Page 84 of Collided

“Seriously, I don’t need your pussy-whipped brain right now. As I said, we’ll tell her later.”

“Then we should get someone else involved.”

“Like who?”

“Issac Anderson?”

I glare at him.

Marie’s dad holds a sweet spot for Sebastian and is always trying to help him in whatever way he can. Marie is the driving force behind it, but in the end what matters is that her dad islike a fatherly figure to Sebastian. A hole my best friend has been trying to fill for years because his dad walked out on him.

I also have a hole in my chest residing next to the enormous gap my sister’s death drilled in. My parents walking out on me and not wanting me hurts. I never got to experience love and care. All I know is how the house staff takes care of a kid as their own. Kelly and Derek have raised me. They’re more of parents to me than the ones who brought me into this world.

“Not until we’re sure, Bash,” I tell him as I dump the vegetables in the pot.

“Fine.”

Ten minutes later we sit on the couch with the plates full of pasta in our laps.

“So, we were talking about someone hurting Hope?”

I nod. “Andnot telling Marie.”

“I agreed to that?”

“You fucking did,” I assert with force.

“If it’s true then Marie would be heartbroken. She loves Hope already. She’s finally found a friend. She won’t think twice before getting to the bottom of this.”

“All the more reason to keep her away.”

He ignores my warning. “Until we find out who’s behind it.”

I hum in response, not giving him a definite answer purposefully. “I asked Hope, but she refused to tell me.”

His fork clatters on the plate. “What the actual fuck?”

“What?” My eyebrows raise.

With a loud sigh, he continues, “You can’t ask such fucking questions, Heath. Not with such straightforwardness. It’s not right. Things like these take time to tell someone else.”

“I don’t fucking get it.”

“Have you told her about your sister?”

I nod.

His green eyes widen into saucers and his mouth opens in bewilderment.

How am I supposed to tell him that talking about my sister to Hope was the easiest thing I’ve ever done? When it was supposed to be anythingbutthat.

That girl is fucking with my body chemicals. I’m not functioning normally anymore.

“What the fuck?” He gapes at me like a chimpanzee.

“Shut your mouth for fuck’s sake.”

“You do know that it’s a big deal. You don’t go around telling people about her. Christ, it took you weeks to even speak about her tome.I’m your bestest friend—”

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