Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
My stomach dropped at the mention of his name. I knew she’d dated Max before, but I figured she’d moved onto Zepp.
Jade was beside me in an instant. “Good luck with that. Guess he doesn’t have to drug you.”
“Like he would even have to try with that slut.” Her eyes cut over at me.
“You can keep your rapey boyfriend to yourself.” I shifted closer, and she took a noticeable step back. “Not sure he’ll get it up now, though. I hear someone messed him up real bad.”
Her eyes narrowed to slits, cheeks reddening. “And that thug should be in jail for it!”
I took a step, backing her into a rack of clothes. “He’s not the one who should be in jail.”
She sank back into the sweaters a little more. “Honestly, with the way you dress,” her poisonous gaze flicked over me, “you deserved it.”
Before I registered the movement, my fist drove into her perfect nose. She toppled back into the rack, screaming while she clutched her face. Then, of course, the tears started. Her friends looked at me like I was some kind of monster.
“Oh shit.” Jade grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the shop in a hurry.
The churning in my stomach grew by the second. Leah may have been a bitch, but that fact didn’t stop the words looping through my mind: You deserved it. A guy strolled out from a shoe store, his eyes lingering on my legs like I was a passing meat platter. For the first time in my life, it bothered me. For the first time ever, I wanted to hide. Everything built up into a frenzy, a cyclone swirling through my head at max speed.
I ducked into the next clothing store, and my eyes strayed to the rack of jeans. I snatched two pairs and paid for them, not even worried about the unnecessary money I was spending. Right now, I didn’t care. Jeans suddenly seemed like a safe haven, and I hadn’t owned a pair since I was twelve.
Jade watched me take the bag from the cashier, a little line sinking between her brows. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Jade.” I wasn’t.
We left the store, and I went straight to the mall restroom to change. I didn’t recognize the girl staring back at me in the full-length mirror. Sadness smoldered in her eyes like the ashes of something that had once burned so bright. I instantly hated her.
Jade took one quick glance at the jeans, and a small smile touched her lips.
Jade was the one person I knew I wouldn’t have to explain this to. “Lunch?” she asked.
I wasn’t hungry, but I nodded anyway. “Yeah.”
We went to the burger place in the mall and took a seat at one of the bistro-style tables. The food court always made me edgy. It was in the very center of the mall, surrounded by the mezzanine walkways of the second and third floors. There had been several shootings here. I mean, it was a mall near Dayton. And that was just one of the reasons I didn’t like coming.
A child screamed a couple of tables over, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
Jade eyed me like I was losing it. “Seriously, Monroe, are you okay?”
“I’m fine!” I shouted, earning me a glare from the Mother’s Day Out group at the table beside us.
Jade’s eyes went wide for a second.
I dropped my chin to my chest, sweeping a finger over the table. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” She stood up. “I’m gonna go order a burger, want one?”
“Sure. Thanks.”
Jade crossed the busy food court, standing in line at the Burger Barn. I hated that I had snapped at her like that, but I just… My phone buzzed. When I pulled it from my bag and glanced at the screen, I felt a small smile tug at my lips, but then I scowled.
Asshole: What R U doing?
I was still mad at him for whatever that was yesterday. I typed a reply, deleted it, retyped.
Asshole: I keep thinking about kissing U.
My cheeks heated. That kiss was everything I had expected from Zepp. Hot and angry. Rough. But I wasn’t about to give him any inclination that I liked it.
Me: I keep thinking about what an asshole you are
Asshole: Don’t make me call U a liar again Monroe
Asshole: Come over
Me: I’m busy
Asshole: I doubt that.
So arrogant. A few seconds passed before my phone buzzed again.
Asshole: What if I tell U I’m sorry?
Me: *You.
Me: What for? Kissing me or being an asshole?
Asshole: Neither
Me: Then what are you sorry for?
Asshole: Things
He clearly didn’t know how an apology worked.
Me: Things? If this is a bid to get in my pants, you’re failing
Honestly, I knew we were long past that, but if that wasn’t the aim here, it left us in a gray zone that I didn’t know how to navigate. Lust, I knew what to do with that. I’d been fending it off since I grew a pair of tits. But Zepp didn’t treat me like everyone else. He didn’t disrespect me, and he didn’t look at me like a piece of meat. I didn’t know how to deal with that.