Chapter 10
ten
Maddox
“Hey, Barnes! There’s a girl here for you.”
I frown but push off the couch and head toward the front door. Jacobs squeezes by me as he leaves our small entry, and my attention falls on the petite, dark-haired woman standing just inside our apartment. Shelby.
“Hey, Shelbs. What are you doing here?”
She holds up a bottle of tequila, and my brows shoot up. “You have a minute? Or maybe a million of them?”
My stomach wraps itself into a knot. “Of course, come in. Want to make margaritas?”
She shakes her head and shoots me a quivering smile. “Think tonight calls for straight from the bottle.”
Fuck. I already know where this is going.
I lead her up to my room, and she collapses on the futon in the corner. She stares blankly at the bottle of Jose Cuervo like she’s not even there. Her body is, but Shelby is somewhere else.
Finally, she blinks and looks up at me. “Easton broke up with me.”
Even though I knew that was where this was going, my stomach plummets. I hurry to sit next to her, sliding an arm around her shoulders.
“I’m sorry, Shelby,” I whisper.
She takes a swig of the tequila and grimaces.
“He’s been really focused on his game. And I get it.
This is his dream, and he has what it takes to make it.
He said I shouldn’t spend my senior year tied down to someone who can’t give me the attention I deserve.
” She takes another swig, and her body shudders. “I’m not surprised,” she says quietly.
She turns to me, heartbreak written in her eyes.
“We were together for a year, Maddy. He didn’t say ‘I love you’ once.
I’d waited a while, hoping he’d say it first or give some sort of indication he felt the same.
I couldn’t wait any longer, though, and I said it to him a few months ago.
He told me he didn’t feel ready to say it back.
” She lets out a breath and deflates into the futon.
“I know he cared for me, but it was never going to be what I wanted it to be.”
She takes another pull of tequila, then holds out the bottle to me. Her gaze locks on mine. “He was never going to love me the way I wanted him to. I thought you could relate.”
My eyes widen.
She smiles sadly at me. “Oh, Maddy, it’s always been obvious to me how you feel about E. To be honest, I felt kind of horrible being with him around you. I can’t imagine what it must have been like.”
I hurry to take a long drag on the tequila. It burns. It tastes fucking awful. I don’t care. It’s a balm.
“He’s mentioned how you’ve been distant. Needed space.”
I nod, staring blindly into the middle of my room. “I’m trying to get over him,” I say softly, then throw back another swallow.
She takes the bottle and stares at it for a moment, then her eyes meet mine and she lifts it in a toast. “To getting over Easton Winters.”
She drains more tequila, then hands it to me.
I take the bottle and turn it around in my hands, not really seeing it. “To getting over Easton Winters.”
I drink.