She’s back. Fuck.
Mila Hart had been my neighbor since birth. We grew up together. Our parents became good friends. Having dinner at each other’s houses every week was normal to me. Her dad, James, coached our flag football team right up until she left.
Mila wasn’t only my neighbor. She was my first and best friend for twelve years.
She wasn’t given a choice in leaving. She’d wanted to stay. I hated her mom for taking her away. I’d known things would be different with her being so far from us, but the distance wasn’t the problem. Mila was.
I called her every day. And every call and message that went unanswered was like a dagger to my heart. It only took her two weeks in New York to forget about us.
When she left, she really left us. Nothing, not one word to any of us, in four years.
Now she’s standing there, beside her father’s truck, looking like a womanly version of the girl I once knew. Her hand on hip with her head cocked to the side told me it was Mila instantly. She has that kind of attitude about her. Sassy and confident, my mom would always describe Mila.
Her blonde hair is longer and hangs in waves over her shoulders. Her black, ripped skinny jeans and tight red tank top show me she’s not the little girl I once remembered. She stands there looking like some model off a runway.
But she isn’t a model. She’s the girl next door, and she’s always been beautiful no matter what she wears. Fuck…
She smiles and waves at me, like the last four years she wasn’t here don’t mean a thing.
Mila isn’t my best friend anymore. If anything, she broke me when she stopped taking my calls. I won’t tell her that. She messed up, and if she thinks I’ll forget about it and wave back—that I’ll tell her, “It’s good to see you”—she’s delusional.
I’m angry with her. I didn’t realize that until I saw her. Fuck.
I slam my fist on my steering wheel. I don’t want anything to do with her. I hope she returns to where she came from. But with school starting Monday, I have a feeling she isn’t here just for the weekend to visit her dad.
She hasn’t been to visit her dad once in all these years. I asked him about her for months after she stopped talking to me, thinking maybe her phone was broken or her mom had grounded her. But he spoke to her all the time. That’s how I knew she didn’t want to speak to me.
The others need to know she’s back. I wasn’t the only one who missed her when she left. When she cut me off, she cut us all off. I don’t know how they’ll feel about her returning. I can’t let her get between us again.
She almost broke us apart when we were ten and all had a little crush on her. Now we’re grown and horny as fuck all the time. The pact needs to stand more than ever. She has the power to destroy us, and I can’t let that happen.
When we were ten, Roman and Hunter fell for her. Just like I did. It wasn’t hard with a girl like Mila. She was everything. She played football with us in Hunter’s backyard, tackling all of us, getting mud and bruises on her body. She would claim she was the knight of the castle, wearing a pink tutu and attacking us with her plastic sword.
“It isn’t a crush, I love her,” Hunter told us.
Roman pushed him over. “I’m gonna marry her. You can’t love her.”
I was worried she would pick one of them, and we wouldn’t be friends anymore. There would be Mila and the one she chose, the two losers left to watch, heartbroken. I wouldn’t be one of the losers. She was mine first. I loved her first. I was going to marry her.
I told them we had to make a pact.
“We can’t all love her and still all be friends when she picks one of us. It will tear us apart. Friendship is all we need. So, we make a pact now. No one can love or marry Mila. Ever. No one can break the pact. It’s for life.”
We all spit into our palms and shook hands. We’d seen it in a movie, and we did it whenever something was “for life.” The pact was done. Sealed in our spit. Except, I crossed my fingers with my other hand when I made that pact. Mila, she was mine. I was going to keep her forever.
But now that she was back, I didn’t want her. I couldn’t let Roman or Hunter have her either. It would break us apart worse than ever.
Roman took it the hardest when she left. He’s still fucked up now. Mila had filled a hole for him that Hunter and I couldn’t. We’d tried to help him, but he spiraled into a deep, dark depression. He’s still in that dark place, but he’s better than before. I’m worried her reappearance might make him spiral again.
I’m so angry with her. What she did to me, to Hunter, and especially Roman. She’d known he needed her more than any of us, and she left him to the wolves.
I bring up the group chat on my phone, anger bubbling within me.
Jace: The pact still stands.
I throw my phone onto the passenger seat, my foot on the gas as I tear backwards out of my driveway. I throw my car into drive and dare myself not to look back at her.
I grip the wheel tightly. I won’t cave for her. I won’t look at her. She means nothing to me, and I don’t need her shit in my life. I’m happy without her. At the last second, my eyes dart to my rearview mirror. She watches me just as I watch her.
Fuck. I’m fucked.
“Are you sure it’s her? Mila? Mila Hart is back?”
Hunter hunches closer to me in our booth at Annie’s Diner. Meanwhile, Roman arches back, resting his head on the wall behind him, his expression unchanged at the news of Mila’s return. But I know he’s turning shit over in his mind. Hunter, on the other hand, is more interested in Mila being back than I thought he would be.
“Yes, that’s what I said five minutes ago. It’s not a big deal. Why do you keep repeating yourself?”
He throws a few fries in his mouth and chews while he nods. More to himself than me. I fight the urge to roll my eyes.
“Because…out of nowhere, you text us that the pact still stands. Then, you come in here and tell us she’s returned home. That’s a big deal.”
“Hey, Jace.” Britney slides in beside me. I put my arm around her shoulder, and she gives a small girlish giggle.
We’ve been dating on and off for the past year. Mostly off. But I keep going back. I guess it’s easy because she knows what I like. And I don’t mean football or food. She knows how to suck my cock just right. Yeah, I’m an asshole.
“But, like, how does she look? You won’t tell us anything. Throw a guy a bone here. Is she hot now? Fuck, I bet she’s all grown up and shit and that’s why you’re not telling us, so you can get to her first. The pact stands for you too, Jace.”
