Page 46 of Beautiful Collide

Aiden:None of this is helpful.

Hudson:I left my key card, have no way in, and need help.

Mason:. . .

Hudson:You’re not helping.

Dane:Maybe if you gave us an actual location, we could help.

Hudson:Glad to see the grump has entered the chat.

Dane has left the conversation.

Hudson:Oops.

Aiden:Why do you do this, man?

Hudson:Because it’s too easy.

Hudson:So . . . is someone going to help me?

Aiden:No.

Aiden has left the conversation.

Hudson:Mason?

Mason:You’re on your own.

Mason has left the conversation.

I type out a sad-face emoji but realize there’s no one left to send it to.

Ouch.

Fine. I’ll just head to the front of the arena. Someone will see me. Shit, I can’t have that. Pulling my hoodie up, I hope the glasses-and-hoodie disguise works.

With my luck?

I doubt it.

12

Molly

Okay,maybe I’m an asshole, but I really couldn’t wait for him. He was fully on the other side of the parking lot. If I had stopped, I’d have been late, and Dane needed his tape.

I mean, granted, he probably could have borrowed tape from someone else, but whatever, Hudson doesn’t need to know that . . .

And the truth is, he deserves it.

He’s a menace. A cheater.

And the worst part is a piece of me bigger than I want to admit, secretly likes Hudson Wilde. There I said it, sue me. Maybe I don’t like him; perhaps I’m just jealous. I’m envious of the fact that he can be so unburdened by his past that he can have fun.

I wish I could be like that, and I find that every time I see him smile, I want to cry. Because deep down inside, I’m constantly pretending.

I pretend to be happy and put together when I’m a mess.

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