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  Drake growled in frustration. “My damn girlfriend!”

  “Not what she says, man. Don’t know what you did to fuck this up so badly, but you’re not doing this with her now. The only way you’re getting to her is if you go through me. Walk away now.”

  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Your chance to be the big hero. Have you had a taste of her too, Jackson?”

  “Jesus, what the fuck are you saying? Shut the hell up before you say something you’ll regret forever. Out of all the guys in the world, she picked you. And you’re going to fuck it all up over some bullshit like that? You deserve to lose her.” He shoved Drake backwards and turned to nudge me out the door. He slammed it shut behind me, giving me time to get away and staying behind so that Drake couldn’t chase after me anymore.

  I sent a quick text to Aubrey asking her to meet me at her car and to bring a couple changes of clothes for me. My hands shook as I waited for a reply, hoping she wasn’t still sleeping. My phone chimed moments after I hit the send button.

  Aubrey: On my way.

  God, that was part of why I loved her like a sister. When the shit hit the fan, she didn’t waste any time with unnecessary questions. She took care of business and saved the talk for later, even when she must have been feeling like shit after the drama from last night.

  By the time I made it to her car, she was already there. She took one look at me and ushered me into the car. She grabbed a package of tissues from her glove compartment and tossed them into my lap. I collapsed, sobs racking my body now that I was safe in her car.

  She tore out of the parking lot, getting me off campus as quickly as she could. Aubrey drove aimlessly, waiting for me to calm down. After about thirty minutes, she pulled over in front of a Holiday Inn on the outskirts of town. “Back in a second. Don’t move.”

  I wasn’t sure how long she was gone, but she opened the door and unbuckled my seatbelt when she returned. As I climbed out of the car, she pulled a bag from the back seat. “C’mon, I got us a room.”

  I followed her blindly, tears obscuring my vision. She held on to my hand as she led me through the hotel lobby and upstairs to a room with double beds. I flung myself onto the closest one, and Aubrey sat next to me and whispered soothing words while she rubbed my back. Once the sobs subsided, she wiped my face with a wet washcloth and brought me a glass of water with a couple ibuprofen. My head was pounding, and I sipped just enough water to swallow the pills down.

  “What happened, Lex?”

  “I’m not sure, Aubrey. I got a text from Drake that he needed me to come over. When I got there, the things he said… I just don’t know what happened. How could he think those things about me?” I looked at her, my eyes begging her to make me understand.

  “What things, sweetie?”

  “He called me a whore! He actually thinks that I take money from men for sex. I let him in my life, in my fucking body. And he thinks I’m worse than a slut.”

  “What? You’ve got to be kidding. That’s fucked up, Lex.”

  I barked out a laugh, nothing humorous in my tone at all. “I wish I were kidding. God! I have the worst taste in men in the history of the world. What the hell is wrong with me, Aubrey? First I pick a cheater who stalked me and now a guy who’s willing to believe that I’m a hooker. That I’m turning tricks to pay for college of all things.”

  “Why on earth would he think that’s how you’re paying for school? He knows you fly with your dad.”

  “He said something about my dad’s finances. By then I wasn’t really listening. I couldn’t really focus on what he was saying.”

  “We’ll figure this out, Lex. I’m sure it was just all one big misunderstanding.”

  I shook my head. “No, there’s nothing to figure out. I broke up with him and left. Drake chased after me and Jackson stopped him so I could leave. It’s over. I’m done.”

  Aubrey wrapped her arms around me. “Don’t say that. You love him. Are you ready to walk away completely, not even knowing what made him say what he did?”

  “Aubrey! How could I ever trust him again after he made an accusation like that?”

  “I’m not saying you need to forgive him, but maybe you should at least hear him out once you’ve calmed down. Maybe you’re right and it’s better that you end it. But what if you’re wrong? What if there’s an explanation of some kind? Can you handle ending things with him and seeing him on campus? Seeing him with other girls?”

