Desired (Wanted 6)

Heat rushed through my body. “What friend?” I asked.

Ari smirked, knowing her answer was going to push me over the edge.

“Josh. He gave me his number last night and asked me out on a date. I told him no last night, but I seem to have woken up with a much clearer head this morning.”

She smiled at me, and I nearly lost my shit right then and there.

“The fuck you will. There is no way my sister, or you, are getting in a car with that asshole!”

Reaching into my pocket for my phone, I called Josh. “Hey, it’s Jeff.”

“I was just about to—”

Cutting him off, I laid into him. “Yeah, I know, and I want you to listen to me good. You come anywhere near my sister or Ari, and I promise you, I’ll break you in two fucking pieces, you got it?”

“Dude! I was trying to tell you I was getting ready to call you to tell you Ari texted me to come get them, but I wasn’t going to and needed to find out what to say to her about why I couldn’t pick them up.”

“Good!” I said, not really letting his words sink in. “Lose her number.”

I hit End and threw my phone onto the sofa and walked down the hall to my bedroom. I was so angry, and all I wanted to do was pull Ari into my arms and kiss the living fuck out of her.

Slamming the door to my bedroom shut, I paced back and forth. The image of Ari crying last night and then again this morning replayed over and over in my head.

Asshole. You stupid jerk. I ruined it for sure now. If I had ever thought there might be a chance with Ari, I made sure it was gone.

I sat on the bed. My body felt numb while tears slowly made a trail down my face.

The very thing I had desired so badly, I had just destroyed. Nothing even mattered anymore.

Nothing.

Chapter Thirty – Josh

“So do you want to tell me what has you staring off into space?” Brad asked me, taking a bite of his hamburger.

“What?”

He laughed. “Josh, ever since the graduation party for Ellie, you’ve been in another world. What’s going on?”

Her blue eyes came to mind, and I felt my chest squeeze. It was a feeling I’d never experienced before. No. That was a lie. I felt it the first time I looked at Heather, Ellie’s friend. I felt it every time I thought about her. It didn’t take me long to figure out that it had been Heather and Amanda that I had seen on the side of the road all those months ago with a flat tire. It had been Heather sitting in the passenger seat that night. I’d felt my chest squeeze when our eyes met and then again at the party, when I actually walked up to her and talked to her. Her voice, her smile, the sound of her voice.

She had me twisted from the inside out.

“Nothing’s going on.”

He gave me a look that said he didn’t believe a damn word I was saying.

I decided to change the subject. “So how do you like this girl Amanda?”

The smile on his face said it all. “I like her a lot.”

“Exclusive?”

“Hell yeah. I’ve practically seen her every damn day since the party.”

Laughing, I replied, “That was over a month ago.”

He took another bite of his sandwich. “Yeah, so what’s your point?”