Page 89 of Singled Out
“You seemed off. Then I saw you leave. Sweetie, what’s wrong?” Dakota moved in and pulled me into a hug.
That made me cry even harder.
She let me wail until my sobs quieted down. I held on to her, my face buried, my eyes drenching her shirt.
“S-sorry,” I said, sniffling indelicately.
“Shh.” She rubbed my back, soothing me as I hiccuped down from disaster-level crying. “What happened, Harper?”
Damn. I had to fess up to lying to her and shacking up with her brother.
“I’m so…sorryyyy.” Somehow my eyes leaked more tears.
“Shut up, you. Tell me.”
“I’ve been a…bad friend.” I took a shaky breath in, blew it out. “I’ve been sneaking out and spending nights with Max.”
“I know that, Harper.”
“What?”
“You’re not very good at hiding it.” She smiled sympathetically.
I frowned, trying to think back to a slip-up. “How long have you known?”
“I was suspicious since the gala. You stopped talking about him. Stopped going out as much. Then the day we moved in here, I knew.”
“How did you know?” I was sure no one was here during our quickie.
“Body language. Secret glances. You two were so obvious it was funny.”
“Why didn’t you say something?” I asked.
“You clearly didn’t want to talk about it. I was giving you time. I figured you’d tell me when you were ready.”
My face scrunched up again, and the tears came back in full force. “We agreed not to tell anyone. I thought I was being respectful of his concerns about his job. My dad warned him off before the gala, so he was worried. Except then my dad apparently did a one-eighty and gave him his blessing weeks ago. Max never told me. He just let me go on believing we had to be secret. I’m such an idiot.”
“Oh, my God.” She cradled my cheeks and pressed her forehead to mine. “My brother is the idiot, Harper. I cannot believe him.”
I couldn’t argue with that. “I’m so mad. And hurt. And stupid. And sad. And messed up.”
“Stop calling my friend stupid.” Dakota crawled behind me and propped up the pillows against the headboard. “Come here. Tell me what happened.”
I curled up next to her and spilled out everything, no holds barred. I’d kept all my Max stuff to myself for so long, even though I’d been dying to dish about him and my feelings the way girls did. I told her a lot of it now, poured it out as if that could make me feel better.
It didn’t.
“I’m so sorry, Harper. Max is a fool. Completely, utterly. I could wring his thick football-player neck.”
“I don’t know why I thought there could be more,” I said quietly. “He didn’t lead me on.”
“I knew our dad screwed him up, but I didn’t realize he was still letting it run his life.”
“He’d rather be alone than give someone a chance to leave.”
Dakota scowled. I could feel her scowl in the dark. “Boys are stupid.” She said it with so much feeling it made me crack a smile.
“Do you want to get up and drink?” she asked. “I only had a couple of beers earlier, but I’ll do shots with you if you need to.”