Page 67 of Collins
Then another.
Until he’s close enough that the smell of alcohol mingles with cigarettes and clings to the air around him.
“Your boyfriend,” he says slowly, tilting his head as he watches my face, “isn’t who you think he is.”
The words hit the room like shattered glass.
The air thickens even more, pressing against my chest until it feels impossible to breathe.
“What are you talking about?” My voice barely makes it out.
“Collins,” Lee continues, almost lazily, like he’s savoring every second of this. “He’s been hooking up with my sister all summer.”
The world stops.
Everything inside me freezes.
My brain struggles to catch up with the words, to piece them together into something that makes sense.
But nothing does.
“They’ve been together on and off since we were kids,” Lee adds with a shrug, his lips curling farther. “Did you really think you could compete with first love?”
“Your…sister?” The words fall out of me in a pathetic whisper.
“Yeah,” he says softly, almost mockingly. “My sister.”
He leans closer, studying my reaction.
“You’ve met her.”
A pause.
“Remember?” His smile widens. “Steph.”
My blood runs cold. The name cracks through my mind like lightning, dragging me violently back to that night.
The party.
The loud music.
The smell of alcohol in the air.
Steph.
The girl who couldn’t keep her eyes off Collins.
The girl who stumbled around drunk, clinging to him like she had some kind of claim over him.
The same girl Collins told me all about.
“You’re lying.” The words rush out of me, desperate and shaky.
Because this can’t be true.
It just?—
It can’t.
