Page 50 of True Blue

I hold my hands up, backing off. “Okay, let’s say he doesn’t. This can’t go on forever. It’s going to end with him hurting you, Mira.” I reach forward, grabbing one of her hands. I need her to understand now so that she doesn’t get hurt later. I've already watched her pine over Harley for the last three years and if he leaves her in the same or a worse state this time around, I'll kill him. And I’m pretty sure Ramsey will help. Squeezing her hand, I say, “It doesn’t end any other way.”

“I know that.” She squeezes my hand back. “And when it does, I’ll be able to mourn and move on. I couldn’t do that before, Bentley. I don’t know why but I couldn’t. When this ends, I’ll finally have closure.”

“Closure?” I consider the idea. Maybe she’s right. I know she thinks she knows what she’s doing, but she’s right in that she wasn’t getting anywhere close to getting over Harley back home, and I doubt moving to the same town he lives in helped that any. She nods at me across the table, and I let go of her hand to lean back and sip my coffee. “Are you at least exclusive? Herpes is forever, Amiria.”

She laughs and I smile, glad she looks more relaxed now that she’s told me. I can still see the stress of it around the lines of her face, but she doesn’t look as tense as when we walked in here together.

“I don’t know,” she whispers and looks down and away from me.

I watch her, waiting for her to look up at me again. Once she does, I say, “I’ll be there when it ends, Mir. You know that right?”

Her eyes water. She smiles slightly. “I know, Bent. I’m sorry for not telling you earlier.” I nod, acknowledging her, but her words bring everything with Janette and Axel swirling back to the forefront. The need to spit it all out stabs the back of my throat, but I hold it back, realizing how fragile it is at this point. We’ve only just all gotten together. Maybe I should wait before I dump it all on Mira’s already overloaded shoulders.

“Harley thinks I should change my major.” My eyebrows shoot up as I realize I agree about something with Harley Sanders. Mira surprised me over the summer when she told me her major would be chemistry. My best friend is an artist, just like her mother, and I don’t understand why she’s killing her spark for something she doesn’t even like. “He saw my sketchbook last night and thinks I should switch to art,” she adds.

“He’s not wrong. I never got why you wanted to do chem.” I fiddle with the lid of my coffee.

She sighs, eyes clouding as she looks outside. “My dad suggested it. Thought it would be good for me to go into science and chemistry was my best one at Emerald Grove.”

I raise an eyebrow at her when she glances over at me. “I mean sure a B- is better than a C,” I say.

She rolls her eyes at me. “My mom overheard, and they started to fight about him trying to influence my choices and I didn’t want them to fight so I just told my mom I thought it was a good idea.” She shrugs and my mouth falls open when I realize what she did. What she always does.

“Amiria Nicole Adams, you did not choose a college major to try to stop your parents from fighting.” She shrugs again, looking out around the room.

“I don’t not like chemistry,” she says.

“Once more, with feeling, Mir,” I drawl. She has always felt like it is her job to keep the peace between her parents, to her own detriment.

“I don’t want my mom to get upset and if I switch, she’ll know I was unhappy and blame my dad again. Ramsey and I aren’t there to keep the peace anymore, Bent. I don’t want to be the reason they’re fighting.” Her eyes plead with me to understand, but I’ll never agree with a plan that hurts her in the long run.

“That’s convoluted. April will be happy that you are happy and if you think she can’t tell that you’re not right now, you don’t give her enough credit.” I drink from my coffee again. “And Ramsey never worried about keeping the peace with your parents. That was the burden you took on, Mir. And their relationship is not on your shoulders.” I watch her mull over my words, chewing her bottom lip. “You should switch, Mir,” I insist. “Not just because you don’t like chem, but you’re an amazing artist. You deserve the chance to dive into that more.”

She nods, directing a fake smile at me and I sigh, knowing she’s not going to listen to my advice. “What was it you wanted to tell me about?” she asks.

I swallow, picturing Axel and Janette and the ball of knots that seemingly untied itself last night. Mira will definitely have an opinion about things, and I know she’d never judge me, but it’ll take some lengthy explanation for her to understand everything. I sip my drink, going over it in my mind and realizing she’ll be worried for me if I tell her right now.

I shake my head at her as I lower my cup back to the table. I'm not putting anything else on her shoulders right now. Not until this thing with Janette, Axel, and me is solid and there’s something to tell her. “Doesn’t seem so serious now. I just hooked up with this girl last night and she was awful so now I'm worried about seeing her in class later,” I lie, feeling the burn of my hypocrisy in the pit of my stomach.

Mira watches me skeptically, searching my face. I know she can tell when I'm lying so I physically restrain myself from scratching my face. I try to drive her away from asking questions. “Seriously, I can go into detail if you want.” She scrunches her nose in disgust as I waggle my eyebrows at her.

“No thanks.” She holds up her hands and I laugh. I quickly sip my drink while she stares at the table and then start joking about lines I could use to deflect this fictional girl’s attention, thinking about Cassie as I do so. I let her down at the end of our date, saying I had a good time, but I felt like we were better set as friends. She hasn’t spoken to me since, even glaring at me in class a few times when we made eye contact. I couldn’t feel bad for kissing Janette on our date, but I felt bad for doing it to Cassie when she had been so forward with her interest. The line about her being on a date withtheBentley Marshall plays in my ears and a shudder goes down my back.

Mira and I chat and laugh for a little while longer as I try to take her mind off all the shit in her life and forget about some of the shit in mine. She mentions going to the library with Autumn and we get up, tossing our empty cups on the way out of the shop.

I grab her hand when we get outside, making her pause before she heads off. “Don’t hold it all in anymore, Mir,” I say, looking down at her and feeling my shoulders prickle, knowing I'm doing just that to protect her. “Talk to me whenever you need to.” She nods, smiling up at me and squeezing my hand.

“I will. Promise.” She lets go of my hand and walks off toward the library. I watch her for a moment, hoping I'm wrong and Harley doesn’t hurt my best friend.

23

Walking back to West Tower, the events of last night cascade in my head, stirring my cock. I smile, pulling out my phone and texting Janette to see if she’s free. Maybe we can all go grab lunch together in a bit. Or just stay in the suite for the weekend.

I walk into our dorm, finding Axel on the couch, hunched forward with his eyes trained on the TV as his fingers fly over the Xbox controller in his hands.

“Hey,” he grunts, not looking over at me. I smile, slipping my shoes off and throwing my keys onto the closest table. Flopping down on the couch, I bump into him, making him bump me back in annoyance as he continues to play.

“I like you not avoiding me this time,” I say, relaxing back and folding my hands behind my head as I watch the screen. “Was thinking we could get Janette, and all go out for lunch in a bit?”

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