  The thought of him with someone else made me want to vomit. “I…I don’t know. I can’t imagine any explanation that would be good enough for me to forgive this. I told him he was only my second lover. That means he thinks that I’m a liar, too.”

  “Take some time for yourself. Think about what you want to do. If you decide to walk away, you have my support. And if you want to talk to him to get to the bottom of all this, I’ll respect that, too. You’re the only one who knows what the right decision is here. No matter what, you’ve got me in your corner. Pinky swear.” She held her pinky out for me to shake. Even at the height of my despair, the gesture made me smile, remembering all of the promises from our childhood.

  “Love you, Aubrey. Thanks for coming to my rescue.”

  “Shut up, Lex. You gave me the lecture last night when I thanked you for being there for me. You know that’s what best friends are for. Now, I rented the room for the whole weekend. The jerk at check-in even made me pay for last night so I could get into the room now instead of waiting until this afternoon.”

  “Asshole,” I muttered, mad at men in general right now.

  “How about we hang out, eat junk food, and watch movies all weekend?”

  “Don’t forget about our plans involving vodka,” I reminded her.

  “Yes, and vodka. Why don’t you send your dad a text letting him know you and I are having a girls’ weekend? I’ll let my ‘rents and Jackson know, too. We’ll turn the phones off and pretend that the outside world doesn’t exist for a couple days. No pressure to make a decision until you’re ready. It will be good for me too after how freaked out I’ve been this past week.”

  “Yes! That sounds like exactly what I need to do.” I opened my phone and noticed that I had several missed calls from Drake and Jackson, along with a dozen text messages. I resisted the temptation to open any of them and typed out a quick message to my dad. He was out of town on a charter, so he wouldn’t expect to hear from me that much anyway. “Can you let your brother know I’m okay when you send your message? He’s already tried calling me.”

  “Already done. Didn’t give a lot of details to Mom and Dad, but I did let Jackson know that you were safe with me and that I had everything under control. Now, off with the phones!”

  We powered down our phones and Aubrey tossed them into the bag she brought with us. “What did you pack?”

  She pulled my favorite pair of pajamas out and handed them to me. “Figured we’d need comfy clothes. So I brought jammies and yoga outfits. It sounded like an emergency, so I didn’t bother with much else. And we’ll have to order in food ‘cause I’m only going out once for supplies since I skipped packing my makeup.”

  “Wow! You left home without makeup knowing that you might not come back tonight? You really do love me!” I joked, distracted by the idea of my fashion-plate bestie hanging out all weekend with me in casual clothes and no makeup, especially since her eyes were still puffy from crying last night.

  “I do, Alexa. And I don’t know what happened with Drake, but I would have sworn that he loves you too,” she said in a gentle tone. “We don’t have to talk about it now. We can cuddle in bed and watch chick flicks and cry all weekend. Nobody knows where we are right now, so you don’t need to think about it yet. Now go change into your jammies and wash your face. I’ll pull up the movies and make the first pick, okay?”

  I nodded, trying to stem back more tears. I flipped on the light in the bathroom and shut the door behind me. As I turned towards the sink, I caught sight of my reflection in t
he mirror. I was a total mess with my hair all over the place, pale skin, and dark smudges under red-rimmed eyes. How I felt inside was even worse. My hands were shaking and my stomach was turning. My mouth felt like I had swallowed a bunch of cotton, so I poured myself a glass of water. I gulped a little down and my stomach rolled in protest.

  I sank to my knees and crawled to the toilet, glad that I hadn’t eaten any breakfast this morning. I spat the water into the bowl and prayed that I wouldn’t start to dry heave. I sat there on the floor, trembling for a few minutes until Aubrey knocked on the door.

  “Did you fall in or something?” she asked.

  “Or something,” I answered weakly. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

  After flushing the toilet, I stood on shaky legs and changed into the pajamas Aubrey had brought for me. I opened the door and found her sitting cross-legged right outside waiting for me.

