The Backup Girlfriend (Grove Valley High #2) - Emma Doherty Page 0,104
minutes. I need to calm down and process this.
Whoever is at the door completely ignores my request, and I hear it open.
“Abigail.”
I turn my head at the sound of Brett’s voice. “Go away.”
He does the complete opposite of going away by stepping into the room and closing the door behind him.
“I said go away. I don’t want to talk to you.”
“No chance. Do you know the sights I saw looking for you in all these bedrooms?”
It takes a couple of seconds for me to process what he means.
Ewww. It’s not even six PM yet.
I reluctantly sit up on my bed, crossing my legs as he walks toward me, stopping just in front of me.
“Look, Abigail, about what I said before…”
“Forget it,” I snap. “I don’t want to hear it. It’s pretty clear what you think about me.”
“That’s not what—”
“I don’t. want. to. hear. it.”
“Well you’re gonna.”
“Go away.”
“Would you just shut up for a second?”
“You know you have some nerve coming into my house, into my bedroom, and telling me to shut up.”
“Ugh, you are so frustrating, do you know that? You have got to be the most annoying girl on the whole planet.”
“How charming of you.”
“Would you just—”
“Shut up? You want me to shut up in my own room?”
“I’m sorry!”
That shuts me up.
“I’m trying to tell you I’m sorry about what I just said to you.”
His eyes lock with mine, and I can’t look away.
“I’m really, really sorry. I know you, and I know you wouldn’t try to pull anything shady on Livy Chapman. You’re not that kind of person.”
You’re not that kind of person.
Does he really mean that?
“Then why did you say it?”
He shrugs.
“Because I really am happy for Chase and Livy now. They make sense, and I know that.”
He’s watching me carefully, not moving.
“And even if I wanted to get back with Chase, which I definitely don’t, I know it wouldn’t happen. He’s in love with her, and look at her—she’s beautiful. Like I’d even stand a chance.”
“Don’t do that,” he snaps back instantly. “You always do that. You’re more than a match for any girl in this school.”
My body stills as he takes a step closer to the bed.
“I didn’t like it…seeing you talking to your ex, him hugging you. I didn’t like it.”
My breath hitches.
“Just like by the end, I didn’t like it when you went out on those dates with Dan Summers.”
What is going on?
“Just like I don’t like it when I see any of the guys who walk past you checking you out.”
Oh my god.
“Just like I hate it when people have an opinion about you when they have no idea what you’re actually like.”
“What? What—”
“I was jealous downstairs. That’s why I was a dick to you.”
My breathing is getting heavier.
“I get jealous when I think about you with another guy, and I get even more out-of-my-mind jealous when I see you with another guy, even just as a friend.”
“But you like Sasha.”
“So you keep telling me,” he says with a small smirk. “I feel like it’s all you tell me these days.”
“You don’t like Sasha?”
He shrugs. “She’s cool. Seems like she’d be a great friend to have.”
Friend…he wants to be her friend?
He grins at me. “Just to go back, when I say jealous, I don’t mean in a possessive, controlling way. I just want to establish that.”
“In what way then?”
His eyes hold mine, and he steps right up to the bed so he’s within arm’s reach. “In an ‘I need to tell her how I feel’ way, so you can make up your mind and I don’t have to feel stupid jealous all the time.”
I feel like I’m going to cry. I can’t believe he’s saying these things to me.
“But at the beach the other day…you didn’t want to…you didn’t care.”
“I messed up. I didn’t know how you felt about me, and I didn’t want to push you when you had so much going on. But I know how it looked to you, and I wish more than anything I’d just had the guts to kiss you.”
I feel like my whole body is on fire from the way he’s looking at me. He did want to kiss me after all?
“Abigail, ask me how I feel about you.”
I shake my head. I can’t. I really can’t.
I can’t handle it if he’s going to reject me, even after everything he’s just said. I can’t cope with that.