The Backup Girlfriend (Grove Valley High #2) - Emma Doherty Page 0,26
be tough for me too.”
I snort in disbelief. It wouldn’t be the same for him. That was always the problem. He never felt the same way about me, and I spent years picking fights with him trying to get him to prove he did care about me. It wasn’t fair to either of us.
“I was a dick too,” he tells me quietly.
My eyes find his at this, and he’s staring back at me intently.
“I shouldn’t have treated you the way I did. It wasn’t fair of me to keep dating you when I was interested in someone else.”
“I didn’t exactly have a gun to my head, Chase.” I let out a long sigh, looking past him. I might as well be honest at this point. “You couldn’t have kept me away.”
“I’m really sorry, Abbie. Hearing you on the phone today with Dan Summers…all those guys who were interested in you, and you turned them down because of me.”
I bite my lip, close to tears. “It doesn’t matter.”
He’s staring at me intently, in that way he does when he’s really thinking about something. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I bet there were so many guys into you, and I just kept leading you on and coming back.”
“Chase—”
“I should have been honest with you.”
“I’d do it all over again.” And that’s the truth. I would have kept going back again and again just to try, just to try to get him to feel half of what I felt for him.
“I’m sorry.”
I shake my head, snapping out of it. It’s old news now. “Honestly, Chase, forget it.”
“You know you’re one of my best friends, right?”
I roll my eyes. “Oh, come on, don’t be pulling out that crap. We already broke up a million times. We don’t need to be having this conversation when we haven’t been together in months.”
He laughs and glances away before turning back to me.
“I mean it. You’re one of my best friends.”
“Am I?”
“You know you are.”
“Really?” And then I tell him what I really think, something I’ve been trying to bury because I’ve been trying to pretend it doesn’t hurt. “Because this is the first time we’ve had a real conversation in weeks.”
He goes to say something then snaps his mouth shut, pressing his lips together as he surveys me. Eventually… “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing. It’s fine. I know you’re all in love and shit.”
“I know, but you’re still my friend.”
“So you said.”
He doesn’t say anything else for a couple of minutes while I stare down at the ground. How weird that it’s come to this. He’s the person who has meant the most to me in the whole world, and now we don’t even know what to say to each other.
“What are you doing now?”
I look up at him. “Now?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know, I was going to just go home I guess.”
“Let’s go to Ferguson’s,” he suggests.
“Right now?”
“Why not? Just me and you. Let’s catch up for real.”
“Won’t Livy mind?”
He shakes his head. “Of course not.”
“I don’t know.”
“Oh, come on, Abbie. Let me buy you a Caesar salad and a banana milkshake to make up for being such a shitty boyfriend for all those years.”
I snort. “It’ll take more than that.” But I’m smiling despite myself, because he does know me. He knows the only thing I’ll order from Ferguson’s is the Caesar salad with a banana milkshake.
“I’ll throw in the chocolate brownie.”
I start to laugh, because despite everything we’ve been through, I still like him—not even romantically, but as a friend. He’s a really nice guy, and he’s a friend. And right now, I need that.
“Okay.”
He grins in triumph then starts walking over to his own car, calling over his shoulder that he’ll meet me there.
I hit the electronic button on my keys, throwing my bag into my car before I lift my leg to step in.
“Abigail!” he shouts.
I stop, looking around to see Chase standing halfway between me and his car, his attention on me, not caring that there are kids milling around on their way out of school who will listen to everything he says.
“What?”
“Just for the record, if you had hooked up with Aaron or Brendon on Saturday, I would have been pissed.”
I can’t help it—a wide grins spreads across my face at those words. “Yeah?”
He pulls a face. “Hell yes. My ex-girlfriend with my best friends? I would have kicked their asses.”
I chuckle as he winks at me before continuing on to his car, completely oblivious, or just not caring about the people watching us,