Page 123 of Don't Puck His Best Friend
46
The Conversation
Cole
I'mabouttomurderthis motherfucker for talking about Harper like she's a piece of meat to pass around.
My fists are clenched so tight around his throat. I can feel his heartbeat under my hold. Liam has that smirk on his face, like he enjoys watching me lose control, like this is all some game to him.
"Cole." Her voice cuts through the murderous thoughts in my head.
I turn to look at her, and the expression on her face makes my chest ache. She's looking at me like she doesn't know me, like I'm a stranger wearing her boyfriend's face.
She guides me back a step, her hand on my arm steady and grounding. I release him.
"Can we talk?" She looks at Liam. "Alone."
Liam puts his hands up in surrender and heads toward the front door.
The door closes behind him, and suddenly the house feels too small. Harper's standing three feet away from me, arms crossed over her chest, and the distance between us might as well be miles.
"Is that true?" she asks. Her voice is quiet but steady. "What he said about you two sharing girls?"
I want to lie. I want to lie so badly. Tell her Liam's making it up, that he's trying to sabotage us, that none of it is real. But I can see in her eyes that she already knows the answer. She just needs to hear me say it.
I search her face for any sign of what she's thinking. Is she disgusted? Curious? Considering it? My mind is racing, trying to figure out what she wants to hear, what will make this better.
But there's nothing that will make this better except the truth.
"Yes," I say finally, the word coming out rough. "Freshman and sophomore year. It was... it was a thing we did only a few times."
She flinches.
"It was always consensual," I add quickly, desperate to explain. "Everyone involved knew what it was. It was just casual hookups, Harper. Meaningless. We were young and stupid and—"
"How many?" she interrupts.
"What?"
"How many girls?"
I run my hand through my hair. "I don't know. Maybe three or four over two years? It wasn't like we were doing it constantly. And we stopped junior year. Long before I met you."
"Why did you stop?"
"Because Liam started hooking up with girls on his own more. And honestly, I got tired of it. It felt empty. Pointless." I take a step toward her, but she takes a step back. "It was never a problem. We just... moved on."
She's quiet for a long moment, staring at the floor. When she looks up at me, her eyes are glassy. "I feel like I don't know who you are."
The words hit me like a punch to the gut. "You do, Harper."
"Do I? Because the Cole I know wouldn't—" She stops, shaking her head. "I can't even process this right now."
"It's in the past," I say, hearing the desperation in my voice. "It's been years since we did anything like that. I was young and stupid then, drinking all the time, treating sex like it didn't mean anything. But you—" I take another step toward her, relieved when she doesn't back away this time. "You changed everything for me."
"Did I?" She's looking at me like she's trying to see inside my head, trying to figure out if I'm telling the truth. "Or am I just another girl you and Liam—"
"No." The word comes out sharp, forceful. "Harper, no. You were never that. Liam wasn't like that with you either. You were different from the start. For both of us."
