Page 5 of No Romeo
But the thing that really punched me in the gut was the collection of ratty bracelets decorating his left wrist.
Ten to be exact. I’d given him one for every birthday since we were six, outside of the last two I’d missed, and the fact that he hadn’t cut them off hurt in the sweetest way.
The five-minute bell rang. People darted to class, but Hendrix kept coming, his attention solely on me.
A tiny shred of panic rose within me. I’d never been on the receiving end of his hatred, and I didn’t want to be, which was why I ducked back into the empty bathroom.
The door had barely swung shut before the noise of it cracking against the cinder block wall had me whirling around.
Hendrix loomed in the doorway, his wild, blue gaze aimed right at me as he took a step forward, then another.I didn’t realize I’d backed away from him until my back hit the wall.
The scent of pine and citrus invaded my lungs as he trapped me against his hard body. My thighs pressed together at the memory of us together like this a hundred different ways. Clothed, naked, him holding me, fucking me, but this wasn’t that. There was nothing sweet or sexual about this. He was angry.
“Imiss you, too?” He inched closer, his warm breath teasing my face. “Really, Lola?”
Before I could respond, he slapped a heavy palm against the wall beside my head.
“Whythe fuckwould you write that?” His gaze burned into me like he could see every raw emotion, every sordid lie lingering between us. Everything. Except for the truth.
“Because I do.” I missed the version of him I’d loved. The version that didn’t so clearly hate me. “I miss the boy who wrote on those walls.”
“You don’t get to miss him.” His voice boomed in the small space, startling me into silence. “That boy youclaimto miss wasn’t good enough for you. Remember?” His jaw ticced. “You didn’t even tell me good-fucking-bye after everything you did to me.”
But the thing he didn’t realize, everything I had done had one purpose. To protect him. And it had backfired.
One minute I was in Dayton, and the next, the state dragged Gracie and me into foster care. There was no room for goodbye, and even if there had been, after the lies I allowed him to believe, I wouldn’t have known how to say it.
I fought past the lump in my throat. “You were everything to me, Hendrix.”
His arms dropped to his side with a cynical laugh. “Everything, huh?” He took a step back, his gaze sweeping over me with disgust. “But you fucked another guy. And you didn’t even know who that baby belonged to.”
It took everything in me not to flinch at his words. Not to sink into the memories I’d spent years trying to forget.His pain burrowed beneath my skin like a parasite, igniting my own.
There was nothing I could say. No lie that could soothe the ache. “It was complicated,” I whispered.
“I fuckinglovedyou, Lola.” Silent seconds ticked by before he inhaled a heavy breath. Then he turned and launched his fist into the dirty mirror, sending pieces of shattered glass scattering the sink and floor. “Goddamn it! I fuckinglovedyou, and you shit all over everything.” He went to the door, and with one final, hate-filled glance over his shoulder, he shoved it open. “You staythe fuckaway from me!”
Tears broke free as the door swung closed behind him, and I slid down the wall. I had loved that boy with my entire being. I still did, and that was the only reason I allowed him to think I’d betrayed him.
The truth would destroy him as much as it had destroyed me. Maybe more…
Chapter3
HENDRIX
I stormed out of the restroom and stopped when I caught sight of Kyle waiting around the corner. If I had to guess, for Lola. He ducked back on a gasp before he took off in the direction of Principal Brown’s office.
“Yeah, you better run, Chewbacca.” I swiped a hand over my face, trying to rein in the irrational anger eating away at my insides like battery acid. But damn, did I hate that Lola was back in Dayton—back inmyschool. I didn’t need her anywhere near me.
Her shit excuse played over and over in my head as I shouldered through students.It was complicated.She had to be kidding. She ripped my heart clean out of my chest and couldn’t even manage, “I’m sorry.” No, I just got,It was complicated. Two years after she screwed some other guy, got knocked up, and told me I wasn’t the father.
Well, fuck you, Lola Stevens.
Shemade it complicated. She made my entire life complicated… I slammed a palm against a locker, leaving a dent in the metal.
“Hey, Hendrix.” Jessica’s annoying, make-my-dick-shrivel-into-my-body banshee of a voice came from behind me. I was not in the mood for simpering bitches today, not after that encounter with my soul-sucking ex. The soul-sucking ex she’d ratted out.
“Fuck off.” I kept going, but of course, she followed me.
