Page 163 of Verses

“Remember when you guys first told us you were together? I said I didn’t want to see any PDAs or anything. Maybe he took it the wrong way.”

Holy shit.I was trying to remember the point at which Wolf had started pulling back. Had that been the genesis of it all? I simply nodded, trying to retrace our relationship steps.

“But there could be another reason.”

“Like what?”

“Well…I could be wrong, but there are lots of reasons why he might have backed off—and some of them might be perfectly legit.”

I doubted that.

“Like?”

“Like maybe he regrets hooking up with you because he feels like he’s too old for you.”

“He said that before, but—”

“Then maybe he meant it. But another reason…maybe he’s using.”

Wolf was not the druggie type. “I don’t think so.”

“Maybe he’s cheating.”

Thathadn’t been something I’d considered, but it would explain a lot. “Oh, God, do you think so?”

“It’s always a possibility.” My mouth went dry as Kyle continued talking. “And something you probably don’t want to hear…” Oh, he’d already ventured into things-I-didn’t-want-to-hear territory. Anything else he had to say would simply be bitter icing on the cake. “Maybe he’s not interested anymore. Maybe he just wanted to hook up with you a couple of times and now he’s bored. Some guys are like that. They get bored easily and want to move on to the next piece of ass.”

“That doesn’t sound like…” But I stopped talking because none of those things sounded right—but I had to accept the possibility that maybe one of the reasons Kyle presented might be true. Just thinking about it made me want to cry but it wasn’t like I could do anything about it now.

At least I had the band.

Out of the blue, Kyle said, “Maybe you belong with me.”

I’d been staring at my hands resting on my laptop, but I looked up, wide-eyed. “What?”

“Have you ever thought that maybe we belong together? Did you ever think that after we split up?”

“I don’t know about that, Kyle.” Jesus. Why was this so hard? “I mean, I consider you a really good friend and I don’t regretthe time we spent together…but I feel like we’re better apart than together.”

I couldn’t quite read his face but, after a moment, his expression changed as if he’d experienced a revelation. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I…just hate to see you hurt.”

“Thanks.” I wiped the lone tear from the corner of my right eye. “Maybe this will be good for the band, though.”

“How?”

“I can make like Taylor Swift and write a song about it.”

Kyle laughed. “It’ll only work if it’s got the teeth of Alanis Morissette.”

“‘You Oughta Know’?”

“Yeah. I think Intent to Murder could pull something like that off.”

I laughed as Kyle pulled me into an embrace. “I love you, Hayley…and I always will.”

“I love you too, Kyle.” Unlike the last few months we’d spent as boyfriend/ girlfriend, I really meant it—and I suspected he did too.

Had I made a series of terrible mistakes, beginning with the breakup? Pondering the idea made me lose a lot of sleep that night.

---