Page 153 of Splintered Hearts

“I broke up with Noah.” Xavier stares. Pouts his bottom lip. Squints. Cocks his head. Then... laughs. “What’s so fucking funny?”

“You... broke up, with him? What? Beggars can’t be choosers, Jamie. Plus, Noah’s fucking hot. Sweet too. Funny as hell, but nerdy in a really cute way. It somehow makes him hotter.”

“Would you like a shot? He’s single now.”

Xavi flips me off. “I’m just saying, you’re going to have to give me more because I’m not following.”

This is it.

Let someone in.

It crosses my mind to lie. I just don’t have the energy. “We had an amazing time at the lake house. I told him I loved him. I got a tattoo. A new one. I saw Ari on the way home from Ian’s shop. Noah had—”

“Wait. You got a new tattoo?”

“And saw Ari,” I hedge.

“Fuck that stuck-up bitch.” Xavier’s eyes widen. “I mean. Stuck up, snot rag? It just doesn’t have the same spice to it. I’m sorry, sis,” Xavier says to the ceiling. “Forgive me. You didn’t like her either. Or Ailee for that matter. God, I hope they aren’t both in heaven together now. Yo, Luci’d be so pissed, could you imagine?!”

“Can you focus?!”

“What?”

Curiosity gets the best of me. “She didn’t like Ailee?”

Xavi gives me a tight-lipped smile. “Bro, we all hated her. She was some stuck-up rich chick from that fancy tourist town. You liked her though, so we respected that. Let you have your fun.”

“I didn’t know that.” Luci hadn’t hung around us much but I’d thought she was giving me space. “Ailee was jealous of Luci.”

“We all knew that. You didn’t help, though. From the outside looking in we knew how it looked. You two were just different.” We were rarely apart.

“Anyway. Ari saw me and—”

“I don’t give a shit about her. You got a new tattoo, bro!”

“Yes.”

“Wow.” He shakes his head. “That’s amazing. You said never.” No, I said I’d never let anyone but Maddox ink me, but having Ian do it, a guy who loved him more than anything, felt right. Everything about it felt right. “Sorry. Continue.”

“I saw Ari when I walked back to the lake house. She said some fucked-up shit to me. My head got all messy. I told Noah I couldn’t do this anymore. We fought. Bad. I said something really fucked up that I can’t take back and now he hates me.”

“You self-destructive dick.” I can’t even correct him. “I don’t pretend to understand half the shit you do. I know you’ve been through a lot, but come on. Self-sabotage is bullshit. I’m tired, bro.”

“I never told him about the accident,” I admit and Xavi sighs, sending a prayer to the ceiling. “I was going to tell him on the trip.”

“Why?” His voice loses all playfulness. “Why the hell does it matter?”

“It was my fault.”

“No. It wasn’t.” I’m not used to the hard edge in his voice. “Youknow what? Maybe itwas, Jamie. Maybe it was Luci’s for getting so shit-faced. Or Madd’s because he was behind the wheel. Or I don’t know, Jamie, maybe it was the drunk fucking asshole who T-boned your car going ninety through a red light. I don’t know, Jamie. I don’t. I do know it doesn’t fucking matter. What happened, happened. There’s nothing any of us can do about it.”

“It’s not that simple.”

Xavier’s head falls back in a dramatic groan. “Alright, pouty pants. Let’s go.”

“What?”

“We have somewhere we need to go. Now.”

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