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Chris nods and we all leave.
“Are you okay?” Chris asks Rose as we all settle in the den in his basement.
She nods and chuckles. “Come on. I thought you knew I’m stronger than that.”
He shakes his head in return. “Guys, you can’t go back,” he insists.
“There’s nothing in that house we can’t handle,” I lie.
Rose and I share a look and she nods. “What happened today…” I can see in her eyes the exact moment her heart breaks for offering a white lie to our best friend. “It never happened before.”
“Don’t fucking lie to me,” Chris barks at the same time as his hand slams on the marble coffee table. “Do you think I never saw the initials he branded on you? You think I didn’t see the bruises you desperately try to hide from everyone?”
“Your hero complex is getting real old,” she growls back. She really hates being caught lying.
“You don’t mind my ‘hero complex’,” he makes sure to air-quote the insult she always throws at him, “when you sleep in my room three times a week because you need to isolate yourself from the world. Because it gets too much. Because you feel unsafe out there. Anyone else Rose, lie to anyone else, but you know your bullshit doesn’t get past me.”
“It’s not bullshit, he never slapped me. So I repeat: what happened today had never happened.” Her voice is barely a whisper as she adds, “He never went for my face before.”
“I don’tcarewhat he goes for. You’re not going back, neither of you.”
She ignores him and turns to me. “What was he doing at the house? What did you do?”
“I’m sorry,” I wince, going through Bianco’s warning in my head all over again. “I…fucked up.”
“Does this have anything to do with Jamie?” she asks.
Whatdoesn’thave to do with Jamie? My whole life is about her. She’s all I think about, all I dream about and every time I let my thoughts wander, they go to her…and to why I can’t have her.
I need to tell Ozy about Aaron. I need to tell her the things Bianco threatened to do. I need to tell her the conversation I had with him and Nate the morning I was released from the hospital.
“Jamie needs to be kept away from all this,” I simply say. “At all costs.”
“Fucking around with her is not really gonna help,” Chris replies.
“I know,” I snap back. “It’s hard, okay? I’m trying to stay away from her. But every time I let my guard down, she’s there. She wants us to be together. She wants to understand things I can’t explain, to know about the past.”
I take a deep breath, trying to gain back control over my wild heart.
“She wants to heal me. And you know what the worst thing is? I want to let her. And I can’t. So no matter what, I have to push her away.”
“You’re being too hard on her,” Chris adds. “You’re being selfish and you need to let go for good, Jake. Not just pretend to let go and then keep her around for personal pleasure.”
“You know what pisses me off,” I rage as I stand up. “You never approved of our relationship.”
“No, never,” he admits in a calm voice.
As soon as my blood starts boiling, his levels off like he’s some sort of meditating monk that can’t get angry.
“Get over your jealousy, Chris! She was into you and you rejected her.”
I start pacing the room like a crazy man and he shakes his head at me.
“I should have never let you kiss her. I should have never involved you. You kept pretending you weren’t interested but you jumped on the occasion to fuck with her. So what is it now? You want me to let her go so you can jump in? Don’t you have your amazing secret girl to deal with? Is her pussy not enough for you anymore?”
Ozy shakes her head at me before throwing it back in frustration. Yeah, maybe I’m losing my fucking mind.
“Don’t include my girlfriend in this,” he warns me in a lower voice. “I’m not jealous. I told youand Jamie, countless times, that I’m not interested in her. I’ve never been. She’s a dear friend and you went in there like a wrecking ball.”
