Heartbreak Lover (Broken Hearts Academy #2) - C.R. Jane Page 0,7
less obvious I just didn’t want him to touch me.
“Does what sound good?” I asked, blushing as Lane and Landry both frowned at the fact that I hadn’t been paying attention.
“The hockey team’s having a party after the championship game whether we win or lose. I told you about this,” Landry answered, frustration leaking into his voice.
I studied him, admiring the way his shirt fit tightly across his broad shoulders and chest. I tried to will myself to feel more, to be healthy mentally for once in my life.
It was a losing battle.
“That sounds great,” I told him, even though the prospect of going to a school party gave me hives. Things may have been quiet, but I was still wary of any school functions. They hadn’t exactly been good experiences for me.
Landry checked his watch. “Shit, five minutes to the bell and my class is across campus.” He grabbed my face suddenly, leveling me with a passionate kiss that should have knocked my socks off or had me dragging him to the nearest supply closet.
Instead, I felt nothing.
“Bye,” I told him half-heartedly, wondering how long I could keep this up.
“See you after class, sweetheart.” He strode off to class, garnering stares from both guys and girls alike as he went.
“What is wrong with you, woman?” Lane hissed as soon as he was out of earshot.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about the fact that you have that boy absolutely tied up in knots, and I get the feeling you couldn’t care less.”
I sighed as we began to walk to the building that housed my next class with Professor Brady, a class that Jackson had evidently transferred out of, since I hadn’t seen him. “Is it that obvious?”
“Evidently not, since he’s gone for you. But hell, you could at least smile at the guy. You could do far worse.”
What if the guy who was far worse was what I craved with every cell of my being? What was I supposed to do then?
Lane grabbed my shoulder and stopped me. “Look, I know you’ve held out on me with what happened with Jackson—”
I opened my mouth to deny, deny, deny, but she wasn’t having it.
She shook her head. “I’m not an idiot. There were literal sparks shooting between the two of you, even if you were across the green from each other. You were insane there for a couple of months…and then all of a sudden, he’s a ghost on campus and you start to act totally different.” She sniffed. “I understand why you didn’t tell me at first, but your refusal to still talk about it is a little hurtful.”
I was sick with shame. Lane had been nothing but a loyal, ride-or-die friend since I’d met her, even when the easier path would have been to shun me like Melanie and her cohorts.
The bell sounded from the building in front of us. Hopefully, Professor Brady would take it easy on me since this would be my first tardy. The professors here were a little nuts about timeliness…as Lane had warned me that first day.
I brushed hair out of my face as I turned to face Lane. “Everyone that I’ve ever cared about in my life has let me down, Lane. And not just let me down, but demolished me into a million pieces along the way. I don’t know how to trust anymore. I think it’s been erased from my DNA.”
Lane’s lower lip trembled in something that unfortunately looked a lot like pity. But then she surprised me by hooking her arm with mine and dragging me off to my building. “Oh, lady, we’ll work on your trust issues, and soon enough, you’ll be telling me just how big Jackson’s dick really is.”
A laugh barked out of me, and she hooted. “I knew it! You have slept with him.”
I didn’t confirm or deny, and she stomped her foot. “I’ll get it out of you one way or another. My dad once wrote a book all about certain torture methods they use in the CIA, so I know things.”
She was like a little chihuahua, and I threw back my head and laughed, garnering an unimpressed look from Professor Brady through the open door of his class that we were standing in front of.
She rolled her eyes and pushed me towards the door, and I blew her a kiss.
Maybe despite everything, there were still people to trust in the world.