Page 33 of Race to Me

I can’t help but turn and watch them go in. It makes me sick and hurts my heart, but I need to see with my own eyes how much of a jerk he is and why I’m never going to speak to him again.

A newly familiar voice breaks me from my hate glare. “Hey, Blue!” Callum calls out, racing from the front door and running between the two love birds. I laugh through tears when their hands disconnect.

Foster’s head spins around so quickly that I’m sure he hurt himself. He’s seething, and it fuels me.

“I found this. There was a picture of you and your red-headed friend as the screensaver.” He hands me my phone, and I almost hug him.

“Thank you!” I say with a smile, even though my eyes are red. “You just saved my ass.” Everything is on my phone. My schedule, my notes, and my life.

Envy tugs on Foster’s arm, but he stands like a statue and watches us.

Something about Callum being near me bothers Foster, and there’s nothing more that I want to do right now than bother him.

Carefully, I slide my hand around the back of Callum’s tattooed neck and turn us both sideways so Foster can see my lips pressing against the lips of another man.

Thirteen

When my mouth leaves Callum’s, it isn’t because I pulled away. It’s because Foster drunkenly stumbled in between us.

He sizes Callum up; Foster has a good five inches over him. He’s at least six-three, and I’m mentally kicking myself in the ass for making friends argue.

“Let’s just go to bed.” Envy whines, twirling a piece of chewed, stringy gum around her fingers as she stands on the porch. “Little miss perfect will be fine.”

“Don’t fucking call her that.” Foster points an accusatory finger at Envy, but he doesn’t take his eyes off of Callum.

Envy sighs, annoyed. “Why not? You do.”He does?

Ignoring her, he keeps his threatening stance next to Callum. Indistinct words stumble from the two of them, but I catch one part.

“I’m not fucking around here, Smoke. You’re not to fuck with her. She’s too good for you.” Foster’s words are slurred, and his footing is off. Callum shakes his head and retreats inside, then Foster turns his attention to me.

His current intoxicated state is more notable as his long legs stumble closer to me. It doesn’t make up for anything he did, but he’s not in his right mind. “Your rides almost here. Please, Freckles. None of this is okay. You can’t,” He brushes my cheek gently, and I retreat in disgust.

Shaking my head, I look into his dark-as-night eyes. “Yesterday, I would have listened to you. I thought we had something; I’ve never felt like this before.” He smiles but frowns when I continue, “You ruined that. Because of her.”

I turn to walk away, seeing the headlights of the Uber pull up, but he gently grabs my arm. “Sky ... I’m so fucking sorry.” He nearly falls from just standing in place.

I just want to get far, far away from this place and never return. Before I can take one more step towards the Uber, Callum rushes outside with two helmets. Foster tries to stop him, but he can barely hold himself up.

I can’t help that I’m worried about him; I am. I’m drawn to him. To what I know he is. Not what he’s acting like.

Callum hands me the helmet and walks over to the Uber to tell him to leave. Foster stumbles over, not speaking. Instead, he puts on my helmet and tightens the strap.

“You didn’t drink a drop, correct?” he asks Callum. All anger in his expression is gone and replaced with worry instead.

Callum shakes his head and helps me onto the bike. Without another word to Foster, we speed away onto the dark street. I look back to see Foster with his head in his hands and Envy making her way towards him.

I swallow my sadness and hold on tightly to Callum. It isn’t like with Foster, though; my hands are trembling with fear. I just don’t feel safe with Callum on the bike, and I hate that.

At a red light, he pulls up his visor to talk to me. “Where should we go?” he asks with what I’m sure is a wide grin. The streets are bare, and we could go anywhere, but I don’t want to go on an adventure. Tonight was too much for me. “Can you drop me at the dorms?” I ask, and he grunts but heads towards the campus when the light goes green.

We pull into the quiet campus, parking next to my car. Ryder is sitting on the hood with a curious look on his face as to why I’m on Callum’s bike. “She’s passed out. I didn’t want to get her in trouble being here this late, so just make sure she takes some medicine when she wakes up.”

I smile appreciatively. The only thing good to come out of this night is knowing just how good Ryder is to my best friend. Callum helps me off the bike as I thank Ryder with a hug. “Take my car home. Just bring it back to campus tomorrow, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure thing,” He wipes his tired eyes and pulls away, leaving me to deal with Callum who is looking at me with an expression that says he wants more. We stand there awkwardly for a few minutes.

I run a hand through my hair. “Callum, listen,”

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