Page 72 of Did They Break You

“I wasn’t alone,” I bite back, shoving my hands down further in my hoodie pocket as I lift my chin. “I was with my best friend.”

He glances around the cemetery. “He a ghost?”

I roll my eyes but despite my annoyance, I almost laugh. I bite it back, but when Cortland’s eyes come to mine, I think he saw it because his own full lips tip up into a smile, that lip ring gleaming under the moonlight.

“Yeah, you remember that?” he asks quietly. “I’m funny sometimes, huh?”

More of that unbidden warmth rolls through me, and I have to look away. I see our feet, toe-to-toe, my white Chucks and his black sneakers. “No. You’re an asshole.”

His fingers flex around the back of my neck. “I’m trying not to be one now. Let me walk you back.”

“No,” I tell him, shaking my head. “You never learn, Cortland.” I meet his gaze, that sickness and self-loathing thick in my blood.

A bone in his jaw jumps. He knows what I’m talking about. “You asked me to.You wanted me.”

“I wasdrunk?—”

“Yeah, you know, that’s a funny thing, Remi.” He yanks me closer and I stumble forward, my palms splayed on his chest as I tilt my head to look up at him. I can’t tell if he hates me, wants to bury me in this cemetery, or both. “I was drunkthat night, too.”He laughs, shaking his head. “No one ever let me use that as an excuse.Especially not you.”

My blood runs cold. “You said you recorded?—”

“You really think I’d do that?” His eyes narrow.

I scoff, shock replacing my fear. “You’re serious?”

He runs his tongue over his lip ring, looking up at the sky a second. “This is pointless.” He jerks his head. “I’m walking you back?—”

“You’re not walking me anywhere.” I start to grab my bag from his shoulder, but he releases me and steps back.

“Stop fucking with me, Remi. I’m taking you back and?—”

“Giveme my fucking bag.”My hands are fisted by my sides as I stare at him, a cool breeze running over the back of my neck. “You’ve messed with me not oncebut twicenow?—”

He steps toward me, cutting off my words, and some of my bravery ebbs away. He stares down at me with a clenched jaw, a vein ticking in his neck. “Keep your voice down, Remi.” He glances around us, and for a split second, I see worry in his gaze.

It doesn’t make me feel better, even though I know it should.

He comes closer, and I try to take a step back, but he wraps his arm around me, tugging me close to his hard body. “You know what happened before I took you to my house?You remember that, Rems?”

My heart thuds too fast in my chest and I try to think, as I’ve done all week. But I can’t. I don’t know. The tape cuts off in my head and it’s more definite than the memories I keep locked away in the basement of my brain. I can’t ask Sloane either; she’d know I didn’t look out for her. That I left her before she decided to go to Asa’s.

“Yeah, you don’t.” He huffs a laugh, his fingers digging into my side over my hoodie. “Some guy pushed you in the bushes.”

My blood runs cold.

“I assume you have no idea who that might have been?”

I know Van would never do that, and besides, he was with Ryann. There are no other guys I’d willingly kiss.

My stomach twists into knots.

He leans closer, his brow to mine. “So would you rathermetouch you, or some fuck boy whose name you can’t even remember?” he whispers, his breath caressing my lips.

“Neither a fuck boy nor a psychopath,” I say back, but it lacks conviction.

“So fucking stubborn. So goddamn mouthy.” He tilts his head and my breath hitches, thinking he’s going to kiss me.

Please don’t.

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