“And you thought I’d still look at you that way through my prison bars?” I slam my palm against the steering wheel. “Fuck, Lilah! I have two friends who have been arrested for doing what we did. One of them spent two months in jail.”
There’s no response except for soft sniffling, but I refuse to look at her. Miles later, when I finally do, things happen inside me that can’t happen anymore. I can’t want this girl. This baby. I can’t be in love with her.
Her phone buzzes and I hear her blow out a shaky sigh before lifting it to her ear. “Hey, Destiny. We’re on our way.”
I hear Destiny screaming excitedly through the phone about Shiloh.
“Yeah, it was amazing,” Lilah says, but there’s no enthusiasm behind it.
Destiny says something else, low enough now that I don’t pick up anything but my name. “Yes, he kept his eye on me.”
My eyes, my mouth, my hands, my cock. I kept a lot of things on her.
She waits through Destiny’s response. “Yeah. He’s been great, Destiny. We’ll be home in a few hours.” She hangs up and lowers her hand. “She thinks you’re a great guy.”
I give my head a small shake, my jaw so tight my teeth ache.
“She wanted me to talk her up while we drove, make you see how awesome she is.” She blows out a bitter laugh. “Instead, I opened my legs for you. That’s the kind of person I am—the kind that stabs her sister in the back. Destiny’s the good one. You should have stuck with her.”
“You should have told me the truth,” I grind out.
I keep one fist tight on the gearshift and the other on the steering wheel, because if I don’t I can’t guarantee they won’t end up around her neck. Or in her hair. Or ripping her clothes off her fucking incredible body. Because, despite everything, I know I never could have settled for Destiny.
Not when there’s Lilah.
Chapter 22
Lilah
Jon honks out front and I grab my messenger bag and head down the stairs. When I slide into his car, he wiggles his eyebrows.
“You fucking slut,” he says, his mouth pulling into that puppy grin.
I know what this is about. Apparently, the cameras cut to me during Lo’s original song Tuesday night and caught me kissing Bran. Jon texted me on our way home last night to congratulate me on Lo’s win and to tell me that, as my boyfriend, he was sorely disappointed in me for cheating on him. But he put one of those winking emoticons after the message. Plus, Jon’s always totally full of shit, so I wasn’t really worried. About him, anyway.
But I was terrified Destiny’d seen it.
She hadn’t sounded upset when she’d called, but I couldn’t imagine that she hadn’t watched the show, so I braced myself when Bran dropped me off at the apartment at one thirty this morning.
She was just home from the bar and she threw her arms around me and jumped up and down at Lo’s win. But nothing about kissing Bran. She said Sam Hill had been unusually busy for a Tuesday night and she hadn’t caught the whole semi-finals show, but she’d been able to watch most of the results last night.
I’m so excited for Lo, but everything with Bran feels like the end of my world. I tried to seem as ecstatic as I should be when I told Destiny how awesome the trip was, but I wasn’t feeling it and she could tell. When she asked if I was okay, I told her I was tired and asked if I could skip school today. Her answer was an emphatic no. Thankfully, she was too busy playing mother hen to ask too many more questions about the trip.
So, bullet dodged.
“He looked hot,” Jon says, watching me expectantly. “Who was he?”
“Just a friend.”
“Ha!” he says, slapping his hand against the steering wheel. “Well, as your friend, I’m filing a formal complaint that I have yet to receive my tonsil exam. You seem very thorough.”
I shove his shoulder. “Shut up and drive.”
He peals away from the curb and we wind our way up the hill toward school.
“You should know it was all over Instagram,” he says as he drives. “Everyone’s talking about you.”
My eyes fly wide and cut to him. “What?”
“There were a lot of people from school watching, I guess.” His voice lowers and becomes more serious than I’ve ever heard it. “Someone snapped a screenshot of you kissing that guy and tagged me, because, you know, I’m your boyfriend. It sort of went viral and pretty much everyone at school’s reposted.”
I hang my head. “Fuck.”
“I just thought you should know why everyone’s going to be staring at you as soon as we walk in.”
“Is it going to make things hard for you?” I ask, focusing on that part of this nightmare instead of the part that could get Bran thrown in jail.
He shrugs and tries for a cocky grin. “Not after I break up with you very loudly and publicly at your locker in about five minutes. There’ll probably be pics on Instagram before first period starts, so I’ll be vindicated. I’ll be the ex of the girl whose bestie just won The Voice.” He flicks a wrist at himself. “Instant chick magnet.”