Page 98 of Fight For Me

“I’m going to go,” I mutter, my heart dropping as I hear myself say the words.

She sighs, her shoulders slumped in defeat, and she doesn’t meet my eyes. “I know you are.”

I wait until she turns to walk away from me, the pain doubling when I can no longer see her face. Once she reaches her friends and I know she’s safe, I force myself to turn away too. I don’t look back until I reach my car. They’re not there anymore. They took her upstairs. They’re the ones who are going to comfort her—I just threw that privilege away.

I feel numb when I climb into my Jeep and it’s strangely soothing. Numb feels a lot better than the raging pain I’d felt watching her walk away. I sit there for a long time, unable to form any kind of a plan, unable to think of a single destination, not one place where I want to go.

My trembling hands drop my phone and it bounces on the mat near my feet. I reach for it automatically, taking in the cracked screen. The memory of what caused that anger hits me right in the gut. Fucking Scott.

I stare down at the phone, a plan starting to form. I might not be able to be the person to give Alex all those things she deserves, but there is one thing I can do for her. It might ruin one of the most important relationships in my life, but I can do this for Alex.

The crack makes it difficult to see, but I manage to pull up my contacts and scroll down until I find his number.

Daltrey answers on the first ring. “Kid,” he says, his voice sounding grave. “Your dad’s been calling you for the last half hour. Where the hell are you?”

I rub the back of my neck, stomach sinking as I realize they’re together. They’re probablyalltogether, all of the parents, Levi and Karen included. And that means that they were all together to watch Alex and I kiss on TV.

“Are you okay?” Daltrey says.

My mouth is dry but I manage to speak. “I need your help with something.”

There’s a beat of silence. “Come over.”

“Is…are they all…” I swallow heavily. “Are you with the other guys?”

“We’re at Reed’s but I left the room.” He scoffs. “You think I was going to answer your call with your dad breathing down my neck?”

The sudden burst of affection and gratitude I feel for my uncle overwhelms me for a second. “Can you meet me somewhere? There’s something I need to show you.”

“I’ll head back to my house,” he says. “Violet and Ash are sleeping over at Lennon’s with Cade. It will be quiet there.”

“Thank God for that,” I mutter.

There’s a beat of silence. “You didn’t answer my question,” he says. “You okay?”

I let out a shaky laugh. “Not really. But there’s another problem I need to concentrate on.”

“Are you in trouble?”

“Define trouble.”

He grunts. “Do I need to gather bail money?”

I have no idea how I manage to laugh right now, but I do as I slip the key into the ignition and start up the car. “No bail money. But we are going to need a lawyer.”

Alex

“How long do you think he’s going to do that?” I ask my mom as we listen to my father stomp around the kitchen, the slamming of cabinet doors loud enough to hear even from the floor above.

“Oh, I’d say he’s got at least another hour of stomping in him.”

“Great,” I mutter.

“He feels like you lied to him, Alex,” she says softly, running her fingers through my hair the way she always does to soothe me. “He’s hurt.”

I sigh, resting my head on her shoulder. My mom and I are curled up under a fluffy blanket on the couch in what my parents refer to as my “apartment” on the second floor. In reality, the room is my dad’s old office that’s been redecorated to look more like a cozy den. When it was time for me to decide on colleges, we all knew I wasn’t going to be living away from home, at least not at first. My sleep was still too wonky and moving into a loud dorm with hundreds of kids sounded like a nightmare for my insomnia.

I think my parents felt bad for me, though, because they gave me the office—which happens to be connected to my bedroom through a Jack-and-Jill bathroom. We set it up like a little studio apartment with a couch and TV. I even have a few cabinets, a mini-fridge, and a little hotplate. There’s a second stairway down to the kitchen from this end of the hall, so I can come and go without passing their room. They wanted to give me some measure of independence while I was still living at home into my twenties.