Page 67 of The Biker and the Loner
Isaac's girl—I don’t bother to remember their names anymore—comes back with a fresh bottle of beer and balks when she sees Kendra in her chair.
"Um, excuse me, that's my seat."
"No one was in it when I got here, so it's mine now," Kendra replies without sparing her a glance, taking a swig of her beer.
"Are you serious?"
"You can take mine." I stand and gather up my purse and cellphone. "I'm calling it a night."
"You're leaving?" she whines with a pout, even though we only just met two hours ago. "I can't sit with some thug. Who is she?"
"Oh, she's Zac'srealright hand. I was just filling in for the time being," I tell her. "If you really want to get in with him, you have to get in with her."
Which is never going to happen, is the part I leave out. She’ll have better luck making it through airport security with a bomb strapped to her chest than "getting in" with Kendra.
As What’sHerFace looks dubiously at Kendra, part scared, part determined, I turn and leave.
I’ve just fired up my engine, about to drive out of the parking lot across the street from the pub, when three swift bangs on my window makes me jump. I squint through the tinted glass.
Kendra.
Did she follow me out here?
Inhaling a fortifying breath, I power down the window.
“Kenny—”
"Why're you doing this to him?" she demands. "Why're you punishing him?"
I arrange a puzzled frown on my face. "Who—"
"If you ask 'who', Ley, I'm gonna punch you straight in your goddamn mouth. I swear it."
She would. Kendra Tisdale doesn't deliver empty threats.
"I'm not doing anything to him,” I say with a shrug. “I'm not even with him."
"Uh, yeah," she snaps. "That's the point. You packed your shit and left. You just left. He's changing his whole life for you and this is the shit you pull?"
"He’s not changing for me. His life-change is forhim,” I say, more to convince myself than her. “Plus, it was only a matter of time before he got bored of me and went back to being a slut anyway, so..." I shrug it off and shift into Drive. "I've saved us both the trouble."
"And what about me? What on earth did I ever do to you?" The crack in her voice makes me wince. Kendra doesn't show emotion. She's like a brick wall. But this...I've truly hurt her.
"Kenny..." I grip the steering wheel, fighting back tears. "You didn't do anything. You're still my best friend. I just can't be around you right now..."
"Because I remind you of him," she states, not a question. "You're in love with him, and you left him, and I remind you of him, so you push me away, too. And none of us did anything to you. None of us deserve this shit, Ley."
"I know."
Her eyes go glacial as she shakes her head. "All this time, everyone was so worried that he was gonna hurt you. We all wanted to protect you from him. But hell, we had it all wrong. It washimwho needed protection fromyou."
I blow out a breath and lift my hand from the steering wheel to brush my hair back. "Look, Kenny—"
"What the fuck is this?!" she half-shouts, grabbing my wrist.
Shit.I yank my wrist from her grip.
It appears that when I lifted my hand to brush my hair back, my sleeve shifted down from my wrist and revealed the razor slices across my skin.
