stepped back, and Mom didn’t waste time coming inside.
As soon as the door closed behind her, she gathered me in her arms like I was still a little girl, and I couldn’t hold on a second longer. Everything I’d been trying to keep locked away suddenly came flooding out of me, and I lost control. I crumpled and sobbed in her arms until my throat ached.
Somehow, we made it to the bed. My head was on her stomach as she stroked her fingers through my hair and just let me cry. It gave me a weird feeling of déjà vu, reminding me of when I’d taken care of Violet much like Mom was now taking care of me. Mom didn’t try to tell me everything was going to be okay, didn’t try to shush me. She just let me cry it all out, and because it had been months in building up, there was so much of it to release.
I’d been taking care of Violet for four months, locking away my own pain and heartache since that fucking party. But now, after having a taste of what could have been, and then being knocked on my ass yet again with something as little as a damn texted picture, I couldn’t hold it back anymore.
Hours passed, and I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, Mom was whispering to someone on the phone. “She’s asleep now… No, it’s fine. She’d just been holding on to this shit for months now, Ax. I don’t know what happened, and unless she wants to tell me, I’m not going to push. She’s entitled to a little privacy… We already said we weren’t going to put our noses in that. Cannon did enough damage with his petty bullshit.”
She must have sensed I was awake, because she started stroking her fingers through my hair again. “Well, just tell him to give her a little time. She’ll talk to him when she’s ready… You go back with them tomorrow. Shaw and I are going to stick around for another day or so. Do a little shopping, have some girl time.”
Fresh tears spilled from my eyes, and I pressed my face harder into her stomach to hide them.
My mother, she was a hard-ass at times, but fuck, she was the best mom in the world.
Chapter 18
Jagger
I knew before I even saw the angry red lipstick on the mirror that she was gone. I could feel her absence all the way down to my soul, as if the life had been sucked out of the room. But then I saw the words on the mirror and had to ball my hands into fists to keep from smashing the damn thing.
Spotting my phone on the makeup table, I grabbed it and opened my text messages. Seeing the picture that was still open, I swallowed a curse. For months now, I’d been getting texts from the girls at school. They were all seniors and apparently had been daring one another to send me nudes. Their game was to see who could tempt me into fucking them. The first one to do so was the winner.
It had started a few weeks after the party, once Gretchen told everyone she hadn’t hooked up with me when rumors had started floating around that she had. She’d shut them down, but it had gotten the girls wondering why I hadn’t fucked the easiest girl in our school.
I’d known Carmen since the fifth grade, and other than me texting her a few times in the past to get notes for a class I might have missed, we didn’t talk much. She was hot, I’d admit I’d always thought that. But I’d never felt anything for her, and I’d honestly thought she was smarter and more confident than to pull something like this. But now it looked like she was following every other idiot in our grade.
I’d thought the game was stupid but kind of funny. Because there was no way any of them was going to win. I wasn’t interested in anyone but Shaw.
After deleting the picture, I tried to call Shaw. I had to explain and hoped she would listen. Before I’d left her earlier, I’d seen something on her beautiful face and thought she was going to put us both out of our misery. Maybe she would put her fears aside and let me show her how good it could be between us.
Now, unless she gave me a chance to explain