Chapter Thirty-One

Honey

Music blasts through my headphones as I wipe the tears from my cheeks and fall onto my pillow. I don't even know why I'm crying over this. I should be happy. Zach isn't a father, and Tiff is only his cousin. After he won, I should have been running out on that field, congratulating him and telling him how I felt, but now I don't know what to think.

I opened up to him. He found parts of me no one was willing to see before. He didn't judge me or make me feel like I was that bitchy girl everyone portrayed me as. The knife to the stomach is that he didn't have enough confidence in me to tell me about his family. He lied, told me his cousin was his sister, and let me believe he was a father. Ultimately, he didn't trust me the way I trusted him, and that hurts.

I can't deny things were developing between us, even if Zach wasn't interested in being my real boyfriend. We did things you don't do with someone you view as just a friend, and the way he kissed me after telling me to wait for him has my head spinning through the stratosphere. I don't know what to think or how to feel, and I'm at the point now where I need to talk to him.

"Hunniford." My eyes spring open when my mother lifts my headphones with a scheming smile across her face. "I've been calling you for five minutes, and you've been ignoring me." She bristles.

Squinting, I look at her and then to the headphones, hoping she makes the connection. My eyes feel raw, and my head is pounding. "What time is it?"

"Late, but there's someone here to see you." Her face is frozen into a smile, and I can't tell whether she's happy or sad about my impending visitor.

I pull myself up, sit on the bed, and start to smile because only one person crosses my mind.

"Hurry up. You don't want to keep him waiting."

Pushing the covers away from my legs, I hop off the bed and skip to the pink terrycloth robe hanging behind my door. As I go to grasp it, my mother's voice stops me in my tracks. "Hunniford. You're not going down there in that."

I roll my eyes because my mother would be disappointed in me if I went down to greet guests in anything less than a ball gown and my hair coiffed to perfection. I loll my head in her direction and say, "He'll either see me in this or not at all." Zach doesn't care how I dress and doesn't want me to be the perfect princess the rest of the world thinks I am.

Plucking the robe off the hook, I swing open the door and leave before she can protest. As I walk down the stairs, I adjust my hair. I really should have looked in the mirror before coming down here. What if there's drool running down my cheek? I wipe my face, fairly certain my mother wouldn't let me walk down the hall looking that bad, and my breath catches when I see who's standing there.

I should have known.

Why was I so na?ve to think that my mom would willingly let Zach walk into our house at this time of night?

Jamie is the only person she'd let walk through the door to try and win back my heart. The cheating asshole is only trying to win me back so he can win a bet, and I will not let that happen. No matter what happens with Zach, Jamie will not be the winner in this story.

"What are you doing here?" With my arms crossed, I silently assess his nervous form. Standing in our expansive hallway, he's wearing his clean football jersey, and his hair is still as perfectly styled as it was before the game. Not getting any playtime is one way to avoid a shower after the game.

His mouth pulls into a lackluster grin, and he runs his hand through his hair. "Hey, Honey. I, uh, bought you these." He looks down at the bouquet he's holding and pushes the long-stem red roses in my direction.

They are my mother's favorite.

My lip curls, and I don't reach out to accept them. Frankly, I don't want them or anything else he has to offer.

When he sees my reluctance, he nods with a click of his tongue. "Yup, I figured I'd need to do more than show up with roses to get back in your good graces."

Crossing my arms, I lean against the banister. "You still haven't apologized for kissing me on New Year's Eve and then spreading the photo on the school message system."

The corner of his lip upturns. "That's because I'm not all that sorry. Like I said before, I want you. It was always supposed to be you and me taking on all of this together, and I'm not about to let that go because of one stupid mistake."

Clutching the banister, I turn on my toes and float toward the kitchen, fully expecting him to follow me. Knowing my mother, she's probably got the entryway camera playing on her phone and is listening to our entire conversation. At least in the kitchen, I can reach the off switch… and a couple of knives.

I feel Jamie's presence behind me, and his breath skates through my hair when he says, "We won."

Something about the smug tone in his voice makes me want to point out that our team won, he and I had nothing to do with the outcome of tonight, but I don't. What's the point? I'm about to kick him out anyway.

"I know."

Once in the kitchen, Jamie rounds the island, dragging his hand across the cool marble, and watches as I relax on the other side. "Wasn't sure if you knew since you left early." He pauses, and I think he's waiting for me to say something, but I just brush off some dust on my robe instead. "You left around the time you saw Zach's family."

I keep a straight face to his unsubtle probing. "I guess sitting on the bench does have its perks. You can stalk me instead of concentrating on the game."

Jamie frowns. "You were crying." It's a pure and simple statement that hangs in the air, cementing my embarrassment. I thought I'd been inconspicuous by leaving, but apparently, nothing got past my school. My luck, it will be shared across social media again. "What were you upset about?"

