Misunderstood (A Neighbor from Hell YA #1) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,96

as she followed him across the street and wasn’t exactly surprised when he cut through the park. When he headed toward the football fields, she’d decided that they’d played this game long enough and did what she had to do.

“Ouch!” Mikey said on a pained gasp, trying not to overdo it as she slowed to a walk and grabbed hold of her side with one hand, and with the other, slapped her hand with the water bottle against the side of a tree as she leaned over and waited.

She didn’t have to wait long before she heard, “Damn it!” That was followed by a resigned sigh as Sebastian walked over to make sure that she was okay and that’s when she made her move…

“What the hell are you doing?” Sebastian asked as she tried to take him down to the ground so that she could slap some sense into him, but apparently, she hadn’t been able to get enough momentum before she made her move to make it happen.

“Getting really pissed at you,” Mikey said, deciding to cut her losses and move on, Mikey dropped to the ground and wrapped her arms around his leg and held on tight.

“Let go,” he said, trying to pull his leg free, but she refused to let him go until she said what she needed to say to him.

“You’re an idiot,” Mikey said, deciding that was the best place to start.

“Agreed. Now let go,” Sebastian said as he reached down and carefully tried to dislodge her, but she wasn’t going anywhere.

“No, we’re going to talk,” she said, dropping the water bottle so that she could tighten her grip.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” the stubborn boy determined to piss her off said as he gave up trying to pry her arms off his leg and moved on to trying to pull his leg free.

“No, we have a lot to talk about, starting with where you get off telling my parents that you’re not going to talk to me again,” Mikey bit out as she was forced to wrap her legs around his and–

Held on tightly when the move along with his attempts to break free caused him to fall back and hit the ground with an, “Ooomph!” The move forced her to loosen her hold around his leg and before she could grab hold of him again, Sebastian was pulling his leg free and moving to get up, but she couldn’t have that.

“Mikey, I’m not playing around with you. Get off!” he bit out when was she forced to jump on his back and take him back down to the ground when he started making progress.

“No!”

“Yes!”

“Oh, my god, you’re insane!” Sebastian snapped, trying to drag himself free, but he wasn’t going anywhere.

“You knew this!” Mikey said as she quickly adjusted herself so that she laying was across his legs to keep him pinned to the ground.

“Mikey–”

“You do not get to throw away three years of friendship because we both screwed up! You do not get to turn your back on me when I need you the most! And you sure as hell don’t get to keep acting like everything in the world that goes wrong is your fault! I can take care of myself!” she snapped, still beyond pissed that he’d tried to pull this.

When she woke up this morning to find him gone, she’d been scared out of her mind that something happened to him. It had taken her parents a half hour to get her to calm down, and once they told her what happened…

She hadn’t believed them.

Sebastian was her best friend and he cared about her. She knew that he would never do anything to hurt her. Her parents wanted her to stay home and rest, but she wanted to see for herself. As soon as they came home from the hospital, she marched across the street to find out for herself only nobody was home. When her parents suggested that he was probably at Cole’s birthday party, she’d grabbed a quick shower to wash away the hospital stench, dutifully kissed her brothers when Aunt Sara and Uncle Eric brought them home, and headed for the door, telling herself the entire way to the party that it had been a simple misunderstanding.

Sebastian would never do that to her.

As soon as she walked into the backyard and saw the look on Sebastian’s face when he saw her, she’d realized that her parents hadn’t been lying. She’d forced herself to sit there, waiting for