Page 69 of Salacious Park Avenue Prince

“So this ismyfault?” I slipped down off the counter. “Is that what you’re saying?”

“All I’m saying is that you’re really good at jumping to conclusions.”

“And you’re really good at making someone feel like a piece of shit.”

Caleb reared back as though I’d sucker-punched him, and in a way I guess I kind of had. Sure, we’d danced our way around this argument a hundred and one times, but we’d never gotten into the thick of it. Never waded through the murky waters of the whos and whys. But apparently it was time to pay the fucking piper.

“Oh, so we’re gonna do this now?” I didn’t know why I bothered asking—I could see in his eyes he did. He was fuming mad, and so was I.

“You’re the one who brought it up.”

“Fine.”

“Fine. The night of the wedding, where did you go?”

“East’s.”

Caleb rolled his eyes. “Of course you fucking did.”

“You asked.”

“And did you tell him about us?”

“No.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I didn’t fucking tell him,” I snapped. “Why would I? So he could laugh at how you almost broke a leg trying to get away from me?”

“I didn’t?—”

“What?” I scoffed. “Realize what you’d done and regret it instantly? Because that’s sure as fuck what your face said.”

“I was in shock. You had to know that.”

“How would I know that? I was seventeen. We were best friends. You came as hard as I did. How was I supposed to know you’d be horrified when the blood made its way back to your brain?”

“Oh my God.” Caleb shook his head, his eyes full of disbelief. “That’s what you thought, all this time?”

“No, it’s what I knew. I saw it all over your face, Caleb.”

“You saw confusion, shock, and a whole lot of panic. But not because I was horrified.” He brought a hand up to rub it over his face. “I was reeling that night, Travis, my mind in complete chaos, but instead of giving mefive fucking minutesto work through it, you decided how I felt for me. Unbelievable.”He turned his back on me and walked across the living room

Wait. Did I get this all wrong?

“Can you even begin to imagine how I felt when you finally decided to come back?” he continued. “Days later, no calls, no messages, and all of a sudden you hated my guts, didn’t want anything to do with me. Iced me out completely like I’d done something wrong, and fuck, I thought I did.” He gripped the back of his neck and wheeled back around to face me. “I felt humiliated. I thought you and all your friends were laughing at getting the straight guy to give in. Like I was some prank. Kinda like?—”

“JT,” I finished, oddly unsettled at the similarity. “You were never a prank, I swear. I would never do that to you.”

“Well, I thought you did. And all of that I could handle, but…why did you cut me off like that?”

“Because it was easier to ignore you than it was to look at you every day.” I sighed and pushed away from the island. “I’d wanted you for so fucking long. I could barely look at you without wondering what it’d be like to kiss you. Touch you. And then it happened and…” My voice cracked. “I’ll never forget theway you looked at me. Like I was the biggest mistake you ever made.”

“No. That’s not what I was thinking at all.”

“That’s what I saw. So yeah, I ignored you. I put a wall up. You rejected me, and the only way I knew how to deal with that was by rejecting you right back.”

Caleb stared at me for a long time before shaking his head slowly. “I wouldn’t have rejected you, Travis. I thought you knew me better than that.”

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