Unable to look away, everything played out for me across our back yards. Him reaching for her. Her sitting on his lap. The reach across the bed until the entire room was bathed in darkness.

My stomach knotted, like a sandbag had dropped on my chest. Keeping my lights off, I curled up in bed and hugged my pillow to my chest. I buried my face in the soft, floral-scented fabric, tears falling from my eyes no matter how hard I squeezed my eyelids shut.

The hammering bass of the music didn’t stop until two am.

Was this what it felt like to have your heart ripped out? Like someone had sawed into your chest and escaped with your still-beating heart? I’d always imagined it was a figure of speech, but this didn’t feel imaginary at all. It was raw, searing, and I couldn’t catch my breath through the tears as pain coursed through my body. Recovery? How was I even supposed to open my eyes tomorrow?

* * *

The rawness of my throat and eyes blared like a throbbing wound, and I was walking through a salt mine. I had one goal: make it through the day without a run-in with Dare. I grabbed books from my locker before Piper got there. More time in the open meant more chances of running into him.

Calls and texts had been blocked. What did I say to him? I know you fucked someone on Saturday night, get lost? What were we even? Neighbors. Friends? Something more? Obviously not.

“Bay.” I slammed my locker closed and rushed down the hall with my notebooks and books balanced in my hands.

I brushed past people. Their heads turned, not to acknowledge me in any way, but at the owner of the voice shouting behind me.

Seriously, were they jumping into my way to slow me down? I plowed through them to escape the six-foot-three tight end hot on my heels.

“I know you can hear me.”

“And I obviously don’t want to talk to you.” My voice barely carried over the before-the-bell scramble to homeroom.

The beacon of safe harbor flashed up ahead. The skirted silhouette and a door to put between us.

I shoved open the door, letting it slam in his face. He wasn’t an asset to the team for nothing. He wove his way through the crowd with no issue. Everyone moved out of the way for The Great Dare, but they flung their bodies into my path like I wasn’t even there.

Running my wrists under the cold water, I closed my eyes. The bathroom door opened.

“Why are you avoiding me?”

I squeezed my eyes shut harder before turning off the faucet. “I’m not avoiding you.” Three cranks of the paper towel dispenser and the most fascinating hand drying known to man completely occupied my attention—at least I hoped it looked that way.

“Yesterday, once you were home, I texted you and stopped by the house.”

“I wasn’t home yesterday.” I tossed the crumpled-up paper towels into the trash can and turned to face him. “I came home early on Saturday night.”