  She jumped up and pulled me into a tight hug. “I’m so sorry I can’t make it all better for you, Lex. I really wish I could fix this.”

  I gave her a quick squeeze before pulling away. “You’re helping, Aubrey. I don’t know what I would’ve done today without you. I don’t know that anyone can fix this mess, but you being here for me makes a difference. Don’t think for a second that it doesn’t.”

  She smiled and steered me over to the closest bed and pulled the covers down. “In you go, get comfortable ‘cause there a ton of Spankovision movies we can watch.”

  I surprised myself by giggling in response. We’d called the movie rentals at hotels Spankovision ever since we’d discovered that they had porn during a road trip with her parents in middle school. Of course we’d rented one and were stunned by what we’d seen. We were even more surprised the next morning when we were asked about the movie we’d watched the night before. Our blushes must have given us away, and her brothers had teased us mercilessly the rest of the trip about the whole thing. The easiest way to stop the guys when they were on a roll was to join in and make fun of ourselves too. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Or something like that.

  Aubrey beamed at me, enjoying my reaction to the memory. “Since I get first pick, we’re doing a girlie movie. I’m sure I’ll end up watching enough of your action flicks later to make up for it. Maybe we’ll get lucky and my movie will even put you to sleep.”

  I nodded tiredly and hugged one of the pillows to my body as the movie started. I tried my best to stop thinking about what had happened with Drake and enjoy the movie, but it was so hard to do. A love story was a really bad idea. As I watched the couple on screen fall in love, I couldn’t stop myself from wishing life were as easy as it seemed in the movie. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Would our story have a happy ending too? I just didn’t see how it was possible without any trust. And thinking that those awful lies about me were true showed that Drake didn’t really trust me, let alone really know me at all.

  Thoughts swirled round and round in my head, I closed my eyes in an effort to block everything out. It must have worked better than I’d planned since I woke up several hours later when the hotel door slammed shut, pulling me from a deep sleep. The sound startled me and I jumped out of bed.

  “Oops, sorry!” Aubrey apologized. She was standing there with her hands full of grocery store bags and a drink carrier from Dairy Queen. “I thought I could catch the door with my foot, but I missed.”

  I pulled the drinks from her hands. “You brought me my favorite?” I asked.

  “Yeah. I figured you wouldn’t really be hungry, and Dairy Queen banana milkshakes always worked for your dad when you were sick.”

  “You are so sweet. Thank you!” I exclaimed while unwrapping a straw. There was something comforting about drinking it, and I needed all the comfort I could get right about now.

  “I got enough supplies to last us a couple days,” she said, pulling a bunch of my favorite junk food from the bags along with a big bottle of Three Olives vodka. “And if you get your appetite back, we can always order pizza, too.”

  I glanced at the dresser and realized she’d left her phone here while she was out. “You didn’t bring your phone with you? That’s not safe, Aubrey! What if you’d had car trouble?”

  “Oh please. I know everyone in town. If I’d had any problems, someone was bound to find me, or I could have walked to the closest house and called for help. It’s no biggie. Besides, I was only gone for like thirty minutes.”

  I looked at the bags and back at Aubrey. “Thirty minutes? The store is only a couple blocks away, and Dairy Queen is right next door.”

  She looked at me sheepishly. “Well, I wanted to run back to the dorm to grab a couple things, but I changed my mind when I got there.”

  “Why?” I asked, confused by her answer. “What could have possibly made you decide not to run inside after driving back to campus?”

  “I saw Drake’s car sitting outside the dorm, so I didn’t pull into the parking lot. I didn’t want to run into him, and I certainly didn’t want him to see me because then he’d want to know where you were.”

  “Drake was there?” I shrieked, stunned. Just hearing his name hurt.

  “Yes. Parked right at the curb with the engine running.”

  I sat back down on the bed and glanced at my phone. “That means he wants to talk to me.”

