One-Eighty (Westover Prep 1)

She’ll kiss me back when I kiss her, but then she gets lost in her head, remembering all the shitty things I did to her, and she pushes me away.

I’m out of luck and hope, so I grab a quick shower and head over to do exactly what my sister suggested. I’ll try to talk to her one more time.

Hell, what am I thinking? I’ll try it a million times until she finally understands that the guy she hates no longer exists, and he’s never coming back. Even if my memories make a miraculous appearance, there’s no changing the way I feel about her.

With determination in my stride, I leave the house, crossing my yard and into hers. I don’t even want to knock. I want to shove the door open and tell her how it’s going to be, force her to listen and understand, but that doesn’t seem like it would work either.

I’m thinking of how I’m going to reword the things I’ve said over and over as I lift my finger to ring the doorbell.Chapter 26PiperPeyton’s bedroom door snaps shut, and all I can do is stare at my friend’s smiling face on my phone.

“What just happened?”

“Why are you crying?”

I didn’t realize my face was wet with tears until she asked.

I dash them away with the back of my hand.

“Are you going to let him talk to you?”

“Did he know you were on the phone with me?”

Is she playing me to help her brother? Did they just set all of this up? A familiar sense of betrayal begins to seep inside of me.

“He just barged in my room. He didn’t have a clue,” she assures me. “He comes in here to stare at your bedroom window.”

I ignore that little piece of information because it has the ability to either creep me out or make me smile with knowing he thinks of me when I’m not there.

“He said you were mad at him. What did he do to piss you off?”

“I know you don’t want to talk about the scars on your legs, Piper, but I can’t get them out of my head. I hate him for pushing you to that point.”

Shame washes over me, but I can’t focus on that right now either.

“What am I going to do?” I whisper.

“I suggest washing your face and brushing your hair. He’s on his way over there.”

I squeak with anticipation, hanging up the phone without even saying goodbye before hauling tail to the bathroom.

I do as she says, washing my face and brushing my hair. After the kiss we shared less than an hour ago, I also brush my teeth, knowing he may try to do that again.

When the doorbell rings, I’m staring at my face in the mirror. My eyes are still swollen from crying from hearing the desperation in his voice when he explained to his sister how he felt about me. I never expected him to feel that way, and more importantly, I never expected to feel how I am right now with his confession.

He loves me?

There was doubt in Peyton’s voice when she questioned his ability to feel that way in such a short period of time, but I heard the truth in his voice. It was laced through his words like restricting ivy, and he seemed to be drowning in it.

That’s why the tears were on my face. That’s why I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut as I descend the stairs. But it’s the memories I can’t seem to let go of that stop me inches from the door.

“Please, Piper,” Dalton mutters on the other side of the door. “Please let me in.”

The desperation in his voice makes me feel like a fool for only thinking about the past and not considering what the future could hold.

The doorbell rings again, but I’m frozen in place, stuck, knowing that if I open the door, I’m doing more than letting Dalton Payne in my house. I’d be letting him into my heart, and that stupid muscle is frantic with the need to be loved and nurtured.

Let go of the past. That was Frankie’s suggestion. Dillon told me to make him fall in love with me, then break his heart, and if I go by the confession to his sister, he’s already there. The breaking of the heart is the difficult thing, though. I just don’t have it in me. I’m not composed of the things required to do that.

It’s what makes it so difficult to put myself in his path.

And yet, I open the door when the bell rings for the fifth time.

“Hey,” I say as soon as his head darts up to look at me.

Surprise is clear on his face, and I grin, knowing he didn’t expect me to open the door. I love being able to shock him.