Page 38 of True Blue

I nod, taking a step back and tugging on Axel’s hand. He doesn’t move at first and I look between him and Bentley, trying to predict who will lunge first. My heart feels ready to burst through my chest just as Axel finally responds, walking away and breaking the standoff between the two of them. We rush out of the ballroom, people moving out of the way when they see Axel coming. I see Christopher smirking at us, leaning against a wall with a champagne flute in his hand.

Glancing back at Mom, my eyes find Bentley’s blazing gaze instead as he watches the two of us leave together, knuckles white around a flute of sparkling grape juice.

17

Walking out of the campus coffee shop, the autumn breeze hits me head on, and I grip my warm latte and Janette’s hot apple cider a little tighter. The leaves have started changing and the air is getting cooler, but a smile sits on my face as I walk toward Riggs in the early morning light.

Kissing Janette has kept my mood up the last few days even if things ended with Bentley seeing us together. Reading the hurt in his eyes as he stared at our hands made me even more mad at him than I already was. How he could stand there and dare to be hurt by seeing us together, as if he hadn’t flaunted how little he cared about either of us when he asked Cassie out in the library, blew my mind. And then he went and kissed Janette while on a date with someone else and after fooling around with me, confusing the hell out of both of us as to what exactly he wants.

I know what I want though.

I nod to the guy who holds the door of Riggs open for me, thanking him as I pass. People move quickly through the hallway around me as I make my way to the stairs, excited to see Blue and ready to ignore Bentley if he tries to sit with us again.

I spent the rest of the weekend in my room, door closed, music on, basically telling him to fuck off without hanging a sign on my door that said so. Janette had been nervous on the car ride home, staring out the window the whole way back and twisting her ring on her finger. I walked her up to her room and kissed her cheek before heading back to my suite, neither of us really saying anything. She called me the next day, apologizing for being so out of it when we left and sounding panicked.

“Don’t worry about it, Blue,” I said. “We can take our time figuring things out. I don’t expect you to process everything instantly.”

She sighed on the other end of the line. “Thank you, Axe. You’re being way too patient with me.”

I laughed, settling back against my headboard and drumming my fingers on my chest. “I think that’s the first time I've been accused of being patient.” She chuckled and I knew she was rolling her eyes. “Layla used to accuse me of being so impatient, I left her behind in the womb.”

She chuckled again and I decided it was my favorite sound. We ended up talking for another half hour, trading stories we each remembered from our childhood.

“Thank you, Axe,” she’d eventually said, making my spine tingle as she said my name.

“You need to stop thanking me, Blue. But what exactly is this one for?”

“For letting me talk about Dad.” My heart broke for her. We’d both lost a parent that day, but I’d had Dad and Layla and Gwen to help me figure out how to live without Mom. Janette had been all alone, trying to figure out how to live without Uncle Levi and watching her mom abandon her at the same time. “It’s been a while since I could talk about him with someone who was there when he was.”

I swallowed against the lump in my throat. “Anytime, Blue. You should come back to Maine for Thanksgiving break and see all the photos Dad has all over the place of you and Uncle Levi and Aunt Sandy.”

She chuckled, the sound a little broken and I contemplated walking down to her suite so I could comfort her. “Maybe. I think I’ll need to face my mom in a few weeks after she’s cooled down, but maybe I could take a raincheck and come visit another time.”

“I already said anytime, Blue,” I said with mock sternness.

She sighed. “I’ll probably break down the second I see the street,” she whispered.

“Probably. But Lay and I will hold your hand the whole time.”

We hung up a few minutes later when she said she had to go to a yoga class with Layla soon, but I told her to text me whenever she needed. We’d ended up texting lightly over the last couple of days, mostly me asking questions about our project or annoying her with pictures of my food. She’d responded and hearted the pictures, but we hadn’t seen each other since the alumni event.

And I could not climb these stairs fast enough to get upstairs and see her.

Walking into the seminar room, my eyes fall on the back of her head, bent over her phone in the same seat she sits in every Wednesday and Friday. I shuffle down the stairs, nearly tripping as my giddiness builds. She looks up at my approach, smiling when she sees me coming toward her and the look makes a ball of warmth expand in my chest.

I hold out her cider, standing in front of her finally. She eyes it, wrapping her hand around the cup and brushing our fingers together. “What is it?”

“Hot apple cider,” I say, sitting down beside her and sipping my latte. She smiles, taking a sip and closing her eyes.

“I can’t believe you remembered I like these,” she says, turning toward me.

I roll my eyes. “How could I forget? The one time you made me try it, I nearly threw up. Never going to forget that day.” I take another sip of my latte, shuddering.

“You always were over-dramatic, weren’t you?” She laughs, and the sound makes it hard to hold the scowl I throw at her.

Footsteps near us as I watch her eyes flick over my shoulder and her laughter die off. Bentley walks past the two of us, taking a seat on the other side of Janette and rummaging through his bag as per usual. I glare at him for a moment, my anger instantly at the surface again, before looking away and sitting straight forward. Janette follows suit, sitting tensely between the two of us.

“Janette,” Bentley says, his tone neutral. I look over at him and so does she, swallowing.

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