33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

NIC

“Watch where you’re going,” I growled as I moved to my knees, swatting at the wretched sand that covered most of my body when I recognized it was Annie on the ground beside me. “Bloody hell.”

She looked up, shock and then frustration crossing her features that would normally set me off, but I read deeper, seeing how the resentment in her glare was seated more deeply than usual through her tears.

“Just freaking perfect,” she mumbled as she got up, already turning away.

I reached out to clutch her arm before she could take off and hastened to my feet. “Annie, wait. What’s going on?”

“Nothing. Let me go.” She tugged against my grip, but I refused to budge.

“No. I can tell something’s wrong. What happened?”

“Nic, let me go. I have to go,” Annie pleaded as she cried, yanking against my hold. She was nearly gasping for air, her eyes wild and desperate in the moonlight .

I took her other arm, pulling her closer, her distress so intense it caused my own issues to slide from my thoughts. “I repeat. No. Not until you tell me what’s happened. I’ve never seen you like this.”

She leaned back and dug her heels into the sand, trying to push herself away. “Stop it!” she yelled. “I have to go! I can’t stay here.”

Normally, I’d let her go, never wanting to force a girl, but something was seriously wrong, and I braced my heels in the sand as she struggled, needing some kind of reassurance before I could set her free. “Annie–”

“I have to get away from it. I can outrun it. Please.”

Outrun what? I looked behind me, seeing nothing, and Annie’s shoulders slumped with her resistance as she cried. “This can’t be happening.”

“What can’t be happening?” I persisted, needing her to answer me, but she didn’t. I almost wondered if she couldn’t, except the craze in her eyes had begun to still. Now, defeat seemed to be settling in.

“Annie!” I gently shook her, genuinely terrified. “What’s happened? Why are you so upset?”

“Jet.” She choked out my cousin’s name before her sobs took over.

“Jet?” Panic flared like a zap through my gut. “What happened to him?”

Christ, is she trying to run for help?

Annie shook her head, and her eyes squeezed shut as if she was in torment, her hands clenching by her sides.

“Annie, tell me. I need to know if I can help.” I slid my grip down her arms to grab her hands, surprised to feel a crumpled paper in her fist. Her fingers clenched tighter around it .

“What’s this?” I tugged it free.

“A note.” By the sound of her voice, I knew it was part of what had her so upset, and I quickly started working the tightly crumpled ball open with one hand, making sure not to let Annie go. She wasn’t resisting anymore, her gaze set on the ground, but I didn’t trust her not to take off, feeling her actually start to shake. Was it really that hard for her to stay?

I spread the paper apart with my fingers against my leg, and frowned. “Annie, I can’t read this. There’s not enough light. What does it say?”

She shook her head, and I could see her warring with herself to confess and let me in, things always so tense between us.

“Annie…”

“Jesus, Nic… It’s a love note, okay?... I found it… in Jet’s bag… ” She clutched her stomach, her breathing off. “Nic, please… I think I’m gonna be sick.”

I let her go, and she bent with her hands on her knees to take deep breaths. My stomach tightened, fighting the urge to be sick as I watched her. “And I’m guessing you’re not the one who put it there.” She jerked as though barely stopping herself from retching. “Annie, are you sure?”

She nodded to the ground. “I saw him.”

“With who?”

“Ruby.” Her throat tightened, cutting off the end of the name, but I heard.

Anger began to boil inside me. I’d thought Jet was different. The way he would talk about Annie, I never thought he would betray her like that.

“I’m sorry.” I reached out to place a comforting hand on her shoulder, knowing all too well what she was feeling .

Her head snapped up, the fire in her eyes blazing at me. “Don’t feed me your I’m sorry bullshit. You defended them at the dance hall.”

“No, I wasn’t–”

“Bullshit!” she screamed, now standing and leaning towards me. Her nostrils flared, and her eyes were wild as she finally snapped. “You’ve done nothing but try to get between Jet and me for months. Picking and instigating and making us fight.”

“Because I was going through hell, not because I wanted y’all to break up.”

“And that makes everything okay? You feel like shit, so fuck the rest of us?”

“No, I–” But she had a point. I’d been an ass, over and over, most often taking it out on her. Fuck. Why did I suddenly feel cornered with no way out?

“Screw my relationship that never had problems before you and that bitch showed up. You’ve been a fucking ass since you got here.” She took a step closer. “To me more than anyone. Jet’s been trying to spend time with you because you’re his cousin, so you’re automatically important to him. He’s been trying to get to know you for months, and the only one of us who does is Izzy. But does she really know you?”

I think so… Maybe. I hadn’t been myself in so long.

“But you don’t give a damn about anyone but yourself! You’ve been a dick to me from the moment that we met!”

“You weren’t exactly the picture of hospitality yourself, remember?”

“But I tried to be, at first. I pulled deep from that pool of patience, but your obnoxious ass wouldn’t have it. You were a dick to pretty much everyone, except for Izzy. But no one as much as me. Why, Nic?!”

