“Are you serious?” I gasp, wide-eyed. “You can’t possibly believe this shit?”
“I know what I saw,” she demands, shaking her head. “Why can’t you just let me have this? Are you that fucking jealous of me? Or is it that you just don’t want me to find happiness? Either way, you’re an awful friend. Actually,” she says. “I don’t even think I can consider you that.”
My heart shatters at her words and I watch as she walks away. Lukas chuckles at her back and goes to follow her, but a second later, she returns with her bag in hand and heads straight for the front door.
Lukas follows her out the door and all I can do is watch.
I mean, what the fuck just happened?
Chapter 13
“You better fucking hope that what Brooke is accusing you of is bullshit,” Nate demands as he barges his way through the front door, making sure to give it a good slam behind him.
I sit on the couch with my knees pulled up into my chest and my face buried in my knees. I’ve hardly been able to breathe since Brooke stormed out of here. I still can’t believe what the hell is going on right now.
It’s only been about ten minutes since she left and I was hoping that I’d be able to get myself under control before he came home, but as I raise my eyes to his, all the emotions of my shitty day catch up with me.
Tears spring from my eyes and I break in a way that I’ve never broken before.
Nate’s face falls. “Shit.”
It’s clear that when he walked through that door, he was expecting me to be fired up just the way he is as I rarely let this bullshit actually get to me, but right now, I’ve hit breaking point and I can’t manage to see past the next few hours.
Nate turns off the light and walks around the front of the couch. He reaches down and scoops me up into his strong arms before laying down with me on top of him. His arms curl around me, holding me tight as I cry into his chest, letting my tears soak into his shirt.
Nate runs his fingers over my hair and down my back, giving me that closeness I’ve been desperately needing from him all day. “What happened?” he murmurs, pressing his lips to my forehead. “What did he do?”
“What makes you think he did something?” I mumble into his chest.
“Babe,” he says softly. “You never react like this. Something definitely happened, and besides, I got a pretty angry message from Brooke.”
“Really?” I groan. “What did she say?”
He shuffles around beneath me and pulls out his phone before bringing up the message. Nate holds it up for me to see and I read over it with a cringe.
Brooke – Keep your skank ass GF away from Lukas.
I groan again and drop my head back to his chest as he reaches out and puts his phone on the coffee table. “She hates me,” I tell him, hating how those words feel coming out of my mouth.
“She doesn’t hate you,” Nate soothes. “She’s confused and wants to believe that what she has with that loser is real. She said so herself. She wants what we have and she’s going to give it her all until she makes that happen.”
“But she’s wrong,” I cry. “He’s no good for her.”
“We know that, and anyone else with a set of eyes knows that, but she needs to work it out for herself. Now, I know you’re all cut up about Brooke, but if you don’t tell me what the hell went down with that dickhead tonight, I’m going to lose my shit in a big fucking way.”
I don’t know how he manages to sound so damn threatening and intimidating while also continuing to soothe me. His fingers never once let up running down my back, giving me every ounce of comfort he possesses.
I let out a sigh and push up until I’m straddling his hips. I run my hand across my face, trying to get rid of as many tears as possible, knowing Nate hates the sight of them, but it’s useless, more instantly take their place.
Nate places his hand on my waist, stilling rubbing his thumbs back and forth as he patiently waits, and I want to hate myself for what I’m about to tell him. I don’t doubt he isn’t going to take this well. Hell, I’m probably going to have to hold him down so he doesn’t go and find the guy.
I take a deep breath and try to even out my voice. “I was here, on the couch when he came in,” sniffle, “and instead of going down to Brooke, he stayed here and started giving me this shit about wanting to apologize, but it was fake cause he kept looking me up and down like he wanted to eat me.” Nate’s fingers tighten on my waist and I try to ignore it as I continue. “I got up and was in the middle of telling him to go and fuck himself,” a shudder runs through me and I cringe with the next words that are about to come out of my mouth.