He makes his move, dropping the roses onto the marble and curving around the island to stand next to me. His hand falls to the small of my back, and I step out of the touch.

"Why are you here?" I ask the question again.

"I wanted to check on you. I saw that Zach had an audience for the first time. Must have sucked seeing Scholarship's kid in the flesh." He went for the jugular, but it doesn't hurt because it's all lies, and now I wonder how many lies he's told me before. "She's a cute kid, isn't she?"

I buck my head back, crinkling my nose. "I'm fine." I won't elaborate. I want to prove to Zach he can trust me, but Jamie's arrogance is beyond repulsive. How did I not see this before?

"You sure about that? Because you don't look fine."

"Yup."

"Then why aren't you celebrating with him right now?" That's a good question. I got the truth, and we're still fake dating. Running out of the stadium crying won't have helped our cause, but that's not something I can change. "Thought as much." He smiles smugly, as though my silence answers his question.

Raising the roses, he studies them for a faint second. "Look, I get it. Roses aren't your thing. They never were." He chuckles lightly to himself. "I only bought them so your mom would let me in."

"Glad your relationship with my mom is going well, because your relationship with me is anything but good."

"Come on, Honey. Don't be like that."

I tip my chin, feeling a little feisty. "You're the one that cheated, not me."

"I know, and it's the biggest mistake of my life. Believe me, the repercussions it's had have been eye opening," he mumbles, and I stop myself from punching him in the face. Repercussions which I'm sure have something to do with losing out on his trust fund if he doesn't make it up to me.

"You seriously don't expect me to feel sorry for you?"

"No, but I'd really like to start making it up to you."

"Oh, yeah? And how do you plan on doing that?"

He scratches the bottom of his chin, giving me an easy smile. "I was hoping you'd go to the debutante ball with me."

I choke on a laugh. He can't be serious. "No." Short, simple, and to the point.

"Who's taking you?" He challenges, tipping his head. "Zach?"

"Yes." I swallow.

"Zach?" he asks with raised brows. "You think your parents will be okay with accepting you into our high society life with Zach as your escort?" He laughs, shaking his head. "Zach is using you. You're a prize to be won, and you'll be left with nothing once he's through."

"Sounds familiar."

"Does he even know how to waltz?" I scrunch my lips because he has a point. I haven't exactly told Zach what the debutante ball entails, and it's a week away. "Zach is your rebound, and you're going through a bad-boy phase. You'll be out of the picture in a month."

Turning, I walk around the kitchen island to leave. "Think about it, Honey. He's not meant for our world. He'll flounder at every step, never quite impressing you, and you'll both start to hate each other."

"You mean like we do now?"

Stepping out of the room, I tread the stairs, not bothering to say goodbye. If my mother let him in, then she can let him out.

"Hunniford." Her shrill voice cuts through my soul. "You shouldn't treat guests like that."

"He wasn't my guest."

"What did Jamie want?"

"I'm sure you know. He asked if he could take me to the debutante ball." She crosses her arms, looking pleased with herself. "I told him no."

That makes her frown. "But I already agreed with Jamie's mother that he'd take you." And therein lies the real reason Jamie came here tonight. His parents forced him. I knew it.

"So? He can take McKenna. If she's good enough to publicly screw, then she's good enough to be seen with him there."

"Hunniford. Go to your room." Her shoulders rise, and it's weird seeing her acting like a real parent. "You don't talk about Jamie like that."

I walk with a little skip in my step down the hall. "Why not? I'm just speaking the truth. Maybe if you lived in reality, you'd be more inclined to hear it." I'm testing her now, stomping around haughtily in my robe. Her shoulders rise, and her lips screw together.

"You should watch what you say, Hunniford."

"Why? It changes nothing. No matter what I say or do, you'll always try to control my life and decisions. Things would be a hell of a lot easier for everyone if you just gave me some space to breathe."

Stalking to my room, I slam it shut and lock it. A small laugh leaves my lips, and I can't stop grinning. A mix of anger and excitement course through my veins, knowing my father probably heard that, but he'll be too chicken shit to get involved. He's always left everything to my mother and a small set of foreign au pairs.

Finally, it feels like they can no longer control me, and they don't know what to do about it. Even if Zach doesn't show up at the debutante ball, I'd rather be there alone than give in to spending more time with Jamie.

I shift my gaze to my phone sitting on my nightstand and check it. Still nothing from Zach, but plenty of pleading texts from Jamie. I toss it to the side, and my feelings start to sink in. Zach didn't trust me enough to tell me the truth about Tiff, and he hasn't called me since his big win tonight. I know he's not out celebrating with anyone because I'm the only person he'd celebrate with in this school.

Who knows where Zach and I will end up after this, but at least he helped me realize the importance of standing up for myself.