Page 12 of Little Devil

“But it’s not what you thin–”

“Shut the fuck up!” I shout, effectively shocking him into silence. “Jesus, Noah, what the hell is the matter with you? You said you’d find me later, remember? How many times have you fucked my best friend and left her here just to come back and fuck me an hour later?”

He scrubs a hand over his mouth and moves forward like he’s about to touch me, frowning in confusion when I take a step back to get away from him.

“No.”

“What?”

“Don’t come near me.”

“JJ..”

Silent tears spill over my cheeks and I curse myself for crying in front of him, but they’re not sad tears. They’re tears of anger and betrayal and..

Jesus, is that relief?

That crushing weight I’ve been carrying around for months now finally eases up some and I release the breath I’ve been holding, dipping my head as discreetly as I can to wipe my eyes with my fingers.

“Damn it, JJ, please don’t get upset.”

“I’m not upset, Noah,” I say quietly, backing up towards the door with my hands raised. “I’m just done.”

“What do you mean, you’re done?”

“I mean I’m done,” I repeat, unsure how I can make this any clearer for him. “We’re done.”

“JJ, wait–”

But I don’t wait.

Instead I turn around and head back downstairs, not missing the way almost every person I pass has their phone in their hand and their eyes on me.

Word got out fast, it seems.

I pretend they don’t exist and grab my car keys from the kitchen, inwardly rolling my eyes when I spot Sienna comforting Penelope while she cries into her hands in the corner. Noah’s raised voice rings out from somewhere behind me and I slip out through the front door, freezing where I stand when I run right into Xander Reid on the front steps.

Shit.

He cocks his head at me and inhales a hit of his cigarette, casually craning his neck to get a look at the commotion behind me. “What are you running fro–”

“I spoke my words,” I blurt out, immediately feeling stupid for saying it when he was probably just messing with me, but he doesn’t make me feel stupid.

His brows jump in surprise and he bounces his eyes between mine, searching for I don’t know what, then he runs his thumb over his lip to hide a grin and steps aside to move out of the way. I blow out a breath and make a beeline for my car, quickly tossing my heels over to the passenger seat before I jump inside. I hit the gas and drive down to the beach a couple miles away, pulling up at the back of the empty parking lot to grab my camera bag from the glove compartment. Leaving my heels behind, I walk down to the shoreline and take out my Nikon, carefully twisting the lens to zoom in on the stars in the distance.

Like I said.. beautiful.

5

Xander

She’s fucking amazing.

A pretty little princess who drives a pristine white Tesla to match her disgustingly pristine life, but still amazing all the same.

I didn’t think she’d actually do it, didn’t think she’d have the nerve to stand up to that douchebag boyfriend of hers and the girl she calls a best friend, but here we are.

She fucking did it.

---