Page 89 of Replay

“No, no. Don’t worry about it, Berkley.” Carter holds up his hand, waving me off, not in the mean, dismissive way he did in the club, but more in aI truly don’t owe him an explanationway, and I appreciate he recognizes that.

“Do I love it?” He shakes his head. “No. But if I’m being honest here, I knew it was coming the moment I heard he was transferring.”

I swallow, unsure of what to say back to that.

“I just want you to be happy. And it kinda kills me to say it, but I know he makes you happy.”

I smile, nodding as I lean in to give him another hug. “Thank you, Carter.”

“No need to thank me, babe,” he whispers.

Of course, in that moment, Nate walks up. His eyes bore into mine, causing unease to zip up my spine as I step back from Carter’s embrace.

He nods nonchalantly, pointing between Carter and me. “I’ll be upstairs when you’re done with whatever this is.”

Nate

The fucking day just keeps getting better and better.

I walked into my hotel room for only long enough to drop my bag before I’m heading back to the elevator. But when the metal doors split apart, the beautiful blonde I was going back for steps off.

She storms past me, and I expect her to keep going past my room to her own, but she doesn’t.

The second the door closes behind us, she throws her hands in the air. “What the heck was that, Nate?”

I walk to the far side of the room before responding.

“That was me hating the sight of you with him.” Unable to control myself, I continue, “The guy you’ve been fucking for the last two years.”

Her brow pinches as she exhales heavily. “Well, that’s not very fair.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right, but I can’t help how I feel.”

She comes closer, grabbing my shoulder and forcing me to look at her.

“He was my friend before he was anything else.”

I grit my teeth, trying to remind myself this isn’t on her.

“Trust me…he never wanted to just be your friend. He has had his eyes set on you since the day you came to our high school.”

“That may be true, but he was my friend when I needed one because I was so fucking broken,” she says, pointing at her chest.

“Oh, I know. He told me all about it, remember? That’s how I knew you were seeing him before you even left Nori beach that summer. You walked right into his waiting arms, didn’t you?”

Again, she’s throwing her hands in the air, exasperated with me.

“Seriously, Nate, do you hear yourself right now? You have no fucking clue.” She shakes her head furiously.

“Well then, explain it to me, Berkley.” The anger in my voice is replaced with pain. “Why him? I would have rather it had been anyone but him.”

She takes a deep breath. “It wasn’t like that for a long time. We were just friends for almost all of freshmen year before anything else happened.”

A shiver runs through my body at the thought of them together. “It kills me knowing he had you like that.” I close my eyes before looking at her again. “It literally feels like someone is shoving a knife into my gut at the thought.”

Berkley winces. “Trust me, I know the feeling. I felt it almost every day for the first year after you left and even some days after that.”

We both have a lot of pain from the past two years, and I was stupid to not address that clearly before now.

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