Page 81 of Consume Me

“Who made you sad?” he asks.

I shrug, and he says, “I’ll make it hurt for you. The dickhead.”

“You’re fighting?”

“Of course.”

“When?”

“Tonight.”

“I don’t want you two to fight. It’s stupid.”

“I hope you win,” Celine says, spearing Blake with a glare as he walks past us.

I want to go to Blake and demand he stop this idiotic fight, but my mouth doesn’t seem to work. Even though I doubt I can convince him, I send him a message.

Don’t fight, please.

I see him leaning against his favorite wall inside of an alcove, his eyes pinned on his phone, but he doesn’t answer.

I stride to him and grip the lapels of his jacket, noticing the forlorn look on his face.

“You look so sad,” he says, sounding dejected. It’s written in the hard line of his jaw that he thinks he’s to blame.

I don’t want to lie. I am sick and tired of hiding.

“It’s not your fault.” It’s not even mine. It is what it is, and no one’s fault that I have a lovelorn heart.

“Please, I don’t want you to fight. Just stop,” I say instead.

“Don’t worry, it’s the last time. I want you to be happy.”

He pushes himself off the wall, and as I watch him retreat, his shoulders droop. A gloomy shadow accompanies him, tugging at my heartstrings like nothing else.

I am an unfocused mess throughout my classes. Blake’s parting words reverberate in my head, and I can’t shake the impression that he is going to intentionally lose tonight. I can’t have that. I can’t let him punish himself because of me. It’s not his fault he doesn’t feel the same way I do.

With purpose flowing through me, I walk back to the house with the girls. They look at me warily.

“Mia?” Celine asks.

“He’s going to fight.”

“Let him,” Abi says. I love that she takes my side, but there will only be losers tonight.

“I can’t let him do that. You didn’t see him.”

“You can’t stop him,” Bailey says.

“I will find a way.”

“How?” Celine asks me.

“I don’t know yet.”

“He can’t fight us all. We should just lock the asshole inside his room,” Abi says.

“I don’t like how he looked,” Bailey sighs.

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