Page 51 of We Thought We Were Invincible
He grabbed my hand as I stood and pulled me back to the couch. “Look, I'm sorry. Stay. Talk to me. You obviously drove all the way here for a reason.”
“I just needed to get out of Gulf City.”
“Bullshit. You came to see if I'd tell you what you're doing is a bad idea.”
“Maybe a little.”
“It is.”
I looked at him sharply. “What?”
“Jamie is not someone you need in your life. He has issues that he'll never get over, and if you let him in, he will only burn you from the inside out.”
Jay's eyes bore into me, unrelenting and stern.
I shrank away from his stare.
“What if he's already in?” I asked.
He shut his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, all hardness was gone. He reached for me and I curled up against his side. He didn't have an answer for my question. When I looked up at him, he seemed lost in thought.
“Are things really that bad between him and my dad?” he asked.
“Worse.”
Jay sighed. “I may not like that he's in your life, but I'm glad you're in his.”
Nothing else needed to be said as we settled in and he flipped on the TV. The news blinked on.
“You hear about this?” Jay asked. “Hurricane Anna is churning up the gulf.”
“Is it going to hit?” Hurricanes and tropical storm warnings weren't anything new to us.
“Does it ever really hit us?” He laughed. “We'll probably just get the rain.”
“Hmmm.” I leaned in toward the TV. It'd been a slow hurricane season, and they were rare in November even though the season didn't officially end until the last day of the month.
I glanced sideways at my best friend, remembering all the times we'd watched potential storms and then headed out to the beach - me to surf, him to watch the waves pick up.
Closing my eyes to still the panic in my chest at the thought of being out in the water, I opened them to find Jay watching me.
Jerk.
He knew me too damn well.
19
Jamie
It was late when I snuck down the hall and knocked on Callie's door.
“Cal?” I whispered. “You awake?”
“Well, if I hadn't been, I would be now.”
“Sorry.” I turned to go, not wanting to bother her.
“Wait,” she hissed. “Get your butt in here.”
