Chapter 12
Twelve
Jade
Warm afternoon sun hit my face when I walked out of my biology class, as if the universe were attempting to brighten my bleak mood.
But nothing cheered me up. My car was broken, Wolf was being even more of a dick than usual, and I was still forcibly living in a damned frat house. With my ex! Just an average Thursday.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. Monroe.
I’m in parking lot B. Back row.
Thankfully, she had a break in her schedule and had offered to take me to pick up my Jeep. I was halfway across campus when someone jogged up beside me in a flash of blond hair.
“Where are you off to?” Cassie asked, linking her arm through mine.
“Monroe is taking me into town to get my car.”
“Oh, can I join?”
“Don’t you have a class this afternoon?”
“Eh, it’s politics. Boring.” Spoken like someone who hadn’t grown up surrounded by the minimum wage hamster wheel and wasn’t terrified of failing a single class, their degree, and therefore, their entire life.
“Sucks about your car, though. How much do you reckon it’ll cost to fix?”
More than I could afford to pay. “At least what we stole last night.”
“Well, then I guess it’s good we stole it, right?” That was Cassie all over.
I saw it as having to spend that money on my stupid car instead of my parents’ bills. Cassie saw it as money I didn’t have before that could now pay for my car. She was the glass half full, to my bone-dry empty.
“I might have to go to The Platinum Club again.” The thought of getting to the end of the month and making a mad scramble for cash made me nervous. “I’m on lates all weekend, but are you around Monday night?”
Cassie shook her head. “Sorry, I have this study thing with a girl from my chemistry class.”
We passed a group of students tossing a ball on the lawn as I tried to hide the disappointment. “Okay. No worries.” I couldn’t do it alone. I wasn’t good enough.
“Get this, though. She’s house sitting this big-ass house. You know the one over by the fancy food store with the big metal gates?”
“Yeah.” It was a huge house, probably owned by alumni or something.
“They pay her to live there while they’re away. Like, you’d think she’d pay them, right? That’s a job you need to get into. I’ll ask her about it if you want?”
That would be a pretty great job.
“Then you could house sit fancy pads and sneak me over. Unlike boring Stacey. There’s me thinking, I can use their pool while we study?—”
“You can’t study in a pool.”
“But she isn’t allowed to have anyone over. Not even her boyfriend.”
“I’d happily not have anyone over.”
“Of course you would. And come to think of it, you’d be boring and follow the rules, too.
So, now I have to go study in the dorms on Monday.
” She wrinkled her nose. “I’d totally have chosen a different study partner if I’d known.
Brags about the big-ass house she lives in.
Conveniently forgets to mention it’s a prison of solitude. ”
Cassie kept bitching about her foiled pool plans while my mind went down a different, very Dayton-esque path. A house like that was probably full of expensive things… “What time are you studying with her? Maybe we could go after.” I felt like an asshole for thinking what I was right then.
We rounded the corner of the arts building and into the parking lot.
“Ah, sorry, but we have loads to do. I’m going right after class, and I think it’ll be a late nighter.” So, that house would be empty for several hours. “I can do Tuesday, though,” Cassie said, her expression full of apology.
“Perfect.” Total asshole. I was actually debating taking advantage of my friend. How far I’d fallen.
I forced a smile on my face as I spotted Monroe’s faded-blue sedan across the lot. Monroe leaned against it, one foot kicked up on the tire, red hair shining. She glanced at Cassie when we stopped beside the car. “You coming, too?”
Cassie reached for the back door. “Yep. There’s that pet shop in town.”
Monroe looked at me like I’d have any idea what the hell she was talking about. “Okay, first of all, a pet shop? And second of all, I’m not a taxi service.”
“You don’t want to hang out with me, Monroe?” She fake-pouted. “I haven’t seen you in ages.”
“Because you got blackmailed into living in a frat house. I’m not the one shunning this friendship.”
“Not my fault. But I’m sorry. Maybe I should have invited you on the drug theft so you could also get blackmailed and relegated to the frat?”
“I am very good, thank you.” With a huff, Monroe got into the car. “Fine, but I’m meeting Drew after I drop off Jade.” I didn’t know Bellamy’s girlfriend very well, but it was hard not to hold being Rogue’s cousin against her.
“Oh, now I’m definitely coming. Drew, then pet shop.” Cassie hopped into the back seat and slammed the door behind her.
