near, you know, the usual shit when it came to Archer Vega. “He invited me to a party on Friday.”
Bobbi blinked, and I could tell by her expression that she hadn’t expected that. I mean, a few hours ago, neither had I, so join the club. “He did? Wow. He must really not have liked Brittany.”
I wanted to laugh, but I had enough sense in me to keep it down. It would seem Archer and Brittany’s relationship was never real, but that didn’t change what he’d done, what he’d tried to hide from me. He’d lied, he’d hurt me, and there was no forgiving that so easily.
I might want to jump his bones, but that did not mean I forgave him. Two very different things.
“We’ll see how it goes,” I said.
“Wait. So you’re going?” Bobbi sounded aghast, like she wanted to grab my shoulders and shake some sense into me. “Are you sure that’s a good idea, considering everything that’s happened lately?” Her nose scrunched. “Don’t you think that’s, like, asking for trouble?”
It probably was, but when did I ever stop and let something like that dictate what I did and didn’t do? Not ever. Would it be smart to stop and think things over? Probably. But again, that wasn’t going to stop me.
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” I said. I knew I shouldn’t be so giddy about seeing Archer after school hours on Friday—seeing that boy outside of school never ended well before, but I wanted to believe that things could be different. That this time, everything would be fine. No more lies. No more hiding anything from each other. No more secrets.
And, best of all? No more Brittany—assuming no more pieces of her ended up in my locker.
Chapter Thirteen – Jacob
As far as bad ideas went, this was a really bad one. Even after speaking to Oliver, after telling him that Jaz had to work on some project at the library—and I would be there to oversee her, make sure nothing happened to her—I wanted to take it all back, to not go where I wanted to take her after school.
I didn’t like lying to the man I was working for, but I needed to. Today was…not a normal day, by any means. I’d officially emailed Mr. Anonymous and told him that I’d been hired on a continuous case that needed my full, undivided attention, and I hadn’t gotten any response, which I thought odd. Usually he was quick to respond, almost like he was constantly waiting for my updates on Jaz.
That was something I should’ve done a while back, when Jaz and I first crossed the line with each other. I never should’ve kept working for him while seeing her in an unprofessional capacity. It just wasn’t right, and I knew if Jaz ever found out, she’d be furious—and rightly so.
No, just like I needed to cut ties with Mr. Anonymous, I had to tell Jaz the truth. I had to show her I wasn’t so different from the other psychos she kept company with. She’d always told me I was a better man than I thought I was, but that was because she didn’t know the truth about me.
And the truth? It was ugly. As ugly as the scar wrapping around my abdomen.
I sat in the back of the parking lot near the school, Dante’s motorcycle beside me. I absentmindedly stared at it through the window, frowning to myself as I wondered just where the hell he’d come from. He had ties to her, that much I knew, but as far as my searches were concerned, Dante Storm didn’t exist.
I shouldn’t let myself worry about anyone else when this afternoon was about me telling her the truth. It’d take a few hours, but it was necessary. Jaz had to know. She had to know everything. I just hoped that she wouldn’t turn her back to me, want to get rid of me. It might be a wussy thing to admit, but I didn’t know if I could handle it. I’d spent so long trying to convince myself nothing was between Jaz and me—that nothing could ever develop between us—that I’d fallen for the girl without realizing it.
My slip-up before wasn’t a slip-up. I did love that girl.
Ugh. Fuck.
I loved an eighteen-year-old girl who was still in high school, an eighteen-year-old girl who had other fucking boyfriends. What kind of cosmic joke was this? Every part of that should make me want to turn