Meant To Be (The Callahans #4) - Monica Murphy Page 0,8

bent close to each other’s. At one point, Ava reaches over and pats Wyatt’s knee.

What the fuck?

There’s a little message on the video at the end.

Who predicted this couple to happen? Yours truly.

Jackson sent his own message to me as well.

Did you see this?? I thought she was your girl.

Look at how fast she moved on. I’m sure her parents would give their stamp of approval for that boring asshole. And how the hell do I answer Jackson?

I decide to be honest.

She was. Not anymore.

Jackson: That was fast. You broke it off?

Me: Yep. Pretty girls are poison.

Jackson: Finally you see the light. Welcome to the club.

Me: What club?

Jackson: The fuck girls club.

I have to make a joke with that. Seriously, he just set it up perfectly.

Me: I am always down to fuck a girl, son. Been a member of that club for years.

He sends me a string of laughing face emojis as his reply.

There. That sounded like the normal me. Carefree, will fuck anything Eli. I need to keep up the persona.

Even though I feel like I’m slowly dying inside.

I don’t cry. I don’t like feeling sad. I mask sadness with anger. Anger is a proactive emotion. It propels you to do something versus sadness, which just leaves you a broken heap on the floor. Or in your bed.

Or a ghost wandering the halls of your house. Which is what I’m currently doing.

I force myself to eat something but it tastes like cardboard. I take a shower and consider jerking off, but I’m not in the mood. That’s when I know something’s seriously wrong. And yeah, there is definitely something wrong. A girl broke my heart. She lied to me. Told her brother all of my family secrets like they were meaningless. Like she didn’t care.

That’s what makes me the maddest. She didn’t care about me. Did she ever? How’d I fall for that? Was it her beautiful green eyes? The sweet way she responded to me when I touched her? The way she kissed me? The taste of her lips? How she argued with me almost every single time we were together, to the point I wanted to make her angry because mad Ava turns me on? I could go on and on.

I scrub my hands over my face before I glare at my reflection in the mirror, annoyed with my train of thoughts. I should forget her. Forget everything that happened between us.

But I can’t.

It’s steamy in the bathroom and the towel I had wrapped around my waist drops to the floor, heaping at my ankles. I kick it out of the way and take a step back, checking myself out in the mirror because…

Why the hell not?

My face is a mess thanks to Jake Callahan. A gash on my forehead, a nasty bruise on my cheek. The worst is the swollen corner of my mouth. When his fist connected there, my teeth cut into my flesh.

I look like hell.

Feel like it too.

Pushing past my fucked-up face, I check the rest of myself out. I work hard on this body and it shows. I look good, minus my beat-up face. I’ve got a decent sized dick. I’m almost eighteen and in my prime. I look like a fucking catch.

But maybe that’s another problem. Looks can be deceiving. I’m not the catch everyone thinks I am. I’m broken and fucked up. I have a shitty family and sometimes I feel like there’s no hope for me. My attitude is for shit, and I know it, yet I don’t do anything to stop myself from being who I am.

I’m just me. Take it or leave it. And I suppose Ava chose to leave it.

Fuck her.

Jesus, fuck me too, if I’m being real right now.

I’m about to exit the bathroom when I notice something. More like a lack of something.

Where’s my necklace? My #1 pendant?

Once I return to my bedroom, I search around for it, but it’s nowhere. The necklace must’ve broke during the fight with Jake ‘the asshole’ Callahan last night.

Damn it. I loved that necklace. Figures Jake would tear it off my neck. I bet it’s lying discarded in a bush in their backyard. Maybe Jake found it later and tossed it in the trash.

Asshole.

Brenden texted me earlier asking if we could get together and I decide to invite a bunch of my friends over to hang out. I mean, why not? Mom’s gone and I have the house to myself. We can drink and smoke in the backyard