Page 6 of Heart of Stone
“Jeez, you even look like a damn princess when you wake up,” I complained as I pulled up the blanket and crawled in next to her. “You probably don’t even get morning breath.” I laid my head on the pillow and faced her. “Never mind. I guess you’re not completely immortal.”
Jade laughed. “What’s wrong? You look upset.”
“Yep, shit has been blowing through a very large fan since last night.” I turned and looked back at Colt who was hovering over the bed with his brooding green stare and messy black hair. I stared pointedly at him. He knew me well enough to know that I was telling him to bug off but he stayed. “Uh, pretty boy, isn’t there something you can do? Like polish up those tattoos or brush out those ridiculous eyelashes?” I asked.
“Normally, two hot girls stretched out in my bed would make my pulse race, but since one of the girls is you, Street,I think I’ll just go out and tend to those eyelashes, like you suggested. The tattoos are already so fucking awesome they don’t need polish.” With that, he turned and headed to the door.
“By the way, Slade is taking Hunter to the hospital this morning.”
Colt turned back around. “Why?”
“He tried to crawl into my window, and my mom thought he was an alien. She smacked him on the head with a vase.” I heard Jade gasp behind me. “He was a little unsteady and he’s going to need stitches, but I’m sure the blow to his head didn’t make him any stupider than he already was.”
Colt stared at me for a second. “O.K. then, I’ll just head out of here so you two can talk. I’m getting some strong anti-Stone vibes in here.”
“Good idea.” I lifted my arm and waved him out.
I flipped back over to face Jade, and my real emotions poured out. “I’m done, Jade. I can’t be around Hunter anymore. I can’t just be there when he needs me in bed. Every time I’m with him, I leave a little piece of my heart, of myself, behind. Pretty soon there just won’t be anything left. Nothing is going to break through that stubborn pig-ass barrier of his.” A sob rolled from my mouth. Jade pressed her hand against my arm.
I sniffled and swiped away a tear. “He fucks every girl he meets and then glowers at every man who comes within ten feet of me. It’s not fair.”
“I totally agree, Amy. It’s not. Have you let him know that you’re done with this arrangement?”
“I have. Last night he caught me at a vulnerable moment.” I stopped and took a deep breath. “My mom was taping shut the kitchen cupboards so the aliens wouldn’t get inside.”
Jade’s blue eyes glossed with sympathy. I hated being pitied. I loathed it, in fact. My life had always been hard but being pitied was the one thing that made it worse. Only, for some reason, when it came from Jade, I didn’t mind. It made me feel better. She’d lived a nightmarish life too. She knew what hopelessness felt like. She understood. “That would have anyone feeling blue, Amy. What are her doctors saying?”
I shrugged. “They think she needs to go into a hospital. But I can’t do that. That would be the end of her.” My throat tightened. “I’d be alone.”
Jade opened her mouth to speak, but I shook my head without lifting it from the pillow. “I know you’re going to tell me that I have all of you. I know I do, and having you as my best friend has been the best thing to happen to me since—” I thought about how to end the sentence. “Shit, since forever, I guess. But my mom is the only family I have left. Most of the time she’s nuttier than an ice cream sundae, but occasionally, she still drifts back into reality, you know? The other day, we decided to pig out and we made this crazy ass thing I’d found on the internet. It was a frying pan filled with chocolate chips and marshmallows and we dipped graham crackers in it. We sat and watched this old scary movie. Damn are those black and white movies corny. But we laughed and shoveled marshmallow and chocolate into our mouths and watched the stupid movie. It was only an hour or so later when she started pacing the hall with a flashlight because she was sure she saw astrange, red bug climb up the wall. But for that short span of time, with the corny movie and the marshmallows, I was sitting with my mom again. My family.”
Jade reached over and placed her hand on my face. “You do what you think is right by your mom, Amy. It’s no one else’s business but yours.”
I leaned over and hugged her. “I knew you’d understand. That’s why I had to climb in the car and drive over here. Plus, it’s always fun to irritate Colt. It’s sort of a hobby of mine.”
She smiled. “I noticed. And you do a good job of it.” We sat up and scooted back against the wall. “So, what really happened with Hunter?”
I pulled my legs out from under the blanket and crossed them at the ankles. “We were messing around, and I found a pair of panties in his pocket with some girl’s phone number written on the crotch.”
“Yuck.”
“Yeah, I know. Anyhow, that was it. I just got dressed.” I smiled thinking about how I’d left him. “He’d given me some really hot oral sex first, so I was done anyhow. Poor guy was sporting a big ole woody when I walked out on him.”
She laughed. “I guess that’s the last time he’ll make sure to satisfy you first.”
“I might have scarred him for life. He might never go down on a girl again.” We broke into wild peals of laughter. I pressed my arm against my stomach to stop it from hurting. “Oh my gosh, I broke Hunter Stone.”
Jade pulled in a deep breath. Her face was red fromlaughing. I put my arm around her shoulder. “I’m so glad I came by. I already feel way better. I sure hope the big moose’s head is alright. He was really gushing blood, and he was swaying on his feet. Thought I was going to have to yelltimber.” Another laugh spurted from my lips, but this one fell far short of the laughing fit we’d just recovered from. I leaned my head back against the wall and turned my face toward Jade. “Tell me what to do.”
“That all depends on what your final goal is.”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you really done with Hunter, or do you want to make him so nuts with missing you, he realizes he can’t live without you?”
It was a good and completely logical question, but I had no good or logical answer. Deep in my heart, I’d always seen myself with Hunter, but he’d made it clear that we were never really going to be together. “I don’t know, Jade. When I picture myself without him, it’s almost as if a part of me will just wilt into nothing and die. But then there’s another part of me that says I’ve already wasted too much time waiting for him to come around. I want what you have with Colt. I want to know that Hunter would be lost without me. I want him to wake up thinking about me and go to sleep thinking about me just like I do about him. I want him to feel that same tug in his chest that I feel in mine every time he looks at me. But I’ve been fooling myself. Hunter doesn’t feel the same about me as I do about him. I’m wasting my time.”
“I’m not pretending to know Hunter better than you, but maybe, since I see him from outside of the odd little circle you two have built around you, I see him in a different light.There are times when you’re in the room and you’re busy talking to someone else, even just Colt or Slade, and Hunter doesn’t take his eyes off of you.” She rotated on her bottom and faced me. “No other guy will get near you because they know Hunter won’t like it. That has to count for something. Yeah, it’s a thickheaded, cocksure way of showing love, but it might be the only way he knows how. Let’s face it, these guys probably never heard a nice word or sentiment of love the entire time they were growing up. Hunter cares for you. You have to know that.”
