Page 361 of Releasing 10
“The fact that you’re bringing up how long we’ve known each other only attests to how few fucks you gave about our friendship.”
“Hughie, come on, lad…”
“You intentionally destroyed my four-year relationship with the girl I’ve been best friends with for almost as long as we’ve known each other.” I shook my head in disgust. “The girl yousawme with every day for the past decade. So save your excuses for someone gullible enough to believe them.”
“She’s not spotless in this, either,” he shot back in his pitiful attempt to throw Liz under the bus for all of it. “She was the one in the relationship, not me.”
“True,” I agreed in a level tone. “And because of that, she’s no longerinthat relationship.”
“I didn’t think she’d do it,” he finally admitted, getting to the heart of the truth. “She always seemed so obsessed with you. I was only half messing when I chanced my arm with her that night.”
And she was in the throes of mania.
“And you thought it would be somehow amusing to see if you could break us up?” I tossed back. “Or was it jealousy that got the better of you that night?”
“Probably both.”
My brows shot up. “Well, at least you’re anhonestdegenerate prick.”
“Yeah,” he muttered under his breath.
“Are we done here?” I asked then.
“Listen, I really think you should talk to her,” he had the nerve to request. “She was crying at Creano’s party, and she hasn’t shown up to school all week.”
“Christ.” I chuckled humorlessly. “You are something else, do ya know that?”
“She’s… There’s somethingwrongwith that girl,” he continued to blurt. “And I am really fucking out of my depth.” I could hear the concern in his tone as he ranted. “I think she’s having a breakdown or something over the guilt.”
The guilt.
“Bitten off more than you can chew, did ya?” I couldn’t resist taunting him. “Yeah, I thought that might happen.”
“Hughie, come on, lad, this isn’t easy for me, either,” he snapped. “Having to come to her ex for help.”
“I wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire, asshole,” I replied, toeing on my runners. “So you forget about me helping you.”
“Then help her,” he urged. “I know you love her.”
“You know I loveher,” I repeated, having heard just about all I could take. “You know Iloveher,” I roared, swinging around to glare at him. “If youknowI love her so much, then why the fuck would you, my friend since primary school, fuck her in my bed?”
“I already told you that I took it too far!”
“No,” I snarled, unwilling to let it go once he’d opened the door. “Taking it too far would’ve been kissing her!” My chest was heaving, and I wasn’t sure if I had the ability to not kill this prick. “What you did was taking it to another fucking planet!”
“I was drunk, Hughie,” he groaned, flinching. “I messed up. I’m holding my hands up to it.”
“And what’s your excuse every other time you’ve put your dick in her?” I demanded, seething. “Well? Have you been drunk for the past forty-eight days, too? Or are you going to use the jealousy card again? Or were you just fucking my girl because she’s vulnerable, and you’re a piece of shit!”
“I didn’t know she was this vulnerable.”
“Maybe, but you knew she wasmine.”
“Hughie, come on, lad.”
“What the fuck do you want from me?”
“Just go see her or something,” he muttered, rubbing his jaw. “Make sure she’s okay.”