Monroe glanced at me. “Any idea?”
“None.” Not that I ever had much of a clue what was going on in Cassie’s head.
I rounded the hood and got into the passenger seat. Cassie was already leaning between the front seats, fiddling with the radio. Monroe pulled out as one of Cassie’s beloved crappy pop songs came on.
We passed the football field on our way off campus. I couldn’t stop myself searching for Wolf’s hulking form among the players, but he was nowhere to be seen. Strange.
As if reading my thoughts, Monroe asked, “Did you hear about Wolf and Brent?”
I stiffened, already knowing I wasn’t going to like whatever came out of her mouth.
“Oh, yeah.” Cassie leaned forward. “Brent took a swing at Wolf.”
My gaze snapped over my shoulder to her. “What?” She was the biggest gossip I knew, but she’d conveniently forgotten to mention that before right now.
“Uh-huh.” A wide grin pulled at her lips. “Can you imagine? Who knew Brent had the balls? Good for Wolf, though.” She waved one hand in the air like a cheerleader’s celebratory wave.
Monroe put a finger on Cassie’s forehead and pushed her back with a disapproving frown. “Not good for Wolf. He got a game suspension for knocking Brent out.”
Jesus Christ. I thumped my head back against the headrest.
“Meh,” Cassie said. “If I were Wolf, I’d take the suspension to see the little prick bleed.”
I stared out the window for a moment, focusing on the dilapidated buildings that whizzed past the window. Why would Wolf do that? He’d gotten suspended…
I hated the stupid little sprig of hope that poked above the desecrated soil of my war-torn heart. The thought that maybe, just maybe, Wolf’s reaction had something to do with me. I almost laughed at the thought of two guys having a fight over me, though. Could I be any more self-absorbed?
“Yeah, well, rumor has it, there might be NFL scouts at the Tech game.”
I dragged a hand through my hair, hoping to God he hadn’t just screwed up an NFL shot.
“Guys will be guys.” Monroe patted my knee. “It’s not on you.”
“But you do think it has something to do with me?” I asked.
“Look.” Monroe glanced at me for a second before turning at the red light. “Brent is the guy you ran to when you broke up with Wolf?—”
“I didn’t run to him. He was my friend, and he offered me a summer away from Dayton.”
Cassie snorted from the back. “However you spin that, Jade, Wolf will always see him as the guy who took his girl.”
“He didn’t take me!”
Wolf was the one who had changed his number. If not for that—no, if not for him dating Nora—I never would have looked at Brent as anything more than a friend. I glanced between the two of them.
“And it’s been a year and a half. Wolf definitely does not see me as his anything.”
“Doesn’t matter what the truth is. Testosterone zaps their brain cells.”
“She’s not wrong,” Monroe said, turning onto the main high street of Pikestown. “And just my two cents, but Wolf will always see you as his something. Some people, you just never get over.”
Her words made my heart clench in my chest. I didn’t want them to be true because if the last two days of living with Wolf had shown me anything, it was that I really wasn’t over him.
I hoped that someday I would be, though.
That I’d be able to walk through my hometown without seeing memories of him on every corner.
I wanted to be able to think of him without an overwhelming sense of loss and guilt and pain.
My chest was still tight when Monroe pulled up outside the garage.
“Oh, I’m going back to Dayton next Friday if you want a ride.” Because it would be my weekend to see my parents. Monroe and I usually took turns driving.
“Thanks, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to go.” What, with Lord Fuckface stomping his little feet about chores and curfews and whatever else. “Rogue,” I said as a way of explanation.
“Okay. Well, let me know if you can.” She looked as pissed off about it as I felt, but there was nothing to be done about it.
I’d dug the hole. Now I had to lay in it.
“Thanks.” I got out and approached the shop owned by Brent’s cousin, Joe.
As much as I hated taking any help from that asshole, I didn’t have much choice if I wanted my car fixed for anything less than a small mortgage.
And I wasn’t lowering myself to asking Wolf for help.
Not like he offered any when I’d told him my car wouldn’t start.
Too busy being an asshole about our stupid curfew.
Whatever tentative olive branch of friendship I might have perceived after he’d saved me from the auction had been well and truly crushed.
I wouldn’t ask and give him the satisfaction of telling me to fuck off.