I didn’t answer.

I didn’t know.

“Why?! Is it because of Anna ?! Your lost love who obviously didn’t want you if she decided to crawl in bed with your best friend! Did you need someone to throw all of your bitterness at?! Was I just the lucky one that got in the way?! My name too fucking similar?!”

“Don’t go there, Annie,” I warned. “I know you’re hurting, believe me. I know how it feels, but don’t go off about things you know nothing about.”

“Because you don’t fucking open up to anybody! No one knows you because you won’t let anyone know you!”

“I don’t even know myself anymore!”

She reeled and rested back on her heels, her mouth snapping shut for just a few seconds before she was right back in swing. “So that means it’s okay for you to go screwing up other people’s lives?”

Christ, does this girl ever tire?

“What is it, Nic? You couldn’t stand being miserable alone, so you had to make sure someone else was drowning with you? Provoking me at every fucking turn and driving a wedge between me and Jet? Even fucking walking in on us when we’d found just a moment alone. You stole him from me just as much as she did. So, mission accomplished. You had help, but you got what you wanted.”

Fuck. I felt crushed. Was I really as bad as she said? “I never wanted to drive a wedge between you.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ve lost Jet either way.” Her eyes closed as her face crumpled, and she sucked in a staggering breath .

I pulled her into my chest, holding her close, her body shaking against me as she cried. It had been so long since I’d had actual physical contact with someone that it felt strange but good in a way, too.

Fuck, is Annie right? Did I want someone miserable with me? I’d been drawn to Izzy, feeling the connection with her grief when I first got here. Have I just been desperate to keep others drowning in this wretched despair beside me?

“It was hell for me that day, walking in on you two.” I wasn’t sure what provoked the admission, other than her mention of it before.

“Why?” she asked, rubbing her tears into my shirt. “You got a good enough view.”

I took a second to smirk and then drew in a bracing breath, tired of hiding it. It wasn’t exactly a secret now, anyway. “Because that’s how I found out about Annie and Enzo.”

She grew tense, and her head slowly rose from my chest as she looked up at me, her green eyes wide and…wary? “You mean Anna and Enzo.”

“Yes.” Oh, bloody hell. What did I just say?

Annie shrugged herself out of my arms. “ That’s what this is about.” She pointed her index finger at me, backing up a nervous step. “That’s why you don’t like me. I remind you of her. Don’t I? I was just fucking around when I suggested it before, but, oh, God. I do, don’t I?”

“Some.” She does? Christ, she does. Shit.

“What about me, Nic? My name must drive you crazy. I’d say the way I look must have something to do with it, but then you’d have to be attracted to Izzy, too… Unless, that’s why you’re so nice to her. Her name wouldn’t set you off.”

I just stared at her, slack-jawed as she lost it and I was slammed with the reality of how I’d connected her to Anna.

“God… Does Tucker know? Does Jet?” Pain flashed across her face. “I guess it wouldn’t matter if he did.”

“Annie, stop it.” I grabbed her arms to make her look at me. “It’s not like that. I’m not attracted to Izzy like that.”

“But you are to me ?” Terror filled her eyes as she waited for my answer.

“No. I swear. You do have things in common with Anna, but I’d never want you that way.”

“Why?!”

“Why do you care?!”

“Because I want to understand why you hate me so much! Why you hated me from the beginning when I never even did anything to you!”

“I don’t know!” I roared, my frustration at its limit.

“God, you are so infuriating!” she screamed in my face.

“Exactly! That’s why!” I decided. “You irritate me too Goddamn much!”

My eyes bore down into hers. Somehow, we were now standing toe to toe. My breaths were labored, I was so furious with her. And she hadn’t really even done anything, just like she’d said, other than scream. Which was a day in the park with her.

Annie’s chest and shoulders heaved along with mine. It was pure anger and frustration. Pure intensity, and I couldn’t look away. Tension mounting between us.

Her gaze darted to the side, and mine flickered across her face down to her lips and back up over each of her features. She was striking, even more so in the moonlight, but it wasn’t until now that I’d really noticed. That I took in all of her similarities to Anna. Her spunk and her passion and the fierceness she held in her eyes.

I looked into them, finding so much pain and intensity radiating there, but something else flickered in them that I couldn’t quite read. Before I could begin to wonder what it was, she was dragging me down to lock her lips with mine.

Her fingers wound themselves in the hair at the nape of my neck, pulling me in as she pressed her warm, slender body against me. The heat of her kiss seared against my mouth, drugging and intense. She really had lost it.

Apparently, I had, too, because I realized my tongue was hungrily seeking hers in return as my hands pressed against her back, hugging her tight to my chest. I felt starved for the touch, for the connection.

As suddenly as it started, she broke away, leaving me stunned. We both just stood there, staring at each other, shocked looks across our faces as Jet called out for Annie from nearby.

Fuuuuuck.