Northbridge had been my home from the day I was born until the day I turned my back on it. Over the years, I’d let my memories of the college town, with its beaches, the lake, and the surrounding deciduous forest, fade away.
The only memories that hadn’t faded with time were of Hailey. And yes, she was just as beautiful and just as goddamn stubborn as I remembered.
The apartment door opened and Kayla gestured for me to enter. I still hadn’t convinced Hailey to let me stay, but I had talked Kayla into letting me help move her stuff to her boyfriend’s apartment. We hadn’t been close before, but right now I needed her to be my ally when it came to Hailey.
“So what’s the deal about Hailey’s ex-boyfriend?” I hoped I sounded like an interested friend, instead of a jealous guy who still had a thing for his best friend.
I walked into the living room and stopped short. The place resembled any other apartment for someone who’d graduated from college two years ago. The forest-green couch had once belonged to Hailey’s parents. The TV hadn’t been theirs; neither had the dark wood coffee table and the matching entertainment center. And the small dinner table, with only two chairs, hadn’t belonged to her parents either. They all looked new. Not expensive, like her parents would’ve bought, but new.
But that wasn’t why I’d stopped short. That came from seeing the old foosball table in a prime location behind the couch. Her parents’ old foosball table.
It was as if I’d never left.
My fingers and muscles twitched at the memory of playing against Hailey. My skin itched at the recollection of sharing about our day, our dreams, our fears while we played the game. Foosball had been our version of therapy.
“I can’t believe she still plays it.” I twisted the white knob. The blue players kicked the air, searching for the ball.
“Technically, she doesn’t.” Kayla walked to the other side of the game, as if getting ready to play against me. That’d be a first. The Kayla I remembered hated the game.
“What do you mean?”
“Once you left, she didn’t have anyone to play against anymore.”
“So why is it here?”
Kayla’s eyebrows raised in her familiar you’ve-gotta-be-kidding-me expression. It had been directed at me more times than I cared to remember. “Why do you think it’s here?”
I shrugged. Hell if I knew.
“Because it reminds Hailey of you.” She ran her fingertip along the side wall of the game, along the smooth dark wood. “You guys were best friends for like forever. She was hurting when you left and never spoke to her again.”
“I had my reasons, but I never meant to hurt her.”
“I know, but you did.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Just don’t do it again, okay?”
As much as I didn’t want to hurt Hailey again, it wasn’t something I could easily avoid. I could only reduce the risk of it happening. “You never answered my question about her ex-boyfriend. What was the deal between them?” That didn’t make me sound like a jealous ass, right?
Kayla cocked her head to the side. “What’s it to you?”
I sighed. She wasn’t making this easy for me. But then, what was new? “Hailey’s still my friend and I still care about her. I get the idea the asshole hurt her.” I had no idea if it was true or not, but figured Kayla would be more likely to answer my question if I turned him into the evil one.
She studied me for a moment before releasing a heavy breath. “She dated the jerk for two years and he ended up cheating on her. With several girls, apparently. Needless to say, they weren’t too impressed he was jerking them around.” She chuckled. “Rumor has it one keyed his car.”
“Did she love him?”
“Well, she wasn’t picking out their china pattern yet, but she did care about him.” Kayla pressed her teeth into her lower lip, once again studying me like I was a piece of artwork to be analyzed. “Hailey’s not the same girl you left behind. Between you leaving and what he did, she’s changed.”
“Changed how?”
“Hailey used to be the kind of girl who believed in long-term relationships. She’s not that girl anymore. She won’t let guys get close to her. I mean, she’ll let them get close, if you know what I mean. But all they are to her is mindless sex with no commitment.”
So, pretty much how things were with me.
“How often was she…?” The words clung at the back of my throat. I didn’t want to know the truth but asked anyway. “How often does she have one-night stands?”
“At least once a week…when we go dancing.”
“And they’re all strangers?”
Kayla nodded, as thrilled with this as I was. This didn’t sound like the Hailey I remembered. But the Hailey I remembered was the one from five years ago. We’d both changed since then. Though, from the sound of it, we’d both changed in the same way.