  Aubrey picked up my phone, tossed it into her purse, and zipped it shut. “It won’t hurt him to wait for you. Maybe it will give him time to understand how badly he hurt you. And you need some time to decide what you want to say to him. I’m not giving you this back until Sunday morning. So don’t even try to convince me otherwise. I see that look on your face. No caving yet. If you guys stay together, you need to make sure he understands that you won’t put up with crap like this. You’ve heard my mom’s advice on relationships almost as often as I have.”

  “Start as you mean to go on,” we said in unison, wagging our fingers at each other just like her mom did whenever she said the same thing.

  “You’re right. I don’t even know what he could say that would make his accusations forgivable, but I can’t talk to him until I figure out what I want to do. God, Aubrey… He made me fall in love with him and then he crushed me. Shattered my heart into a million pieces. How are we ever going to move on from this?”

  “I’m not sure, sweetie. Let’s just take it one day at a time, I guess. Tonight, don’t even think about it. Let’s just hang out, watch movies, and eat junk food. I even grabbed swimsuits so we can hang out in the hot tub. Don’t make any decisions you’ll regret until you’ve had time to process what happened. Okay?”

  I nodded my head in agreement. “But make sure you hide that phone better because it’s killing me right now not to call him, knowing that he’s trying to find me.”

  “Girl, please. You know you aren’t getting it away from me until Sunday. So don’t even bother trying. And none of your puppy-dog eyes later either. A day and a half isn’t going to kill you, especially after storming out the way you did. You’re too much of a softie, so leave it to me to be your backbone this time around.”

  And she really was. We spent the rest of the night and all of the next day doing anything but talking about my relationship problems. We managed to polish off the bottle of vodka and then passed out to sleep it off. I tried a couple times to talk her into just checking my phone to see if he left any more messages, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She knew me well enough to know that I wouldn’t be able to resist calling him. Even while drunk, she insisted that a total communications blackout was the way to go, and she wouldn’t budge an inch.

  15

  Sunday morning finally rolled around, and I just lay in bed, staring at the ceiling for a while after I woke up. My stomach cramped when I realized that I was going to have to face everything today. I was glad that Aubrey had made me wait since I was a lot calmer than I had been on Friday. And stronger, too.

  I rolled over to find Aubrey watching me from the other bed. She’d spent the
whole weekend showing me exactly why we were best friends, dropping everything to help me through this mess. I was so lucky to have her in my life.

  “Thank you, Aubrey,” I whispered in a heartfelt tone.

  “Dude, save the gratitude. You know you’re going to repay the favor someday,” she teased, lightening the mood. “Hell, the way I go through guys, I’m due for someone to stomp on my heart soon as payback. Karma’s a bitch.”

  I chuckled as I looked at the clock before locking my eyes onto hers. “It’s time,” I said, taking a deep breath to calm my nerves. I held out my hand, knowing she’d understand what I meant.

  She shook her head at me as she got out of bed and went to grab the phones. “Nope, let me check mine first. I want to make sure that there isn’t some horrible news waiting for you before I hand your phone over to you. Go hop in the shower and get dressed. If we’re going to leave our little hideaway, you might as well get ready first.”

  “I don’t know if I can wait,” I protested.

  “Well, that’s just too damn bad. You need to be ready for anything, and the only way that’s going to happen is if you’re showered and dressed before you check all the messages I am sure are waiting for you on this,” she said, waving my phone at me. “Now run along and make yourself presentable or I’m not giving it back.”

  “Argh! Fine,” I grumbled as I stomped into the bathroom. It pained me to admit that she did have a point. If there was bad news, then I would be more prepared to face it after I’d gotten ready for the day. The last thing I wanted to do was confront Drake looking like crap. If things were going to end between us, I wanted to at least look good enough that he’d regret losing me for being such an ass.

  I took the quickest shower in history, ready to just get this over with. I could hear Aubrey’s voice through the bathroom door and threw on a robe so I could find out who she was talking to. I found her sitting on the bed, phone pressed to her ear with her hand over her mouth, looking stunned.