Until Alex - J. Nathan Page 0,24

to change out of before jumping into bed. Ah well. I marched into the living room and peeked out the peephole, expecting to find a tenant with a leaky faucet.

But it wasn’t a tenant with a leak.

Not even close.

Anger bubbled in the pit of my stomach.

Standing in the hall with his head hanging low was the cause of my latest grief. At least he had the good sense to feign remorse.

But did he honestly expect to blow me off then show up at my door like nothing happened?

My head twisted, my eyes sweeping over my aunt’s empty living room. I needed time to think. Time to rein in my anger. Time to consider my options.

I had two.

Open the door and let him explain why he turned into a prick over the weekend. Or take a page from his handbook and blow him off like he was nothing more than a passing distraction.

I inhaled a deep cleansing breath, feeling stronger than I had in days. Then, secure in my decision, I turned on my heels and headed back to my room eager to bury myself under a heap of blankets.

Screw him.

Hayden’s deep voice trailed in from the hallway stopping me mid-stride. “I could see your shadow.”

HAYDEN

I slammed my door, rattling the entire wall.

I hoped Alex heard. She needed to know I was pissed. At her. At me. At Remy for showing up at school. At the world.

I dropped down onto my sofa, letting my head fall back and my eyes squeeze shut. She didn’t even give me a chance to explain. She made up her mind about what happened on her own.

I heaved a sigh.

Who could blame her? I was a total dick.

And any notion of us hanging out at school got shot to hell the second Remy showed up on campus.

He’d dropped out of high school, so college wasn’t even an option for him. But it didn’t stop him from tracking me down and showing up whenever he damn well pleased. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a tracker on my phone. He always found me. Whether I wanted to be found or not.

And while he might’ve been my friend, he was still a tornado dragging me into all sorts of shit, not caring where it all ended up.

That’s why Alex needed to stay out of my world. She couldn’t know the other side of my life. The side I wished I didn’t have to live when Remy and I took our weekend trips or rolled up outside suburban homes late at night. And no way in hell could she find out about what happened three years ago. No one knew the truth about that.

No one except Remy.

I knew she couldn’t see me tucked away in the corner of the dining hall at lunch, but I saw her. She seemed happy with Taylor and her crew. The way she’d been when she left the stage at Jake’s. Before I fucked everything up.

Being at school put everything into perspective. Alex needed to be with people who’d take her to football games and frat parties. Shopping and out to eat. Clubs and formals. She’d get the true college experience with them. She’d never fit in my world, with my crowd. We didn’t play sports, we didn’t join frats, and we didn’t give a damn what anyone thought of us.

If it wasn’t for my mother, I would’ve never even been enrolled at SSC. As it was, I wasn’t even full-time. More like on the eight-year plan, getting credits here and there with no real direction.

Being around Alex made me forget who I was and what I was. I started believing things I had no business believing.

My phone vibrated in my pocket, yanking me out of my head.

Before I could say a word, Remy’s voice burst through the phone. “Baxter’s at nine.”

A night at Baxter’s was exactly what I needed to get my head screwed back on straight. Everything that went down with Alex had me feeling all messed up. Like I wasn’t myself. Like I’d grown a vagina. I needed a major dose of reality. My reality. “I’ll be there.”

I tossed my phone onto the countertop and grabbed a bottle of Jack from my kitchen cabinet. Forgoing the glass, I leaned against my counter and took a nice long swig, letting the whiskey burn down my throat and take me to another place. A place I didn’t need to think. A place I didn’t need to justify my behavior. A place where