Page 81 of Perfect Score

I look back over my shoulder to see Liam’s straight face. His narrowed eyes demand I stay put. I want to reach around and give him the damn beatdown he deserves, but this isn’t the time or place for it.

“What?” I ask, an edge to my voice.

“I need to talk to you,” he says, keeping his expression unreadable, but his straight-lipped facial expression says this isn’t going to be him congratulating me for finally getting the girl he weaseled out from underneath me.

I look back over my shoulder to see David just now seeing us not behind him.

I hold up a finger.

“One minute,” I say.

He nods, but his downturned eyebrows show the concern he has about leaving Liam and me alone in a hallway.

He’s not wrong to be concerned if this were any other circumstance. But not today.

I won’t hit the motherfucker today.

It’s moments like this that I really wish he’d been good enough to play in the NHL, just so that I could serve him up on the ice and only get penalty box time for it.

“Make it quick. This is Phoebe’s day, and I won’t let you fuck it up like you did Zoey’s.”

He pulls his hand off me and clenches it into a fist at his side.

Yeah… he’d like to hit me. That makes two of us. And if he takes the first swing, I’ll be happy to return the favor.

“I’m getting her back, Brent.”

“The fuck you are. She’s with me, asshole. Like she always should have been,” I tell him. My eyes narrow at him, and he does the same back.

“She chose me over you years ago, and she’ll do it again,” he counters.

I can’t argue that… she might. He certainly made sure she hated me enough over the years to put doubt in her mind.

“That’s because you tricked her into thinking you wanted her when it was all really a fucking competition, wasn’t it? A competition between you and me,” I say, my eyebrow lifted. “Only… I didn’t know about it. I was stupid enough to think we were friends.”

“Jesus Christ, Brent! You had everything. The Blue Devils were scouting you freshman year. You could have any girl you wanted. Your life was charmed.”

Charmed. I knew this is what it was about. He was jealous.

“My parents died, you asshole.”

What a fucking piece of work. I would give up everything to have them back.

“So, you had some bad luck.”

I shove him back, but only hard enough for him to take half a step back.

“Watch your mouth,” I warn.

I should lay him out. David wouldn’t blame me for that, but Phoebe will never forgive me for giving one of her groomsmen a black eye for her pictures that she’ll have forever.

He shrugs his shoulders like that was nothing. “The rest of your life’s been easy for you. I deserved one thing.”

He deserved one thing?

His family is loaded, and he got whatever he threw a fit for. His dad got him into a college that he couldn’t have gotten into without connections. He has a job that pays him better than he deserves, and he never had to work for it.

He wanted Zoey, so I couldn’t have her.