“Don’t say it!” My voice cracked. A tear snuck out and I wiped at it angrily. “You have never lied me to before. Never! But you lied about her, and he came here because of your inability to keep your dick in your pants for five seconds!” That was a low blow. I knew that. I also knew that what Zach had done really wasn’t Kyler’s fault, but I was hurt. I was destroyed, and I wanted him to hurt as much as I did. “Tell me this. Did you use a condom with her earlier? Did you fuck her face to face? Or is the whole ‘doing it from behind’ just another lie? God, you must think I’m the stupidest chick alive because I believed that.”

Kyler looked like I’d kicked him in the junk. “What? No. I don’t think that, and that wasn’t a lie, Syd. I—”

“It doesn’t matter.” I drew in a sharp breath, and it hurt as it scorched my throat. “I’m a lot of things, but I’m not that stupid.”

Before he could say anything else, a stranger’s voice rang out from downstairs—a police officer’s—and I stepped forward, my entire body trembling. “You were right, Kyler.” Tears clogged my throat. “I do deserve better than this.”

Kyler

I would’ve preferred a kick in the junk than to be standing before Syd, to see her in so much pain, and to know that I was the cause of it. Some of it was my fault. Hell, a lot of it was, and I would gladly have walked through a pit of rattlesnakes to take back those things.

Zach had come here because of what’d happened between Sasha and me well over a year ago. The psychotic SOB had taken his issues with me out on Syd, and fuck if that didn’t slaughter me. I wished I’d told Sasha no when she’d asked me to help her tarp up her windows. I should’ve been here to protect Syd, not fucking around with broken windows and avoiding Sasha’s nonstop innuendos. Yeah, Sasha would’ve been down for a quickie. That girl would always be down for anything, anytime, but that didn’t happen. Hell, no.

But had it happened before?

Yeah, it had.

I desperately searched my memories for what I’d told Syd. Had I lied about Sasha, or had I skipped around the question? Either way, I hadn’t come out with the whole truth. The damage was done. It was too late. I saw it in Syd’s eyes, heard it in her voice.