Page 218 of Nobody's Girl

He takes my chin in his hand, lifting my face to look him in the eye. “Don’t apologize to me. I don’t even want you to. I just want to find our own way, you know?”

My God, how sweet and amazing he is. Ally was a fool to let him go. I know one thing for sure—I’ll never hand him back over to her. It’s her loss and my gain.

I hope she can forgive me.

CHAPTER 25

ALYSSA

My heart’s been ripped out and stomped on!

I suppose I had it coming, but I never knew it was going to feel this terrible. My Kyle has given himself to my best friend and I can’t take the pain.

While it’s selfish of me, I find myself unable to let it go.

Eden has pressed me about what has me so quiet, but the words won’t come for me to tell him. He’d never understand anyway. No one would.

It was supposed to be me who was Kyle’s first and he was to be mine. With Eden’s arrival, everything has changed. My world is upside down and I feel as if I’m falling away from the planet.

My heart is exposed and raw with the pain of Kyle’s words, As a matter of fact I just lost my virginity to her about a half-hour ago.

I cannot believe he told me in such a callous way. No meanness was in his tone, but also no emotion at all. Just stating a fact. He is no longer hung up on me and has shoved his penis into my best friend just to prove it.

How could she do this to me?

Laura has been my best friend since kindergarten. Never would I have imagined her stabbing me in the back like this. There’s not a mean bone in her body.

She’s slept with quite a few guys, though, and I do know sex is just a thing to her. I can’t imagine how that must have gone over with my Kyle. My sweet and almost innocent Kyle.

How awful was it for him?

My mind is full of the ways they did it. I’ve talked to Laura a lot about her sexual escapades. She’s done it about nine ways to Sunday.

Her father left her mother when she was ten and it messed her up. She feels it’s perfectly acceptable to have sex with a guy you have no relationship with.

Is that the path she’s leading my Kyle down?

I’ve never judged her for her behavior. But now she’s done it to Kyle, and I have to do something. I can’t let him go down that road with her. It’s not in his nature to be a sexual deviant. He’ll fall in love with her, because that’s who he is.

No matter what Laura thinks, he won’t walk away like the other bad boys she’s slept with. He’s a good guy, and he’ll stay around and fall for her.

When she tires of having him in her bed she’ll move on like she always has, leaving him hurt. I can’t let that happen to him. He’s too special.

But how can I stop it?

I look down at my hand as it’s clasped tightly with Eden’s. We’re on the jet with my family, heading to New Orleans to meet his parents. I’m nervous about it because there’s no way they’ll like me.

A sick-to-my-stomach feeling from Kyle’s news, with a topping of nerves, is about the most horrible I’ve ever felt. I need no more terrible news on this day. I doubt I could take it, feeling as if I might puke any minute.

Eden sighs and I look up to find him watching me. “Princess, please tell me what she said to upset you so much.”

“It wasn’t her who told me. I doubt she was ever going to tell me. I doubt that I really know her at all,” I say and look out the window into the dark night sky.

Eden rises and pulls me up with him. My parents and Scotty sleep in their seats. I follow him as he leads me to the bedroom.

Oh hell, what is he about to do now?

He sits me on the bed, then sits next to me. His arm wraps around my shoulder and I lean my head on his.