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I’ve never stalkedsomeone on social media before, but there’s a first time foreverything.
All day Saturday, I’m scanning Annie’s feeds. She doesn’t post often and is careful when she does, so it’s not surprising I come up empty, but Sunday morning, I switch to a newstrategy.
“Look at you,creeper.”
I look up from the kitchen table as my roommate comes in the frontdoor.
“You can’t tell I’m a creeper from ten feetaway.”
“It’s called a logical inference. You were creeping when I left; ergo, you’re more than likely creepingstill.”
I glare at my roommate, holding up the phone. “There’s a picture of him on stage, the fucking prick. And she’s next tohim.”
He crosses to me, narrowing his gaze on the screen. “Ah. It took you a day to switch to the best friend’s feed?Rookie.”
Annie’s not tagged, but I see her, and I want to throw the phone across theroom.
Beck pulls a stack of mail out of his jacket pocket and passes me an envelope. “This came for you. I had to sign for it andeverything.”
Halfheartedly, I open it and glance inside. “A check for ten thousand dollars from theshowcase.”
I glance at Beck’s lighter on thecounter.
“You are not burning that check,” Beck drawls as he shrugs out of his coat and hangs it by the door. “You earned it. You lit that auditorium up, and no one who witnessed it could deny thatfact.”
I tug on my hair. “I don’t know why she’d work so hard for this, then bail. She wanted it. It was her moment too, her fuckingsong.”
He drops into the chair across from me. “You really have no clue why she’d put you on that stagealone.”
I straighten, not liking the sound of those words. “No. Tellme.”
A guilty expression crosses his face. “I told her Zeke pulled your meeting. She knew you lost your shot because of her and Jax and if she did the showcase, you might lose that too. She didn’t screw you, Ty. She savedyou.”
Emotions collide inside me—disbelief and frustration andlonging.
My head falls back on a groan. “Dammit,Beck!”
I shove out of my seat and grab my phone, hurling it across the room so it slams into the living roomwall.
I whirl to face him, staring him down as if this is his fault. “She wanted space, and I let her have it.” I stalk across the room, intending to grab the phone, but when I get there, I take a pillow off the couch and hurl it toward the kitcheninstead.
“How does she do this?!” Ishout.
Beck eyes me as if he’s watching some strange creature never before discovered by humans as I continue torant.
“She’s always a mess of feelings. She can take it, but me? I can’t hold it in, wall it up, or shove it down.” I scan the room, feeling more than a littleunhinged.
But I know I could throw everything in this entire apartment and it wouldn’t beenough.
“Fuck this. I’m going after her,” I decide. “I won’t be the guy who left heragain.”
I start toward the front door, but Beck grabs myshirt.
“You’re not the guy who left her,” he says as I stop angrily next to him. “You’re the guy who’s giving her what she askedfor.”
“You want me to sit here like anasshole.”
