Page 63 of Just Friends
“Are you serious right now?” I asked. “You’re seriously asking me if you can takemybest friend to the WAG party?”
“Yes!” He smiled. “Why not?”
I liked Niko but I didnotwant him anywhere near Piper. Or anyone else, for that matter.
“Idomind, actually,” I said. “No one is taking Piper to the WAG party. Not me, not you, and not anyone else. Okay? End of story.”
“Oh. Okay,” Niko said with a quick shrug.
To quell thefiery acid roiling in my stomach,I got beneath the bar and lifted the full seven hundred pounds off the rack. I braced my core and hit the bottom of my squat.
To get out of the box this time? I imagined Piper with some nameless, faceless guy—it didn’t have to be Niko, it just had to beanyrandom guy. I saw her body pressed up against his, I saw her mouth meet his and kiss him the same way she kissed me, I watched him slip the tiny strap of her dress off her shoulder—
“RAAAAAAAAAUGGH!” I roared, shooting up from my squat until I stood tall. I lurched forward and slammed the bar back onto the rack pins, and the gym quaked again.
“Day-umn, Big Rig,”someone muttered.
“Seven hundred pounds.”
“That’s a big boy squat.”
The boys gave me another round of ass pats and fist bumps as I left the rack and walked past them.
“I’m taking off early,” I said, headed for the exit, still fuming. “Have fun at the party. I’ll catch you guys after.”
16
Piper
With Jax out of the house, I set up shop in the living room. Ever since the day of the big promo, I’d spent a lot of time either out of the house or cooped up in my bedroom.
I hated that things between us were so awkward and weird. But what was I supposed to do? We’d made things weird.
The weirdness isn’t even Jax’s fault, although it’s so obvious he blames himself. Every time he looks at me, I can see the regret lurking in his somber eyes—and I can justseehim thinking that, of all the girls he’s kissed,I’mthe one he wishes never happened.
But most of the weirdness is all on myend. Because if Jax was trulyjusta friend to me and nothing more, it would be a lot easier for our friendship to hop over this little hurdle. I’m not saying there wouldn’t be an initial period of weirdness; surely, there would be. But we’d be able to forget it and move on because feelings wouldn’t be involved. In time, we’d even be able to laugh and crack jokes about it—
“Oh my god, remember that one time we kissed?”
“Ugh, yeah, that was kinda weird.”
“What the hell were we thinking?”
“Haha—we weren’t thinking! That was the whole problem!”
But no.
We couldn’t joke about it, because now I knew I had feelings for him.
The problem was, I couldn’ttellhim that, because it’d only make things even worse.
We’d reached an impasse. There was no way out. I liked Jax, but Jax didn’t like me the same way. Soulmate was averynice distraction from that fact for the past half-year—now it made so much sense why I threw myself into that project—but now Soulmate was over and done with, too.
Which meant I didn’t have a lot of options left.
With a sigh, I turned my attention to my laptop. I opened an old email, one from a month ago, one I never replied to.
Nate-bear,I thought, rolling my eyes when I saw his signature. It seemed so hokey that he still used pet names from a relationship that felt like it ended a lifetime ago.
