Total pages in book: 191
Estimated words: 182070 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182070 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
I wanted to kick my own ass most of all.
But what I did know was that I wanted to get the hell out of there at least.
I wanted to go home.
And that was what I did as I got into the car that was already parked and waiting in the lot by the time I pushed through the crowd. Maybe it was the same ride someone had taken there. It wasn’t like it mattered.
It might have only been five minutes later, maybe less—just long enough for the driver and me to introduce each other—when my phone vibrated. The screen showed ZAC THE SNACK PACK on it. For one millisecond, I thought about not answering it.
But that wasn’t me, and this wasn’t the right moment. He hadn’t done anything.
Maybe he’d been right.
Maybe he really had tried to call me. Or text me.
Maybe he hadn’t gotten some of my messages or calls either.
I couldn’t think of a single person I hated as much as I hated Jessica in that moment. Not the ex who had cheated on me. Not the girl he had cheated on me with who had known he had a girlfriend. Not anyone. Not even Gunner. Not even the meanest people to ever leave comments on my uploads.
Who did that kind of shit? Who went into someone’s phone and did that? Because she was jealous? I’d been seventeen and basically a family member. It wasn’t like he’d been in love with me or had treated me in any way that was different than a beloved, pesky little sister. I’d been at the age where I was barely building my sense of self-worth, and she had stolen almost all of it with her terrible comments. She had made me second-guess one of the most important relationships in my life after I’d lost Mamá Lupe, when I had literally been at my lowest.
And now, apparently, that hadn’t been the only thing she’d stolen.
She’s taken something so much more precious: time.
So I answered. Because I wasn’t going to lose what I’d just gotten back, especially not because of Jessica again.
“Hey,” I answered, rubbing over my brow bone with my index finger. “I’m—”
He cut me off. “Where you at?” His voice was off, all tight and rough.
“I’m sorry, Zac. I left. I had to get out of there.”
He said something under his breath I couldn’t understand.
God, I felt like an asshole. I should have at least warned him on the way out instead of just… leaving. “I’m sorry. I just got so mad. I wasn’t thinking straight. I was upset—I am upset….”
There was a pause, then a sigh over the receiver. “You goin’ home?”
“Yeah,” I whispered.
“Okay. I’ll meet you there.”
Oh hell no. “No. No. It’s okay. Stay there. I’m fine. I’m just… sad and mad and want to think about stuff.” Maybe he wanted to go home and think about things too. “I’ll call you tomorrow. I’ll go by the house. Deal?”
There was a beat of silence. Then I might have even heard him swallow hard. “Bibi—” he started to say before I interrupted.
“Promise.”
I managed to hear him breathe over the line.
“I just can’t believe what happened. I think I’m in shock a little, but I promise I’ll go by the house tomorrow. I’m fine. I’ll be home in like twenty minutes.”
He made another sound before, “Text or call when you get there?”
She had stolen this from me.
I had let her steal this from me.
I couldn’t believe it.
“Yes.”
“All right.”
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Not really, darlin’.”
I feel you, I wanted to say but didn’t. “Tell me all the gossip tomorrow, okay? And I’m sorry you spent all this money on this costume and I barely got to wear it. I’m sorry for leaving. I’m sorry…” For being an idiot.
He hummed just as Trevor’s familiar voice said something in the background that I couldn’t understand—my cue to get off the phone.
“I’ll let you go. I’ll text you when I get home. Be safe, okay?”
His “yeah” was a little too simple, but I let it go.
“Bye.”
“Have your key ready when you get out of the car, ’kay?”
That brought a smile back onto my face.
This was the man who had loved me for half my life.
“Yeah, I will. Be safe too. Love you.”
His “Love you too, kiddo” was instant.
And I carried his words with me on the silent trip home and up the stairs and into my apartment. My hands felt like ice cubes, and my heart seemed to have grown to the size of a boulder inside of me. Something deep within my nasal cavity burned too.
I couldn’t fucking believe it.
I sucked in a breath through my nose as my eyes tickled and my chest hurt. I started peeling my costume off, the shoulder pads going first.
I had cried real tears because of how some insignificant asshole had made me feel.