Page 124 of Triple Play

---

“Literally anywhere else.”

I drive away and don’t look back.

And I definitely don’t think about the fact that I can still feel Grant’s hands on my skin from this morning. Or thatJordie’s hoodie is in my backseat. Or that Wyatt’s playlist is still connected to my Bluetooth.

I definitely don’t think about any of that.

I make it three blocks before I have to pull over because I can’t see through the tears.

My phone buzzes. Then again. Then again.

Wyatt: Where are you

Jordie: please come back

Grant: I’m sorry

I turn my phone off.

And I sit in my car in a random parking lot and I let myself fall apart.

Because I knew this would happen. I knew it. You don’t get to be happy. You don’t get to have three amazing guys who love you and a future that looks bright.

You get your heart broken by the same guy twice and you learn to stop hoping for more.

I’m still sitting there twenty minutes later when someone knocks on my window.

I look up.

Teddy’s standing there, concern written all over his face.

“Ellie? What’s wrong?”

And that’s when I really lose it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CONSEQUENCES & SUPPORT

Elise

Teddy drives me back to his apartment in silence, which is somehow worse than if he’d yelled.

I’m curled up in his passenger seat wearing yesterday’s clothes and approximately three layers of dried tears on my face. Very attractive. Very together. Exactly how you want your older brother to see you.

“You gonna tell me what happened?” he finally asks as we pull into his parking lot.

“Housing found out. About—everything.”

“Everything meaning—”

“Me and Grant and Wyatt and Jordie. Yeah.”

He parks. Turns off the engine. Sits there for a second with his hands on the wheel.

“Okay.”

“That’s it? Just okay?”

---