Page 15 of Four Simple Rules
I swallow hard, leaning against my old bedroom door. I don’t even bother to look around. I feel it in my bones that it’s the way I left it.
“Jesse!” Grace says from down the hall. Joy rings in her voice when he presumably walks through the front door. “I’m so happy to see you.”
His deep chuckle vibrates through my damn chest, even through a door and down the hall I feel his words through every inch of my being. Just like when we were kids. My soul calls out to him like we were woven together and were each other’s missing pieces.
The night before my life fell apart was one of the most intimate nights of my life.
“It’s only been a few days,” he says with a chuckle.
Fudge.
I squeeze my eyes shut, clutching the front of my t-shirt. How can one man’s voice affect me so deeply? And after all these years. Ten years of soul-consuming thoughts about us meeting again. I never thought I’d return here, let alone be in his presence.
My breaths pick up, heaving my chest in and out rapidly. I need to escape this situation. I need to…
I make a break for it, throwing my bedroom window open and sticking my head out. The warm summer air does little to calm my nerves. So, I head to the only place I can think of to escape my new reality.
My heart pounds against my ribs. A storm of emotions blasts through me, like almost every time I drive down this road.
So familiar. Yet so damn frightening.
I slowly drive past that fucking house of horrors I grew up in with my heart in my fucking throat, thrumming wildly. There it sits, nestled on a corner lot. It's one of two houses on a small block.
It’s like the angel and devil on my shoulder.
One house wore me down to the bones. Pounded me into the ground before prematurely burying me. It holds my ghosts. My trauma. Little pieces of me I hope I never get back.
But the other?
The other held my angel in armor. The girl who cleaned my wounds and never asked questions. I’d tumble through her window night after night, seeking her warmth. Her safety. And night after night, she let me. She never questioned me or kicked me out. Blake Sarah Reynolds embraced everything about me. My ups and downs. My ridiculous rules.
And I never gave her the time of day. I continually chose baseball and my “friends” over the girl who deserved my attention the most.
“Look at that little four-eyed freak wandering around,” Nat’s high-pitched voice cuts through the static in my ears.
Exhaustion sweeps through me when I take another bite of my burger. Last night my father came home from work in a mood. Like punching out my teeth, kind of mood. I longed for today and to get away from him.
“Look at those clothes. You think she raided her grandma’s closet?” Nat chortles again, continuing her obnoxious mean-girl tirade.
Some days, I wish I could shove something in her mouth and duct tape it, so she never speaks again. It’s only the first day of school, and she's already getting on my nerves.
“So, fucking ugly.” Posey slams her tray down, flipping her long blonde hair over her shoulder and grinning in my direction.
I think it’s supposed to be seductive, but she’s never achieved that for me. There’s only one girl who really gets me going. The one woman I shouldn't even think about like that. She's my friend, and I'm her protector.
“Oh, wow,” Rhett says, wrinkling his nose. “She’s like a lost, loser deer. We could have a lot of fun with that."
The tiny hairs on my neck stand on end as they continue their disgusting, insecure conversation.
Through a ragged breath, my eyes snap toward the girl my so-called friends are insulting with hurtful words. Blake. Fuck. My girl. My heart fucking drops into my ass, smashing to smithereens. I can’t let her hear how they’re speaking about her.
My body turns rigid when our eyes connect. Something hopeful flashes in those beautiful hazel eyes that I could stare into for eternity. Vomit threatens to spill out of my lips when she walks toward us with her head held high. No! She can’t come over here. They’ll eat her alive and spit her back out.
So confident, Tulip, but you're barking up the wrong tree. Since we became freshmen, the people I call my friends have become the biggest assholes on the planet. It’s like they have something to prove to the world. But I can’t separate from them. Rhett has the best connections on the planet if I plan on continuing my baseball career.
“Hi,” Blake says with a tight smile, eyeing Posey, Nat, Melody, Rhett, and me.
Without thought, she pushes her large glasses up her nose and nervously fidgets as we stare at her.
