Page 52 of The Lies We Tell Ourselves

“I got a text from him asking me to meet him at the party house for his birthday next week,” I said as Mal stared at me with wide eyes. The look of utter shock on his face had me belting out another laugh. They say laughter was good for the soul, right? Well, being with Mal was better.

“Wow!” Mal called Wendy over and asked for something stronger to drink. He’d spent the last twenty minutes white-knuckling his shake glass. “Well, shit.”

“Yeah,” I breathed. It was nice having some of the weight lifted off my shoulders, but the confusion I felt only intensified.

“Here you go, hon,” Wendy said, placing Mal’s beer on the table. “And I got you this.” I looked up at her as she placed another shake in front of me. “You looked like you needed it.”

“Thanks.” My shoulders slumped as I pulled the glass closer to me. A hand landing on my shoulder made me jump.

“It’ll all work out in the end, sweetie. The best things in life are those you fight for.” I titled my head, and she smiled. “The question is, are they worth it?”

“At the moment, I don’t know. It’s complicated.”

“Then uncomplicate it.”

“It’s not?—”

She cut me off. “At the end of the day, it is. Either you like them enough to try, or it’s too much trouble, and you walk away. Simple, really.” Giving my shoulder one last squeeze, she left and said she’d be back shortly with our food.

“I mean, she’s not wrong,” Mal added.

I let out a long breath. “I know. I do. But I don’t know what I want. In an ideal world?—”

“Jamie, there is no such thing as an ideal world. The world, your life, is what you make it. Do you want to be with Dillon? Ignore all the issues you think you have. It’s a simple question. Do you want to be with him?”

“Yes!” I unequivocally wanted to be with him. He was the sun, the moon, and all the stars in the sky. My world began and ended with him. Always had. Always would. That wasn’t the issue I had—it was whether or not he wanted me.

“I can see the cogs turning in your brain, JJ.”

“Ha, you could say.”

“You said he invited you to his party?”

“Yup.”

“Go.” My eyes bugged out of my head as I stared at him. “Go and ask him. Get the answer to all the questions going around in your head.”

“Alright, but only if you come with me.”

“Deal!”

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

DILLON

“Ihear you’re celebrating your twenty-first tonight?”

Fuck, how did he find out about that?! I scrubbed my hand down my face and cursed the day I was born. I didn’t even want to celebrate my birthday; I just wanted to have a night alone with Jamie. But oh no, the team posted flyers all around campus advertising the captain’s twenty-first, how it was going to be “the” party of the year, and if you missed it, you might as well pack up and go home. Fuck. My. Life. “Yeah, that’s right.”

Tristan leaned back in his chair, his gaze assessing me while he stroked his new goatee. “There going to be a big turn out?”

“So I’m led to believe.”

“Hmmm.” He leaned over and opened his drawer, pulling out the keys and a little baggie of white powder. “How about some birthday bumps?”

Fuck! I knew I should have made Stevens come and get the damn keys. “Ah, sorry. Can’t. Athlete.”

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