Page 5 of Never His Girl

My notifications had gone off nonstop from the time the game ended yesterday until a few hours ago, when I finally silenced them. The sudden explosion of interest had nothing to do with the team being one step closer to the championship. The vultures were hitting me up to be a part of the shitshow, to get the details everyone’s after. And their main question?

Why’d I post the video?

“Ready to talk?”

Joss’s voice drags me from my thoughts as I hit a left half a second after the light turns red.

“If I wanted to talk, I wouldn’t have left to get away from everyone,” I grumble, thinking of how she insisted on tagging along when I announced I’d be heading out for a drive.

“Didn’t get away from me,” she quips.

“Yeah, I noticed that.”

Hopefully, she hasn’t taken anything I’ve said in the last thirty-plus hours to heart. She knows I’m kind of an ass when I’m pissed. Well, moreof an ass than usual.

“Fuck.”

Joss peers over when the word leaves my mouth, purely out of frustration.

“You know,” she says way too calmly, “I have her number if you want to call.”

My heart leaps when she offers, and I hate that it does. Still, I give nothing away. Instead, I press the button to crack my window a bit. Like itisn’tonly forty-something degrees outside. It helps when anger suddenly makes my temp spike, though.

I fucked up. No one knows that better than me. Directly, indirectly, however you look at it, everything that happened is on me. Still, even with the bull that’s taken place since the video went live, my biggest regret right now has nothing to do with that. It’s got to do with those three stupid words I last spoke to Southside—‘You should go.’

Basically, I’m a dick who can’t seem to deviate from dick behavior.

“So … you want the number or not?”

A few seconds pass and I say nothing. But in true Joss-form, she grabs my phone, unlocks it because her nosey ass seems to always know my codes, then she puts Southside’s info in herself.

“There,” she huffs. “Now you have it for whenever you get your head out of your ass and man up to call this girl. And you better have some sort of monumental apology ready, because what the fuck, West? Have you lost your mind?” she scolds. “Not only is this about the sickest power play I’veeverseen, but even if you don’t care abouther,what about football? The state championship? Next year? The coaches at NCU aredefinitelygonna hear about it becauseeveryone’spassing it around. There won’t be any hiding from this.”

“You don’t think I know that?” I snap, gripping the steering wheel tighter.

Her accusation, and the subsequent warning, make my jaw tick with rage but I hold my tongue from saying more. For fear of saying too much.

“Then why risk it? Just to continue whatever ridiculous game you have going with this girl?” Joss pauses to shake her head, radiating judgement from her seat. “I should’ve called you on your shit when this all started. Lord knows no oneelsehas the balls to do it. If I had, instead of ignoring it, maybe you wouldn’t have possibly set your entire future on fire.”

She’s staring at the side of my face, full of anger she didn’t let show at the penthouse. There, she’d been neutral, probably feeling outnumbered with Dane and Sterling around, but there was no trace of her being reserved now. Guess I don’t have to wonder why she volunteered to join me for the ride. She wanted her chance to rip me a new one in private.

A heavy sigh leaves her mouth and she finally faces forward, but she’s still worked up.

“You’ve done some twisted shit before, West, but this is next level,” she continues. “And to think, IencouragedBlue to talk to you the other night! Because, silly me, I thought I knew you, thought you were decent. Never in a million years would I have imagined you could be so monumentally cruel! You’re—”

“Damn it, Joss! It wasn’t me!”

My voice reverberates in the car a moment after I yell the words. Then, we’re both unnaturally silent. No sound other than the wind that rushes in through the partially open window.

“Fuck!”

I’m not sure if I’m relieved or terrified having admitted it out loud. Maybe a little of both. I was supposed to keep my mouth shut. Swore I would, actually, but I feel myself unraveling more by the minute, knowing what everyone thinks of me. Knowing what Southside thinks of me.

“You’re telling the truth?”

“What the fu…” I catch myself when my temper flares again. “Yes, Josslyn Grace Francois, I’m telling you the fucking truth.”

In my peripheral, I see her point a finger when her head tilts.

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