Kiss and Break Up - Ella Fields Page 0,59

a loser. It made me laugh too.

I set the photos back inside the box, then dragged my fingers over my damp cheeks.

He’d always been there, no matter which rumor had spread, or who had tried to mess with me. Always.

Except for now.

Everything had changed now, and it was all my fault.

Anger flared in my heart for the way he’d so easily shut me out and for the way I’d accidentally thrown us away. I knocked the box off the bed, watching as the photos spilled out, scattering over the rug and wooden floor.

Peggy

To say school felt foreign without Dash’s brooding presence would be an understatement.

The halls felt smaller, the floor lacking its usual sheen, and I could hardly stand to look at Lars, Jackson, and Raven.

I wanted so badly to ask them how he was, if he still hated me, and if I could maybe use their phones to call him. Perhaps his wasn’t always off. Perhaps he wasn’t not online. Perhaps he was simply avoiding me.

The words that’d scraped over his tongue and flew through the air to slam me in the very core of who I was couldn’t be erased. Neither could what I’d done. He hadn’t even given me a chance to explain, but he wasn’t Willa or Daphne. He wouldn’t rationalize it the way they had.

He might have been my best friend but not in the same way. He wouldn’t understand.

Not when he’d told me he’d fallen for me just hours before I’d broken his heart.

Kayla twiddled her fingers at me, then mouthed the word, “Whore.”

“Jesus,” I breathed, dragging my eyes away from the pleased look on her pretty face.

“Ignore it, Peggy,” Willa said.

I tore a bite out of my sandwich, tasting nothing as I chomped, then forced it down with some water. “It’s not fair,” I said, my head aching as the chatter and laughter pummeled me. “He gets to continue as if he hasn’t been a complete asshole, and I have to just take it?”

Daphne threw a look over her shoulder to where some of the guys on the lacrosse team were sitting in the back corner of the cafeteria. “I know, but at least he looks like a squashed grape.”

Byron didn’t look too good. His eyes were still swollen, as was half his face, but he tried to smile it away as if it was nothing.

When his eyes met mine, he stared for a half minute, then looked back at his friends.

“That’s it,” I said, standing. “Fuck this.”

“Whoa,” Daphne said, following me as I forced my shaking legs to their table.

It was mere meters away, yet it felt like I was walking a mile as every eye watched my approach.

I squared my shoulders. “A word, Byron?”

A few guys laughed, trying to hide it by ducking their heads. Byron took his time giving me his attention, and I almost flinched at all the multi-colored bruising up close. “You finally breaking up with me?”

I withheld a shocked laugh. “Just follow me.”

I didn’t know if he would, but as I neared an empty table in the opposite corner and Daphne returned to her seat at ours, I felt his gaze on my back.

I only bothered sitting because everyone was already paying us enough attention. Standing would only make us more of a spectacle, potentially attracting Mr. Andrews’ attention.

Byron sighed as he sat with his legs facing away from the table as though he was ready to bail. “So what’s up?”

“What’s up?” I repeated.

He tipped a shoulder. “Figured this was coming, so let’s just get it over with.”

“You figured?” I didn’t think I’d ever felt so angry, so quickly in my entire life. Not even the time Dash hosted a sleepover at his place in seventh grade compared. When he’d told everyone I had head lice so I couldn’t play spin the bottle. Nothing compared to the boiling tensing of every limb as I stared at Byron’s nonchalant expression. Well, as nonchalant as one could appear with half their face bruised to hell. “If you thought you needed a formal breakup after all this, you’re not just a spineless dick, you’re a clueless one too.”

He rubbed his lips together, staring down at the table. “That it?”

“No,” I said, leaning forward and hissing through my teeth. “That’s not fucking it. What gave you the right to think you could betray me like this and figure I’d just be okay with it?”

My chest was heaving, and he had the audacity to glimpse at it before meeting my eyes. “So