Page 67 of Promise Me Not

It’s my chest she’s cracking open and my heavy beating heart she’s tearing out, one tug at a time. And for what?

Or is itfor who?

No. It can’t be.

But what if it is?

The alcohol in my system brings my blood to a boil at the sideways thoughts, and my eyes narrow on the pretty blue ones holding me hostage.

“Hey, Brady.” My voice carries over the noise, my gaze locked on my girl. “What’s Payton’s favorite thing to drink?”

“What?” he chuckles.

Payton’s eyes fall then, and guess who walks up behind her? I glare at my other best friend, but I repeat my question to the one at my side. “Her favorite drink. What is it?”

“Uh…Dr P?”

My limbs shake. “Wrong.”

Chase shakes his head, dropping down on the bench-like seat beside her, and she faces his way, answering whatever question he asks.

“Dude,” Brady whispers. “What am I missin’?”

He might keep talking. It’s hard to tell when my eyes are locked on the Chatty fucking Cathys a few spots over.

What could they possibly have to say to each other?

Chase hardly talks to any of us anymore, ever since he realized his mistakes with my sister.

I thought he felt like shit, that he was embarrassed by his actions and couldn’t face us because of his own inner bullshit. That sounds like the Chase I know.

I love that fucker. Die for him if it came to that.

But maybe I was wrong.

Maybe he’s being sneaky.

Maybe they both are.

Payton’s tense laugh reaches me. It invades my mind and sweeps through me, the sensation calming andright, but then my brain catches up.

He made her laugh.

He made her laugh, and she won’t even talk to me.

She’s talking to him.

He knows what she likes to drink.

“Are you two fucking?”

Gasps and sputtered curses fill the air, but I hold the gaze of the girl who’s breaking my fucking heart here.

“Tell me the truth.”

“Mason. Please,” she whispers, but her eyes scream so much more.

They tell me how disappointed she is, how out of all people I should know the answer to that question. That I shouldn’t have to ask it in the first place.

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