Page 128 of Don't Puck His Best Friend
I end the call and immediately dial Cole. Maddie and Sirus are staring at me, but I can't look at them.
Cole answers on the first ring. "Harper—"
"Did you say that Liam could take me on a date?"
"What?"
"DID YOU OR DID YOU NOT?"
"As a joke, Harper. I knew you wouldn't do it."
"As a joke?" I stare at Maddie, whose face is frozen in an expression of absolute horror, mouth slightly open, eyes widelike she's watching a car crash in slow motion. "You know what? I'm going to go on the date."
"What?"
"Yeah, you heard me. You two want to keep fucking with me and fighting over me? I'm going to go on the date!"
"To spite me? I thought you wanted to be with me?"
"I do, but I'm tired of these games. I need Liam to back off."
Cole's voice breaks, and I hear him start crying. "Harper, you can't be fucking serious! Harper, you better not. Harper—"
I end the call.
Maddie and Sirus are looking at me like I've lost my mind.
Maddie breaks the silence. "You can't be serious?"
I set my phone down on the coffee table with shaking hands. "I am."
"Harper—"
"I'm going on the date. I'm going to prove to both of them that there's nothing there. That Liam is delusional. That whatever chemistry he thinks we have died the second I chose Cole." Myvoice is getting louder, more frantic. "And then maybe, maybe, everyone can move the fuck on with their lives."
"This is a terrible idea," Sirus says.
"I'm tired of being the thing they fight over. I'm tired of feeling like I don't have any control. So I'm going on the date, I'm going to feel absolutely nothing, and then Liam will finally leave us alone."
"What if you don't feel nothing?" Maddie asks quietly.
The question hangs in the air between us, heavy and terrible.
"I will," I say, but my voice doesn't sound as certain as I want it to.
Maddie shakes her head slowly. "Harper, this is going to blow up in your face."
I don’t care.
Maddie looks like she's going to be sick.
"This isn't you," Maddie says softly. "You're not vindictive like this."
"I’m going to go lay down for minute," I say, walking into their bedroom and close the door. I flop on the bed and fluff the pillowunder my head. I sigh, thinking about what I’ve done and said, and how complicated this feels in my chest.
48
The Point of No Return
