Page 294 of Falling Backwards
We stop walking as the guy approaches us.Since he’s older now, he looks a little different from the last time I saw him, but I do remember him.In my memory, I see eleventh-grade Luke hanging out with him at school…see them standing together and talking about Luke dating me because he lost that bet.
“I don’t wanna talk to you, Jayden,” Luke says presently.
“Well,Iwanna talk toyou.You’ve been ignoring my texts since that night we met up.”Jayden gestures at Merritt’s.“I think you owe me an apology for acting like an asshole.I’m yourbest friend.You don’t treat best friends like—”
“We’re not best friends anymore.We’re not friends at all.”
Holding my breath, I glance at Luke’s stony expression, then at Jayden’s surprised one.
And Jayden turns his stare from Luke to me, over which my stomach seems to drop even more.I try to control my exhalation.
Does he recognize me?
The wide, unsettling way he smiles makes me think he does.
No.Please leave me alone.
“Oh, man,” he says.He looks between me and Luke.“Am I imagining things or is this the girl we fucked with in high school?The one you were all defensive of the other day?”His mouth falls open and he laughs.“Is she the girlfriend you have now?Is that why you care so much about whether I feel guilty for what we did?”
Luke’s tone shifts into snappiness.“Yes, we’re together, and I felt bad about that shit even before we were.I felt bad about it as it was happening.She knows that.You, though?You wanna talk about someone owing an apology?You owe one to her.”
Jayden rolls his eyes out of his laughing.“No, I don’t.”He looks at me, holding up his hands.“It was a harmless prank or game or whatever you wanna call it, and—”
“It was notharmless.” Luke’s voice is rising, and as much as I want to tell him this guy isn’t worth him getting pissed about, something about it happening is comforting to me.“It’s bullshit that you don’t have a shred of empathy, Jayden.How do youstillnot feel bad?”
“Because I didn’t do anything to feel bad about.I was just having fun watching you pay for losing the bet.I told you that the other day.”
While Luke scoffs, Jayden crosses his arms and looks at me.I can see tension returning to him.
“And you must’ve been desperate for companionship if you took him back after such ahuge deal,” he says to me.“Or maybehewas desperate.I mean, you lookbetter,but if you ask me, you’re still not….”As he glances over me, he shakes his head slowly and disapprovingly.
My face burns.I’m torn between humiliation and standing the inner ground I’ve been building up lately.
“No oneisasking you,” Luke is informing him.“Now apologize to her for that and for high school.”
“No,” Jayden draws out.“I’m not sorry and I’m not gonna say I am.I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Luke’s laugh is utterly empty of amusement.
“Wow,” he says.“No wonder you’ve had to cheat your way through your higher education.You’re an absolute fucking moron.”
Jayden rushes at him.I gasp—Luke pulls his arm from mine just before he gets pushed a couple steps backwards.
Fury crashes through me, the breaking of a tidal wave I hadn’t noticed was rising.
I grab Jayden’s shoulder to try to peel him out of his continuing advance.“Get off of him!”I demand.
His elbow hits me hard and sends me stumbling with a yelp.I grab the instantly-tender place near my own shoulder, and I vaguely hear Jayden call me a bitch—
—before he grunts from Luke’s fist colliding with his face.
L U K E
I hear a sharp breath from Maggie and the fast, heavy beating of my heart in my ears as Jayden staggers, cradling the side of his jaw.The pinch of shocked pain on his face is a welcome sight, because how dare he put his hands on me?How dare he hurt her?
Shoulders tight and fists tighter, I glance at my girl standing aside.She’s holding the soft place at the front of her shoulder, where he elbowed her.
My blood boils hotter.
