She won’t meet my gaze. I try and talk to her at school, but she gives me the cold shoulder, and hell knows I deserve it. I try and catch her eyes in first period but not once does she look my direction. To make matters worse, Silvia is waiting for me outside the class and the look on Allie’s face when Silvia makes an attempt to kiss me sends a spear of self-loathing straight to my gut.
I push Silvia away but the damage is already done and before I can call out to her to wait up, Allie is gone, swallowed up by the crowded sea of people in the hallway.
“Silvia,” I bite out.
“Yeah, babe?” she purrs, stroking a hand over my chest. I pull her hand away, my lip curling in disgust. “I’ve had my fill. I’m moving on. I suggest you do, too.”
Her eyes widen before narrowing into slits. “Let me guess, you’re going back to daddy’s little princess?”
I take a menacing step toward her. “Say one more thing about Allie Ramirez and I’ll make sure you regret it. You’ve already had a taste of what it’s like to be on my bad side. Want to be there again?”
She swallows hard and shakes her head.
“Good. Now make yourself scarce. I’ve moved on.”
I don’t bother waiting for an answer and head out to find Emilio. He’s smoother when it comes to girls. Maybe he’ll have an idea of how I can get Allie back.
I catch Allie talking to Dominique in the halls as they head to lunch, but as soon as I approach, she takes off and sits at Henderson’s table. I try to ignore how gutted I feel at her dismissal, but it’s hard. Dom pats me on the shoulder. “She just needs time, man.”
I nod, knowing he’s right but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. I messed up royally when I pushed her away. I won’t make that mistake again. Won’t give up on her or what we have. I’ve never felt about a girl the way that I do about Allie. It’s why even when I was pissed as hell at her, when I thought she’d moved on with Julio, leaving me in the dust, I still couldn’t get her out of my head. She lives there. Takes up space and refuses to move the fuck out.
At lunch, I sit with my face in my hands, going over all the ways I can win her back. When the lunch bell rings, I track her with my gaze, watching like some love-sick puppy as she leaves the cafeteria, Kasey and Henderson close on her heels.
I shove away from the table and storm after them.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Dom shouts somewhere behind me.
I shake my head. I have no fucking idea but I have to do something. Allie slips into her third-period class and I walk past it, my eyes trained on Henderson, and just before he reaches the door to his own class, I jerk him back by the fabric of his shirt.
“Hey, man—” Startled green eyes meet my own when he sees who grabbed him. “What the hell, Roman?” He jerks away, adjusting the collar of his shirt.
“You’ve been hanging out with Allie a lot lately.” I meant it as a question, but it comes out as an accusation and Aaron’s jaw tightens.
“Why do you care? You’ve been a complete asshole to her ever since she came back. Do the girl a favor and leave her alone. She’s been through enough and she doesn’t need your shit.”
I slam my fist into the locker beside him. “I didn’t know!” A few people in the hall turn to look at us and I snarl at them. “Move the fuck along.” Heated faces turn and rush to their classes, effectively clearing the hall of everyone but the two of us. “I didn’t know what happened to her. Not until just recently.”
“And that’s supposed to somehow make this all better? Fuck you, Roman.”
“Henderson—” It’s a warning.
He shakes his head. “No. You fucked up. I don’t know why you’re even talking to me. I’m not going to help you fix your mistakes. I don’t owe you any—”
“Yeah, you do.”
His eyes narrow.
“You owe me and you fucking know it. You want me to stop hating you? You want the Devils to stop hating you for what you put us through the summer before junior year?”
His mouth presses into a sharp line and he gives me a single sharp nod.
“Then help me talk to her. She doesn’t feel comfortable with me.” He snorts and the urge to punch him in his smug face is strong, but I ignore it. “I care about her. I want to be there for her. Help me talk to her and I’ll forget what happened. We’ll wipe the slate clean.”
He considers this. It’s no secret I hate him. I’ve hated him since junior year. He used to be my friend. We were like brothers. All four of us. But then he had to go and fuck it all up. He’d just gotten his license. He was the only one of us old enough to drive and we were all heading to Shadle Creek to camp for a week over summer.
But the fucker did drugs. None of us knew. He hid his addiction because he knew what we’d say about it, and on the way up to Shadle Creek, high as a fucking kite on coke, he hit a truck head-on. We were in a WRX. His first one, not the one he drives now. The force of the impact sent Emilio shooting out the window and broke Dominique’s arm in two places. He had to have surgery to repair the break and spent all summer in a cast. It could have ended his chances of playing football and we all could have died. Emilio surprisingly came out the least scathed. Scrapes and bruises. A concussion, but nothing life threatening. And me, I had the pleasure of a ruptured spleen, and after surgery that shit took four long weeks to recover from.
To make matters worse, as I was freaking the fuck out trying to help Dom out of the car and find Emilio because we had no fucking idea where he’d been thrown, Henderson was ranting about how much trouble he was in. How screwed he was. We all could have died and all he’d cared about was whether or not he’d be going to jail.
He should have. Maybe it would have straightened him out. But for whatever reason, I convinced my pops to go easy on him. There was history there. Years of friendship I couldn’t turn my back on, even though not once did he visit Dom or me in the hospital.
He got a slap on the wrist. Community service and his parents had to pay a fine to the city. But after that, I cut ties, and to this day, the asshole still hasn’t apologized.
I never thought I’d forgive him, but to get Allie back, I’ll do damn near anything.
“You’d do that? Forget what happened?” He swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Forget what I did, and all I have to do is get Allie to talk to you.”
I nod.
“I can’t make any promises.”
“I don’t need promises or assurances. I just need a chance. One fucking chance to make this right.”
“Okay.”
I exhale a breath. “Okay.”
