Do you really think this is easy for me? Having feelings for a guy who has spent every single day I’ve been here bullying me? No, it wasn’t, but I got over it. You know what? I don’t want to talk to you. Not here. Not now. I need to be alone.” She pushed his hands away and started walking away.
“I’m going to always be here for you, Pru. I’m not going anywhere.”
She didn’t stop but kept on moving forward. It was all she could do. Her family didn’t understand her. Sean kept on following her in his car, and she didn’t acknowledge him. Not even as he kept on talking to her, trying to reason with her. She didn’t want to be reasoned with.
All she cared about was being left alone so she could deal with her own problems. Walking across the high school parking lot, she felt like everyone was staring at her. Sean finally pulled away, parking his car, and she went straight toward her locker.
Spinning in the combination, she looked inside and gathered the books she’d need for her first class.
“We need to talk,” Drake said, grabbing her arm. He slammed her locker closed and before she knew what was going on, they were inside the boys’ bathroom.
“Drake, what’s going on?”
He pushed her up against the door. His fingers sank into her hair as he claimed her lips. The kiss was passionate and everything she ever wanted, but something was off.
Pulling away from him, she stared into his eyes, seeing something was wrong.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“We’ve got to go back to pretending.”
“Why?”
“I can’t risk my parents hurting you.”
“Drake, we can’t let them win. We can’t let anyone win.”
“We’re not letting them win. I’ve got to figure this out.”
“There’s nothing to figure out.”
“Nothing is what I thought it would be. You have no idea what they’re capable of.”
“Then tell me,” she said.
He pulled away and started to pace. He let out a breath and stopped in front of her. “My dad isn’t my dad.”
“What?”
“I don’t even know if I can tell you.”
“I don’t understand,” she said.
“I don’t want to give you up. I never want to do that, but I don’t know how I’m going to be able to keep this going. Not with my parents knowing. Everything is so fucked up.”
“Sean is always around as well. My parents allow him to visit me. I can’t believe he was the one to tell them.”
“Do you want to be with him?”
“No. I only want to be with you.”
“Then we’ve got to pretend. I can’t stop my parents from hurting you, and they will.”
“How can they hurt me? I mean, really?”
“You like having a roof over your head, right? Food to eat?”
“Drake, this is ridiculous.”
“No, it’s not,” he said. “You have no idea how bad they can be. I do. I’ve lived with them. They only know how to cause pain and I can’t allow them to hurt you.”