With that, I turn and leave her gawking after me.
I feel so much lighter, like I’ve finally let go of a weight that’s been holding me down all these years. My heart is a little less broken walking away from her. I want to find Dallas and tellhim, but on my way back to the gymnasium, I run into theotherlast person I want to see.
“Wilhelmina, how come this is the first time I’ve seen you tonight? You look great.” Sean’s words run together a little at the end. His gaze moves over me in a way that sends a shiver down my spine. “Sometimes, I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t listened. I should have saidfuck itand asked you anyway. Your rack is hands down the best in our class.”
I smile tightly and ignore the comment about my rack. Apparently, drunk and creepy is his current vibe. “Well, good thing you ended up going with the right person since you’re marrying Brooklyn.”
He looks around before he leans in uncomfortably close and drops his voice. “She was my runner-up. You were always my number one. I mean, that body.” He winks, and his expression shifts, brow furrowing. “Wild that you and Bright ended up together. How’d that even happen? Especially when he was always such a dick to you. All the student council posters he and his hockey buddies trashed, and the notes they stuffed in your locker...” He tips his head. “They were pretty ruthless, weren’t they?”
I believed that about the posters and notes, but I didn’t have confirmation until now. And maybe Sean is just being a jerk because he can, but it makes the wounds fresh again. “We were kids, and Dallas did a lot of stupid stuff back then,” I say as calmly as I can. “We all did.”
I thought I was going to conquer it all—be this cool, new, fun Hemi, but I don’t know if I can handle facing my past like this. Confronting Brooklyn was one thing, but this conversation is dismantling my armor with every harsh, painful memory dredged up by Sean’s words.
“He really screwed you over, though. Came into the locker room and threatened to have the hockey team come after anyone who asked you to prom. Always singling you out like hisfavorite toy.” He shakes his head. “But now he has money and he’s famous, so I guess that makes up for it, eh?”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end a second before Dallas appears behind Sean. His face is a mask of rage, lip curled as he growls, “Who the fuck do you think you are, talking to my fiancée like that?”
His eyes meet mine, and I see his regret, as much as I feel it wrapping around me.
Sean startles and backs up a step but puffs his chest out. “What, you don’t like the truth, Bright? Too real for you?”
“You don’t know the first thing about the truth, Sean. Don’t presume to know what my relationship with Wills is like. While you’ve been living in your time capsule, spamming the world with your bullshit, I’ve been atoning for my mistakes. Working to never be that selfish asshole again. I regret a lot of things, especially when it comes to Wills, but I sure as fuck don’t regret telling you not to ask her to prom. You didn’t deserve to even be near her then, and you don’t deserve her now.”
“And you think you do?”
“Not back then, no. I was a dick and focused on the wrong things. But I’m going to spend the rest of my life making up for those mistakes.”
My head is spinning, and my heart feels like it’s shattering all over again. Because as nice as it is to have Dallas stand up for me, it’s gutting to have our tumultuous past thrown in my face all over again.
“I need air.”
Dallas tries to grab my hand, but I shake him off and head for the closest exit, desperate to escape this pain.
CHAPTER 29
HEMI
I’m reeling as I push through the doors and step out into the warm summer night. The soccer field lies ahead of me, the parking lot to the right. If I wasn’t wearing heels and a dress, I might consider walking to my moms’.
Before I can pull my phone out to call one of them for a ride, Dallas bursts through the door after me. “Wills, honey?—”
“Stop! Stop calling me that! Just stop!” I’m too wrecked, too raw, and too sad to handle any of this. But it’s all happening. I can’t escape history or the feelings that come with it.
I’m crushed all over again. Terrified that I’m about to endure the same humiliation I did all those years ago. And wouldn’t I deserve it for being stupid enough to believe in Dallas’s good intentions?
He stops when he’s only a few inches from me. “My gorgeous fucking badass, I’m so sorry.” He looks like he’d slay any dragon for me. But at one point in my life, he was part of the dragon that tried to ruin me.
My stupid chin wobbles. I should walk away, but instead I roll my shoulders back and do the one thing I never have. “Why? Why did you tell everyone not to ask me to prom?” Until this moment, I believed I knew the answer. He thought it wasfunny. He wanted to hurt me. Like everyone else, he thought it would be better without me. More fun.
I felt so small, so broken and unwanted. And being here makes me feel it all over again. It’s rooted in my beginnings, and it’s followed me through life.
Dallas’s eyes soften, and his sadness is palpable. “Because I wanted to be the one to ask you, and I was buying myself time while I grew a pair so I could just do it already. I was scared to ask you. You had every reason to tell me to fuck off even if I was brave enough.” He runs a rough hand through his hair. “Sean has been and will always be a douchebag. Worse, I couldn’t stand the idea of him touching you, of getting to pick you up and hold your hand. Of spending the night with you the way I wanted to. He would make these gross, disrespectful comments—and I just couldn’t handle it. Do you know what that would have done to me? To see someone so unworthy of you be the center of your attention? I would have done anything to be the one you wanted, but I was so caught up after everyone thought it was some big joke that I let the opportunity slip through my fingers. I always thought if I had just one shot to make a move, it would have been prom.”
I’m slow to process his words. I’m so stunned that all I can do is echo him. “You wanted to go to prom with me?”
“Yeah, but I screwed myself over by not setting them all straight.”
“You wanted to ask me to prom?” Why can’t I say anything else? The world is tilting on its axis, whirling into orbit and taking me along for the ride.