I roll my eyes at Hunter, not wanting to talk about Mila. Even now, I’m getting angry again thinking of all the years she ignored me. My jaw ticks at the thought of her being back and Hunter wanting to know how she looks.
She looks hot. Hell, if it wasn’t Mila, I would have been over there trying to get her number. Britney perks up; she heard what Hunter said.
“Who’s hot? Who can you get first?” She sits back and glares at me.
Like I was cheating for even knowing someone who could be hot. This is why we broke up more than anything. If a girl even looked my way, she had a meltdown that I was flirting or cheating. I would break up with her permanently, but when she comes back to apologize each time, it is on her knees. How can I say no to that?
“Mila Hart.” Hunter takes a bite of his burger. The melted cheese runs down his fingers as he hides a grin, knowing what he just did.
“Fucker,” I mumble under my breath at him.
“What are you doing looking at her? Doesn’t she live, like, a million miles away?” she screeches.
My grip on her neck is tight—it won’t hurt her, but it acts like a warning as I pull her in close until our foreheads are touching. “We talked about this at the start of summer. I will break it off, and permanently this time, if you do this shit. I’m not cheating. The possessive, jealous shit from you needs to stop now.”
She bats her lashes at me. I fight the urge to roll my eyes and push her away just for drama’s sake, but fuck, I wish she wasn’t here right now. I need space, time to think, but she isn’t gonna leave anytime soon.
“Sorry, Jace. I won’t do that again, I promise.”
She kisses the corner of my mouth, but I pull away before she can go any further. I’m not in the right frame of mind to be kissing Britney right now. Not when I wish I was kissing someone else and hating myself for it.
I find Roman watching me. He isn’t stupid; he would have seen my reaction to Britney and read into it. Fuck, do I care? No. Yes. I don’t know.
I feel like screaming and hitting something.
He breaks eye contact with me first as he gazes out the window, looking worn down. More so than usual. I’d known her return would affect him. The question is—how badly?
“You think she will go to Ridgecrest High or Lakeview Prep?”
I want this conversation to end, but I can tell Hunter won’t drop it.
“No idea, I didn’t talk to her. Not gonna, either. She didn’t speak to us for four years. Why would I start talking to her now?” But even I know that’s a lie.
“I hope she comes to Ridgecrest,” Hunter continues.
“Yeah, well, her dad is working over at Lakeview Prep, so he would have some type of a teacher discount, I would think. Makes more sense for her to go there, anyway.”
“Nah, man, you remember when we were kids, and we were all gonna go to Ridgecrest High. We thought it was the coolest place ever. We were gonna run the halls.”
I let out a snort. We had thought it was cool. It isn’t. But we’d been right about one thing—we do run the halls.
It’s easy when you’re the quarterback for Ridgecrest Rebels. Roman is my fullback, and Hunter—with his shit-eating grin—is my wide receiver. And this is gonna be our year. We are juniors but we had proven that we were the best.
Plus, they don’t call us the Rebels for nothing. We get up to a lot of trouble.
“We should throw a party before your parents get back,” Hunter suggests.
“Yeah, okay, but I gotta talk to Grady first. Make sure he’s onboard and shit. I don’t want him telling my parents. But it’s low key, okay? Just a few guys from the team and some girls.” I turn to Roman. “Are you cool with getting beer?”
He doesn’t move or even blink.
“Roman?”
His eyes find mine, and he raises a brow.
“Beers? You think you could grab us some for the party tomorrow night?”
He nods and shifts his weight, snagging a fry off Hunter’s plate. Hunter always orders extra fries, knowing Roman will eat them. Growing up, he wasn’t the type of guy to ask for food when he was hungry, or accept you buying him any, but Hunter always ordered “too much,” and Roman couldn’t let it go to waste.
Roman knows Hunter could never finish them. He’s told him to stop over-ordering time and time again. But Hunter keeps on ordering extra. This has been going on for three years now. Roman doesn’t wait for Hunter to offer them anymore, he starts eating them as soon as the plate hits the table. It’s something we don’t talk about. It’s just how we are.
When Roman speaks, you listen. He doesn’t sit around and talk shit like Hunter and I do. He’s quiet but not timid or anything. He’ll tell you straight to your face what he thinks of you. But he doesn’t speak unless there’s something worth saying.
He doesn’t have any other real friends but me and Hunter. Growing up, Mila was the closest friend Roman ever had. When she left, he spoke less, he grew quieter. And, for a while, he didn’t come to school. We had to go over to his place and drag him to school. Our moms helped a lot with that too. Made sure he was clothed and fed. His dad was a grade-A asshole, through and through. My mom wanted to report him to child services, but Roman would say, “I would rather live with the devil, than a devil wearing angel’s clothes.” Mom didn’t call them after that, but she always made sure he was safe.
Mila used to be the one to protect him, keep him safe. He talked to her, he even smiled with her and picked flowers—not that he would admit that. I haven’t seen him smile in four years. I’m not sure if he’s capable of smiling anymore. And this is why Mila can’t come back into our lives. I need to protect Roman. She hasn’t been here. She won’t understand how bad he got and what we’ve done to get him here today.
“I can get the girls together, and we’ll all be there.”
I look back at Britney, raising my brow. “What girls?” I ask, confused.
“For the party, silly.”
Caught up again in thoughts of Mila, I’d almost forgotten about the party we just organized moments before.
Britney rubs my arm and lean in close, her tits pressing against my side. “It’s like you zoned out there, baby.”
I clench my jaw at her pet name for me—I hate it.
But I hate Mila Hart more.
