Page 108 of Zero Chance

“Shit.”I clenched my teeth and finally realized how brutal that must’ve sounded.Pressing a fist to the center of my chest, I muttered, “Dammit.I didn’t mean?—”

Face blanched white, she tried to squeeze past me, but I stepped into her path, stopping her.“Waverly,” I started in apology, reaching for her arm.

But she slapped me away.“Don’t.Don’t touch me.Don’t come near me.Don’t say another word.Just get out of my way.”

When a sudden waft of cold air swept over me, and a defined charge filled the air as if it had just been infused with static electricity, I hissed a curse under my breath and glanced around, almost expecting to see my enraged mother in the flesh.I could already tell she was not happy about Waverly slapping my hand back.

As Waverly blinked around in confusion, trying to figure out why everything suddenly felt different, I stepped closer to her.

“If you really thought it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, and I’d just sleep with anyone, there was no reason to keep me in the dark of who you were.So again, I ask… Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Get…out…of my way,” she ground out, refusing to look at me.

“Answer the question, and I will.I think I deserve that muchat least.You made me hook up with someone I didn’t agree to hook up with.Somepeople would call that a form of rape, you know.”

When she reared back as if I’d slapped her and then gaped up at me in absolute horror, I inwardly cursed.Her eyes dilated, and she swayed as if she might just pass out on me.

And I felt like a complete heel for it.

Unable to handle putting that kind of expression on her face, I relented, having mercy and adding, “I mean, I personally wouldn’t call it that in this situation since I was a willing participant in every possible way.Hell, I was begging for more by the end of it, but you stilllied.You fucking tricked me.I should get to know why.”

Waverly’s expression broke, and tears appeared in her eyes.“I—I—I’m sorry, okay?I didn’t mean to trick you.I just—it just happened.”

“I know it fucking happened,” I snapped, feeling panicked because of those damn tears.“I was there.I just want to knowwhy.”

“Because I don’t know how to do this,” she raged back helplessly, pushing at my chest once and then again when I didn’t step back enough the first time.“I don’t know how to talk to people.I don’t know how to speak up when I know I should.I don’t knowanything.I feel like there’s this secret club somewhere that teaches all the valuable lessons about how to socialize, and I just wasn’t invited.And do you want to know the real reason why I didn’t say anything?”

“Yes!”I cried bluntly.

“Because I already knew then that you didn’t want me.Okay?”Her voice shook and her shoulders quaked as she rubbed violently at her cheeks with both hands to dry them.“I am the only girl you’ve never flirted with or tried to hit on, the only girl you have no interest in at all.Iknewyou didn’t want me.I am an unremarkable no one that people just…don’t want.So why wouldyou?I knew I would’ve had zero chance with you if you realized it was me.”

I gaped at her, completely flabbergasted and not sure where to even begin with it.I mean, there was so much to dispute, and each point seemed equally important to argue until something else suddenly occurred to me.

My mouth dropped open, and I suddenly knew the reason why she’d been cold and bitter toward me for as long as we’d known each other.“Holy shit,” I breathed, struck dumb.“You have a thing for me.”And I had never reciprocated it.

I’d been breaking her heart for over a year.

“Oh my God,” she groaned in mortification.“Get out of my way.”

Again, she tried to push past me.

I blocked her with my body even as I lifted my hands to calm her down.“Just wait—” I tried, needing to—fuck.I had no idea what I needed.I just knew I couldn’t let her go.Not yet.Not like this.

But she screeched, “No!”And she shoved at me with all her might.“I said get out of my way.”

I stumbled backward, not expecting her to get so aggressive.But instead of catching my balance, I tripped over a chair and went sprawling onto my ass, my legs tangling with a piece of furniture and my back ramming ungracefully into a shelf of books.

“Oh my God!”Waverly gasped and leaped forward, her eyes widened with alarm.“Keene?”But she pulled to a halt when I blinked up at her, clearly okay.

Her mouth was still open as if the apology was frozen in her throat when I noticed what was happening behind her.

“Oh shit,” I breathed in doom.

“Waves—” I tried to warn her as I scrambled back to my feet, but it took me goddamn forever to untangle myself from the chair.So I bellowed, “Waverly!”with a hell of a lot more anxiety in my voice.

Finally, she gave a sudden shiver and slowly turned around to find herself at eye level with dozens of books sliding off the shelves and hovering threateningly in the air in front of her, all of them quivering with a righteous kind of anger.

A choked sound gurgled from her throat, but otherwise, she remained motionless.

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