Page 8 of Still Bruised
“Did you get it?” Mia asked.
Jude didn’t answer her. He was breathing too hard, trying not to throw up. His hands shook against the steering wheel. Searching around as they left campus, he didn’t see half the football team coming for him, thankfully.
No, but theywouldcome the following day.
What am I going to do… what am I going to do?
That question repeated a hundred more times in his head as he careened through campus.
“Slow down,”Roan yelled as he sped down the street out front of the main building. A couple of freshmen jumped onto the sidewalk to avoid his car. “You’re gonna hit someone.”
There was no slowing down for him. He needed out of there. Once they were several miles away, Jude pulled over in the abandoned Waldbaum’s parking lot and stopped the car. His head fell back against the headrest, and he breathed deeply, trying to fill his burning lungs and stop shaking.
“What the fuck happened, Jude?” Mia asked.
“Rick caught me going through the lockers,” Jude replied once he’d calmed down a little. “I was able to get away before he beat the shit out of me.”
“What about the pot?” Mia asked.
“I didn’t get the fucking pot, Mia,” Jude snapped. “And don’t you ever ask me to hold for you again.”
“I’m sorry,”Mia murmured.
“If there was ever a time for pot, it’s now,” Anton mumbled from the backseat.
Jude glared at him in the rearview mirror.
“Just trying to lighten the mood,” Anton said. “Sorry.”
“We should’ve left and gone home,” Jude muttered. The kiss replayed in his mind. Again and again. If he hadn’t gone after the pot, he would’ve never gotten that kiss.
His first from a guy.
Ahotguy he’d dreamt of kissing a time or two.
Foster Fucking Price.
“Do you know how much I paid for that bag?” Mia asked him, anger in her tone.
“You got ripped off,” Paula said from the backseat. “There wasn’t much there to smoke.”
“Regardless,” Mia snapped, turning her glare on Paula before turning back to him. “It was mine, and I want it back.”
“Go ask Rick Harwood for it then,” Jude snapped. “I’m not chancing getting beaten to death for a bag of stems, Mia.”
Mia’s glare softened, and she leaned closer. She brushed his sweaty hair back before kissing his cheek. “It’ll be okay. I forgive you. I know you tried.”
No, itwouldn’tbe okay. Jude sensed Rick and his cronies were going to make his life an absolute hell until graduation.
Maybe I quit and get my GED.
Not like I’m going to college anyway. Dad wants me to take over the shop. I’m eighteen now. I can work for him full-time.
He looked over his shoulder at Anton. “Can you drive?”
“Sure,” Anton replied before opening the back door.
His head was too fucked up to drive. He’d had no business behind the wheel in the first place. In one afternoon, he’d destroyed his entire fucking life.
