Landon stopped in his tracks, tensed even harder, and looked over his shoulder, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t do that to you,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “You know that I wouldn’t, Imani. I lo …” He paused and apparently decided to change what he was about to say. “I wouldn’t.”
A wave of hurt washed over me, my stomach twisting into tight knots. I shouldn’t assume; that was what Landon had done the other day, and it put him into a world full of hurt. But seeing another girl’s name pop up on his phone, and he wouldn’t tell me how he knew her … that was a little suspicious.
I had told him who those guys on Discord were.
And I had also told him that I didn’t talk to any of them anymore.
Here Landon was, disappearing every day after school without an explanation and with a girl asking him when he was coming over. He was late to seeing her by, apparently, half a fucking hour.
“Then, who is she?” I whispered, aching for answers.
There was so much hurt in his eyes, so much pain. He glanced over at Kai and João, brows furrowing in agony. Then, he turned toward me and frowned. “I’ll tell you later.”
“After you fuck her?” I asked, the words slipping right out of my mouth.
As soon as they did, I slapped a hand over my mouth and glanced down at the gravel. It was wrong, so wrong, but I couldn’t help it. What if he was? He had been way too adamant about my messages. What if that was his way of trying to … trying to hide something himself?
“Imani,” Landon said tensely. “I’m not going to fuck her.”
“Go,” I snapped, pressing my trembling lips together. “Fucking go.”
“Imani …”
“You’re already late, Landon.”
“Imani, come on,” Landon said, stepping forward and grasping my arm. “She’s my cousin.”
“Your cousin?” I asked.
Maybe I was ticked off this week or so damn tired and moody because I had to study for hours on end to retake a test that these damn boys had made me fail the first time, but I didn’t quite believe him.
I needed some time to myself, needed to calm down, and definitely needed some sleep.
Right now, I knew I wouldn’t be able to think straight. I knew I’d get more and more annoyed the longer he stayed here, and I didn’t want to hurt him by saying something rude if he was telling the truth. His parents had already done so much shit to him; I didn’t want to be another source of pain.
“Go, Landon,” I whispered, tugging myself away. “We can talk later.”
Turning away from him, I pulled João’s car door open and slid into the passenger seat without his permission, staring at Landon’s departing figure through the tinted windows and biting my lip to hold back a whimper.
That man meant more to me than I had thought he did.
If Misty really wasn’t his cousin, I didn’t know what I’d do.