his arm and pull him toward me. “You should sober up, and then we can talk.”
Nixon pulls his hand out of mine with such force that I stumble back.
“There is nothing to talk about. And I’m just fine where I am.” He throws his hand over Karen’s shoulders. “You said it yourself, we were a one-time thing. Now it’s time for you to move on.”
If he wanted to hurt me, he found the perfect way to do it. I move back like he slapped me. Karen’s hand lands possessively over his pec, but I refuse to look at her. “You don’t mean it.”
He isn’t a one-woman man.
I can’t do this.
“We had fun, but now that fun is over.” He looks at me and then takes a pull from the bottle. The lips that were kissing me not even a couple of weeks ago, now touching something another girl touched.
Why does it feel worse than if he’d kissed her?
“You should know better than to fall for a player.” His eyes are hard, and there is this glint in them, almost maniacal. The one that reminds me of the guy I used to know. The one who accused me of sleeping around to get my way.
He isn’t my Nixon, not any longer. And I don’t think my heart can stand to find out what he has in store for me.
“You’re right, I should have known better.” I lift my hands, trying my best to seem unaffected. “Fine, have it your way. I’m done.”
Turning on the balls of my feet, I walk away from him. My lip trembles so I bite the inside of my cheek.
I’m not going to crumble. Not here. Not now.
Shoving people out of my way, I hurry toward the door. I have to get out of here before I do something stupid.
“Yasmin!” Callie calls after me but I ignore her.
A little bit more.
Just a little bit more and I’ll be out of here. Away from stupid boys who don’t know what they want. Players who break hearts.
You’re the only thing keeping me together.
Then why? Why did you have to tear me apart?
Tears cloud my gaze, my whole body shaking violently. I wrap my arms around myself, barely holding myself together.
I won’t break.
“Yasmin, wait!”
Silently cursing my friend’s insistence, I throw over my shoulder, “I can’t stay here, Callie.”
If anybody should understand, it’s her. When things fell apart with her and Hayden she closed herself off in our room and tried her best to avoid anything to do with him. If she could do it, so can I.
But before I can reach my car, by some miracle she catches up to me. Her arms wrap around me from behind and she pulls me to a stop. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have…”
“No, it’s my own damn fault.”
“I’m going to kill him, I swear to you, Yasmin. He’s a dead man.”
I chuckle at the fire in her voice, but it’s broken by a sob. “I don’t want him to hurt. How is that normal? He hurt me, but just the thought of him in pain makes me want to throw up.”
“That’s because you’re a far better person than the rest of us.”
Another sob, this time louder, rips out of my lungs. “I have to get out of here.”
Callie’s grip tightens around me. “You’re not driving back to the dorm by yourself. Not like this.”
“Oh, and how should I get there?!” I yell at her. “Because there is no way I’m staying here. Not when he’s inside with her.”
He’s not a one-woman man.
If nothing else, Coach was right about this. They’re all the same.
Players. Cheaters. Heartbreakers.
“Well…” Callie looks around like she’s waiting for somebody to jump in and offer to drive us. If my chest wasn’t ripping to pieces, I’d find it funny. “I’ll drive you.”
I stop, my chest heaving. She’ll… did she just say what I think she said?
“But you don’t drive,” I point out.
Her throat bobs as she swallows. I can see that the nerves are getting to her, but she still grabs the keys out of my hands. “Today, I do.”
Callie wraps her arm around me, steering me toward my car. “C’mon. Let’s get you home.”
That… that’s the moment when I finally break.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
YASMIN
A loud knock wakes me from my sleep. I blink a few times, trying to pry open my swollen eyes, and somehow, after a few tries, I manage to do it.
Once I started crying it’s like the dam inside of me that was holding all those feelings