Page 114 of Starstruck

“What the hell is going on?” Addy called from behind me, as sheplaced her hands on my shoulders, pulling me back into her chest.

Both their heads whipped towards us, but it was my mom who cameup to me and tore me out of Addy’s grip, pulling me into her and wrapping her arms around me.“Oh, my girl.” She mumbled into the top of my head.

I craned my head back enough to look into her teary eyes. “Mom,what’s happening?” I asked, before dad caught my attention as he neared us.

“Did you know about Tristan?” He asked, his tone calmer than it wasbefore, but still carrying some bite.

I shook my head as I slipped from my mom’s hold. “KnowwhataboutTristan?”

My parents looked at each other, their faces plagued withsomething I didn’t know what to call. It was part anger, part regret, and I had no idea what Tristan had to do with any of it.

My dad dropped his phone into my hands before he growled something underhis breath and walked away. I picked the thing up without a second thought, and my eyes glazed over as I read the article that was lighting up the screen.

With every word I read, another crack in my heart formed, deeper than the onesthat came before it.

And I know that what I was reading should have made me question things; itshould have made me deny it all, because the person they were ripping to shreds between the lines was not the boy I knew.

But something was making sense. The way he was so insistent about telling mehe didn’t feel good enough to be here, be with me, it made sense. If what this article was saying was true, it would make sense of everything I’d been second-guessing about us.

But before I could fully process it, my dad’s voice boomed through the house, drowning out my thoughts. He was yelling, his words sharp and frantic, ranting about how, despite trusting me, they knew the world was too cruel not to catch up with me eventually.

I felt Addy slip away from my side, her footsteps soft but determined as she moved toward the kitchen. Her voice joined theirs, though it barely registered amidst the storm of their argument.

Then, suddenly, the sound of the front door creaking open cut through the noise, pulling all our attentions in an instant.

I felt like I was seeing the world in slow motion as my dad nearedthe door, stealing his phone from my hands as he stormed past.

“Is this true?” Dad barked at Tristan before he’d so much asstepped through the door.

“What?” He stuttered, his eyes all wild, not knowing where to look as my dadneared him.

Dad pushed the phone at him. “This. Is this true, you little asshole?”

“James,” Nate warned, stepping further between the two of them.

“I’m not talking to you; I’m talking to this fucker right here.” Dadyelled at him again, still deaf to Addy and my mom’s yells.

I think I finally caught up in that moment, my conscience snapping awake andjolting me back into what was happening.

“Dad, stop it!” I cried, emotion welling up in my lash line, my voice crackingas I did.

Tristan’s eyes bolted for me, and my heart cracked as I watchedhim follow the lines my tears were making, and how pained and heartbroken his face was.

"Read it." Dad demanded, nodding his chin at him, his voice low andcontrolled, laced with a kind of anger I hadn’t heard from him before.

Tristan held the phone in his hands as best he could, his handsshaking so bad that even I could see it. I watched with intent as his eyes flew from left to right, growing wider with each word he read.

It’s okay. I know, and it’s okay.

I said the words in my head over and over, as if saying them inthere loud enough would make him hear them.

His head fell forward as he finished reading, and I felt the tips ofmy fingers start to tingle, itching to move closer and pull him towards me, protecting him from what I knew was coming.

“Care to explain yourself?” Dad asked, crowding Tristan andsnatching his phone back off him.

My mom stepped forward. “James, just calm down.”

“No!” Dad snapped his head around, startling me, before he twisted back to Tristan. “Is this just what you do? Lure girls like my daughter and push all those bad habits on to her?”

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