Page 39 of Hits Different

“Don’t talk to her like that”, Parker snaps, breathing heavily.

“So now you’re defending me?” Millie yells. “I thought I was the whore hooking up with your best friend”.

“I didn’t say that!”

“So it’smyfault?” I interrupt, “The traitorous bastard of a best friend hitting on your girlfriend?”

Parker glares between the two of us, lets out a strangled snarl, then turns his back and stomps towards the sea, leaving sand scattering in his wake.

Before I know it, I’m in chase-mode. Millie dodges out of the way just in time for me to slam into him, tackling him to the ground. “Doing what you do best, Di Rossi? Leaving when things get tough?”

He pushes me off and he’s on top of me in an instant. He grabs my arms and pins them down. I see his hand ball into a fist, raised high over his head. “Do it!” I yell. “Fucking do it!”

Our eyes lock, and suddenly the fight falls out of him. He goes limp, sprawling himself on top of me. His lips find my ear. His short, wet hair is in my face. “Nice punch”, he murmurs.

Oh, for fuck sakes. “Told you I’d been working out”.

“I’m sorry”. He kisses me on the cheek. “I’m really sorry”. His weight relaxes into me, like pieces of two separate puzzles that somehow fit together. I’m stunned. I can’t even move.

“I’ve literally never heard you say that before”.

“I can’t fight with you, Brandon. Anyone else. Everyone else. But not you”.

But why not me?My anger drains away. “It’s okay”, I hear myself say. “Just get the fuck off me”.

“Now that both of you have got that out of your system”. We both raise our heads. Millie stands over us. She has one hand on her hip, the other holds the two bottles of champagne from my dad’s cellar, “Why don’t we have a drink and salvage what’s left of the night before it’s completely ruined?”

* * * *

One drained bottle later, the three of us sit, hidden from the wind by the cliff edge. The last of the fireworks explode across the water.

Parker’s in the middle, his borrowed tuxedo jacket draped over Millie’s bare shoulders. Our shoes, socks, and ties are piled in-front of us.

“To Parker”, Millie raises the remaining bottle, “And your sense of timing. You just about saved Carter and I from a socially mortifying experience”.

“No offence taken”, I drawl hazily.

We cheers. Parker leans back thoughtfully. “Your dalliance with Brandon puts you in a unique position”, Parker says to Millie, “As the only woman to have locked lips with the two hottest guys in our school”.

“Parker said ‘dalliance’”, I say, to nobody in particular. Parker playfully swipes at me, and I catch his hand. “You’re bleeding”.

“It’s just a graze”. The skin is raw across his knuckles. “It’s my own fault for taking on your jaw of steel”. I take his hand, wrapping my discarded tie tightly around the broken skin. He doesn’t resist, which is surprising.

Millie leans forward silently, and takes another sip of champagne. “She thinks you’re hot”, Parker says to me, his tone unreadable. My stomach flutters. If this wasn’t tragic, it’d be funny.

“No, she doesn’t. She doesn’t even like me”.

“No,youdon’t likeher. Millie and I played that game earlier. The one where you decide your hall pass. One free night with no consequences”, Parker takes the bottle from Millie, “Of all the guys in the whole school. She chose you”.

“That’swhat you two were fighting about?” I look between the two of them. “And not your inability to grasp the promise of opportunity in whatever the hell your speech was supposed to be about”.

Millie whacks Parker on the arm. “You told him!”

“I tell him everything”. Parker’s hand finds the small of my back, and I forget how to breathe. “He’s my best friend. You two kissing, okay, I was jealous. At first”.

“But now?”

A reluctant smile parts his lips. Millie giggles. “Come on, tell me. You thought it was hot, right?”

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