Page 4 of Five Things
“Who’s who?” I ask, my gaze flicking between the two. Gray looks excited, his eyes bright with amusement while Nash—my oldest and closest friend—looks close to having an aneurysm. He rubs his temples, his eyes closing as he blows out a slow breath.
“This hot-as-fuck chick I bumped into over at Havers. That fucker over there scared her away before I could get her number. She was a skittish little thing, didn’t say a word, but the minute he rocked up, calling her name, she bolted up the stairs like her ass was on fire.”
“Dude, did you bang and run or something?” I joke, knowing Nash doesn’t go back for seconds. He avoids my gaze, keeping his eyes trained on the floor. His dirty-blond hair falls into his face, his body taut with tension as I watch him. “Earth to Nash?”
He doesn’t answer, ignoring us as we call for him. “What’d you say her name was, Gray?” I ask, curious as to who the hell could have my best friend acting all weird. Nash is a one-and-done kind of guy, and never in my life have I seen him so tense over a girl.
It’s only when Gray says her name that my muscles coil tight, clarity coming in an instant. My hands curl into fists on my thighs, and my jaw tightens as he repeats himself, saying a name I haven’t heard spoken aloud over a year . . . a name I long to forget, but doubt I ever will.
“Beatrice something or other.”
Chapter Two
Maverick
“Someonewanttofillme in on why the room just went about fifty degrees below freezing, and why Mav looks as if he wants to strangle me? Who the fuck is this chick?” Gray demands, his eyes moving frantically between Nash and me. “Seriously, what the hell, guys? You both fuck her? She get in the way of your precious little bromance?”
“Gray, stop talking,” Nash grits, rubbing his temples before he turns to me. His face is blank, but his eyes glimmer with a boatload of emotions I don’t understand—I don’twantto understand. “I would have told you, Mav.”
“When? When I bumped into her in the commons? When she walked into the cafeteria? When were you going to tell me that the girl who ruined my life just happened to show up at the same college we go to? Did you know that she was coming here?”
Nash tries to speak, assuring me he didn’t know, not until just now. But I can’t take in any of his words.
Shoving off the couch, I pace back and forth across the floor. My fingers itch at my sides with the need to throw something, to hit something, to dosomething.
My anger management counselor would be so disappointed, but that thought isn’t enough to tamper the rage burning through my body at her name.
Beck shoves an open beer in my hand, forcing me back to the couch. The cushion bows under my weight as I tip back, the liquid sliding down my throat as I swallow generous amounts.
The moment the bottle is empty, my hand flies back and glass shatters, falling to the ground in shards when it bounces off the wall.
“Shit,” Beck hisses, wide eyes moving between the glass and me. “I’m with Gray. One of you two is going to have to fess up. What the hell is going on?”
Raising a brow at Nash, I know he gets what I’m silently asking him.You wanna tell them, or should I?He sighs, rolling his head back onto the couch, and his stare lands on the ceiling.
There’s a difference between Nash and me when it comes to Beatrice. He struggles to understand my anger, to understand why I need to hate her with every fiber of my being. For him, she’s still that girl we met back in elementary school. The same sweet, innocent, and kind Bea.
For me, though . . . “Beatrice is the reason I got sent to jail.”
Gray shoots up, his mouth gaping as he stares at me. Beck squeaks behind the sofa, his legs carrying him until he slumps against the arm, his eyes wide.
“She was Sebastian’s girlfriend,” I continue, my throat heavy as I recall the night everything changed—the night I chose her over everything. “He’d been to a party that night. Got nice and wasted before crawling through her bedroom window. Or at least that’s what she told me. They got into it, apparently. Honestly, I don’t know. But she called looking for Willow and got me instead. So, I went to pick her up, and she was a fucking mess.
“There was a cut on her head, and a bruise forming on her jaw, and I just saw red. I went after him, not thinking that my life would change the very next day. See, the thing about Beatrice Fletcher, she somehow fucking worms herself into every single part of you.”
“He beat her?” Beck asks quietly, his hands clenched at his sides.
I shrug, twisting my fingers in my lap. “Dunno. That’s what she told me that night. He always was an angry little prick.”
“But?” Gray pipes up, reading between the lines of things I haven’t said.
A lump gets lodged in my throat, and I struggle to swallow it down. Nash reads my expression, his eyes dipping as he answers for me, “She pulled her statement. Everything was going well in court, and it looked like he’d get off with just some community service, based on the fact that everyone was pretty much on board with Sebastian deserving that shit.
But the last day, before the verdict, she went to the cops, got a signed affidavit and hand delivered it to Sebastian’s lawyers, telling them Mav did it unprovoked. She said she’d had an argument with Seb, but he’d never hit her. Told them she faked it ’cause she was pissed at him.”
“Can you even fake that shit?” Beck asks, his brow furrowed. “For someone to do that, that’s fucking messed up. You really think she’d have done that to you?”
“Truth? I have no fucking idea. I never thought she’d turn her back on me, that’s for sure, so who knows,” I tell them, shoving off the couch and grabbing another beer.