“I didn’t,” I protest. “She kissed me, for your information.”
That shuts her up for almost thirty seconds. Her gaze bores a hole in my face. It’s like she’s trying to burrow her way into my mind and…and what? I’m not sure why she’s looking at me, but it’s starting to make me antsy.
“Anyway,” I start.
“Uh-uh, no. Don’t anyway me. We’re not done with this kiss thing.” Ella runs a hand through her golden hair. “So are you guys a thing now?”
“Maybe? I don’t know.”
Her jaw drops. “Do you want to be? You don’t do girlfriends, remember?”
“I do lots of girls,” I drawl, dragging my tongue over my lower lip. Maybe if I turn this into something sexual, Ella will be so disgusted, she’ll drop the subject.
Sure enough, it works. “Gross,” she says. “But, okay, it makes sense now. If Felicity thinks you and Hartley are together, then she’d definitely go after Hartley to get revenge on you.” Ella pauses. “You kinda deserve her vengeance, if I’m being honest.”
“Thanks a lot.” I frown. “Why’re you bringing me down?”
“Oh, are you annoyed by the truth? I’m sorry. Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten drunk, gone over to Felicity’s and humiliated her in front of all our friends and classmates. This is what happens when you don’t think about the consequences.”
“Christ. What crawled up your ass and died?” I regret the words even before the last one is out of my mouth.
Ella winds up and punches me in the arm.
“Dammit!” I rub my arm and give her a wounded look, but it doesn’t work.
She crosses her arms and glares at me.
“Sorry about the ass comment, but can we not rehash all my past fuckups? We’ll be here until next week.”
“Fine. But I’m not apologizing for the hit. You deserved it.”
“Fair enough.” Girl can throw a punch. No wonder Jordan backed down. “Can you go beat Felicity up so she stops this bullshit?”
Ella snorts. “No.”
“Why not? It worked with Jordan.”
“No, it didn’t. What worked last year is that we all stood together and said enough was enough with the bullying.”
“So let’s all stand together again and say enough is enough with Felicity.”
“Do you have proof that she’s the one who framed Hartley?”
“Yup. She admitted it in front of Claire and a couple other girls.”
Ella tips her head from side to side, considering this tidbit. “She must be pretty confident they aren’t going to say anything,” she finally concludes. “At this point, it’s your word against hers, and your word is crap. You’re constantly getting in trouble. Felicity is in Honor Society and is a perfect student from a great family.”
“Thanks for the ringing endorsement,” I grumble, but we both know she’s right. Trouble is my middle name. “Maybe I should call her.”
“And say what?”
“I’m sorry?”
Ella shoots me an annoyed look. “Seriously? You haven’t said that yet? That’s the first thing you should’ve done!”
“Maybe I did.” I think back and then grimace. “I don’t remember.”
“Then, yeah, I think you should call her and tell her you’re sorry.” Ella shakes her head a few times, as if she can’t believe she’s sharing the same space as such a moron. “In fact, buy some flowers and go to her house and tell her you were stupid and thoughtless and a jackass and that every bad thought she’s ever had about you is true, but please don’t take it out on Hartley.”
I wince. “All of that?”
“Yes,” Ella replies sternly. “All of it.”
“Fine.” I curse ungraciously and launch myself off the bed. At the door, I turn around. “I still prefer the idea of you beating her up.”
Ella throws a pillow at me. “I’m not beating her up!”
I head downstairs and jog outside to my truck. At the end of the driveway, though, I find myself turning left instead of right.
I didn’t like the way Hartley ran off. What if her parents are at her house, yelling at her? She probably needs moral support.
I decide to check on Hartley first and hit up Felicity on my way back.
I swing by a gas station and buy a pint of ice cream along with a couple of sodas and popcorn. At the check-out, I throw in two candy bars. There’s a bucket of single roses at the front and I throw one of those on top, too.
“Pissed someone off, did you?” the clerk says as he rings me up.
“How’d you guess?”
“This is the ‘I’m sorry’ starter package,” he jokes.
I snicker. Technically, only the flower is part of my apology to Felicity, but I’m still curious enough to ask, “What’s the success rate of the starter package?”
“Depends on the scale of your wrong. Big wrong requires big apology.”
I grab the rest of the flowers. “Let’s go big, then.”
He swipes my card. “Good luck,” he says.
From the tone of his voice, it’s clear he thinks I’m gonna fail.
Ten minutes later, I park in front of Hartley’s house and kill the engine. I grab the bag of goodies and three of the flowers—Felicity doesn’t need all of them—then climb the rickety stairs two at a time. I’m raising my hand to knock on the door when I hear voices.
“Whatever you hoped to accomplish before isn’t going to happen now. Daddy’s been ranting for the past hour.”
I freeze. Oh shit. That’s Parker. I glance over the railing to see where I missed her Mercedes, but it’s nowhere to be seen. She either parked down the street or took an Uber.
“I didn’t do it,” Hartley says flatly.
“You are always so full of excuses,” Parker scoffs. “I didn’t mean to spy on you, Daddy. I didn’t mean to ruin your campaign. I didn’t mean to embarrass this whole family. I didn’t mean to ruin the family.”
Silence falls.
Hartley doesn’t respond. I guess there’s nothing she can say to make Parker believe in her.
I almost knock. I almost barge in. I almost try to reason with Parker.
But something, some divine force, stops me from doing any of that.
I swallow, trying to force air past the rock that’s appeared in my throat. This is my fault. I got drunk and embarrassed a girl I knew better than to mess with, a girl whose claws naturally came out in retaliation. I was a thoughtless jackass. And I’d be even more thoughtless if I got in the middle of Hartley’s family feud.
I need to fix this with Felicity. That’s my only play here. Once I fix it, Hartley will be able to get back into her family’s good graces and then it’ll be smooth sailing for the two of us.
I can fix this. I can.
Chapter 27
The next day at school, everyone is talking about Hartley’s suspension. You’d think nobody at Astor Park Prep had ever been busted for something before. The thing is, Hartley didn’t deserve to get busted—she didn’t do a damn thing wrong, and the person who did is strolling down the hall like she’s the queen of Astor.
I catch Felicity before first period. She’s at her locker with her girl crew. Luckily, Claire’s nowhere to be seen. Good. I hate the idea of my ex getting all chummy with Felicity. Who knows what Claire has on me. I was drunk a lot when we went out.