Page 40 of Forever Yours

And I was angry. But more than that, I was hurt, and it was my own damn fault. I knew full well Julien’s feelings toward Liz when we started dating. I told him it didn’t matter.

Because I wanted him.

Was in love with him.

I’d take any scrap of him he’d give me.

Since the tensely silent ride back to the guys’ condo, I kept going over what happened with Trish. How Julien and Jayson lost it when they saw her, thinking she was Liz. A fifteen-year-old girl who shouldn’t have been there to begin with. With as drunk as everyone was at the party, who knew what could’ve happened.

The front door to the condo slowly swung open, and Fallon stepped out onto the landing.

“You coming back in? Jules is about to climb the walls.”

“In a minute,” I mumbled. “Jay passed out yet?”

A typical evening. Same old, same old. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Taking a seat next to me on the top step of the stairwell that led to the second story, Fallon pulled out a stick of gum, unwrapped it, and folded it into his mouth.

“He’s in the living room with Ry and Jules, waiting for you. Just heard from Blaine. Trish got home alright.”

I snorted. Not at what he said, but at the name. Blaine. Like a bad John Hughes film.

“Good.”

He’d had a frat brother take Trish home, then proceeded to find and give a beatdown to the pledge whose job it was to monitor the front door and card people coming into the party to make sure they were ‘legal.’ If they drove, their keys were taken and placed in a basket to ensure no one left the party drunk and got behind the wheel. Seeing as no one checked me or the guys when we got to the party around eight thirty, that must’ve been when Trish got in.

“How’s your hand?”

Fallon held up his fist. His middle knuckles were red and scabbed over.

“Fine.”

Fallon rarely got into fights anymore, but the dark beast that paced restlessly inside him, waiting to break free, was still there, lurking in the shadows.

Headlights of a car slashed a path through the parking lot as it turned and parked in one of the empty spaces in front of the building. I watched two girls get out of the small Honda, their laughter reaching my ears from two stories below. For some reason, it made me miss Jessi.

“Can I pose a hypothetical to you and get an honest answer?” I asked him.

His head cocked to the side, and those ice-blue eyes scrutinized me for a long beat.

“Depends on the question.”

“If Liz came back right now, what would you do?”

He ran a hand up his face and through his blond hair, then breathed out a long, drawn-out exhale of air. “Not a damn thing.”

“Why not?”

He’d wanted her for as long as I could remember, but he never made a move. Never approached her or spoke to her. It was weird. The guy was rich, gorgeous, had girls crawling all over him wanting his attention, but it was Liz he pined for. She was a modern-day Helen of Troy. A woman whose face seduced men and started wars.

“Because I’m no good for her. She deserves to be with someone like Ry.”

“What about Jayson?”

Fallon snapped, “Fuck that asshat. He never deserved her.”

“And Julien?”

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