Page 63 of Our Ruined Beginnings

His face falls into a scowl as I tuck my forearm under his chin, but when he sees who it is, he looks less angry and more perplexed.

“Mad, what the fuck?” Evan asks.

“Tell me you didn’t frame her,” I demand.

He eyes me without confusion, his face a blank mask, and in this moment, I know that’s exactly what happened.

He’s been my friend for almost my entire life, and I’d have bet everything I have on him being a decent guy. But this one look wipes that confidence out completely. I can still read him, even if I have no idea who he really is.

“Why on earth would you do that?”

“I needed to save her,” he says simply, as if that’s a decent reason. I scoff a laugh in his face as he fights against the arm I have no intention of removing.

“Saveher? By ratting her out to the dean? Did you convince her to take the fucking drugs in the first place?”

Had they done them together? Was she lying about never having taken them? ’Cause I know for a fact she’s done them at least once before.

“No.” He scoffs. “She’s a goody two shoes; you know that.”

“So how didyouknow?” He fights against my arm again, avoiding my gaze, and it clicks. “Oh my fucking God. You drugged her.”

“I had to!” he blares, animated in his bullshit defense.

“In what fucking world would you need to drug her and then frame her for using?”

“In a world where she doesn’t give me a single look over you.”

My arm drops from sheer surprise, and he stands properly, straightening his shirt and calming down a little now he’s not restrained. “Look,” he says easily. “It all worked out in the end.”

“Did it? What was the plan in the first place?”

“I just wanted her to loosen up a little.”

“Loosen up?The fuck is wrong with you? Would you have taken her home like that?” I ask, a vicious chill rolling down my spine. Bile rises in my throat, and I choke it down, my eyes narrowing. How I’ve trusted him; how I would’ve trusted him with Harper until this very moment. “I bet that fucking stung, didn’t it? That I was the one who got to take her home?” His jaw tightens, and his eyes narrow. “Because you couldn’t keep your shit together for one night and get what you wanted. You were so wastedIhad to save her instead.”

“Fuck you! It’s always fucking you! I’m the one who looked after her when you were too busy treating her like shit, but instead, she wants you. I saved her from the girls cutting her up, and she still wants you. I saved her place at university, and still, it’s all about MaddenfuckingTaylor.”

My heart thumps in my chest with each word he spews, my hands clenching to fists.

All of this—pinning the blame on Harper, reminding me daily that we needed to hate her … all because he’s jealous?

“Everything I do seems to move her closer to you,” he seethes.

“Then what did you do over Christmas? ‘Cause I need to thank you for getting mefucked,” I say cockily.

He launches himself at me like a wild man, but I welcome it. I’m ready for it, and I’m so fucking furious I don’t hold back. His fist glances off my jaw, but I’m already swinging, reveling in the satisfying crack as my knuckles connect with his nose.

He throws a punch back, and I duck to slam my fist into his gut. He crumples to the ground, panting heavily as I push at the arms that try to pull me away. “I can’t believe this. You were like my brother. You knew she was everything to me.”

“She was everything to me too!” he blares nasally, blood pouring over his lips. He spits it away, swiping at his nose with the sleeve of his sweater. “You and Caleb were always there—in the way, distracting her. If you’d both just fucked off, then I’d have had a chance.”

“Is that why you wanted us to bully her in the first place? Get her to hate me and then you can swoop in? I bet Caleb being in that crash was the best thing to ever happen to you, huh?” I spit at him, but he laughs as he lies there, blood pouring from his face.

“It wasn’t my finest moment, but I guess I worked it out.”

I freeze at his words.His finest moment?And then it dawns on me… the final piece to this heinous puzzle. Why she can’t remember anything. Why she’d do something that was so completely unlike her.

“You drugged her that night, too.” The realization rolls over me in waves. “What, you wanted her but got too fucked up to do anything about it?”

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