Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 51484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
“Then why wait until now to tell her? If you cared so goddamn much, why not tell her long ago and run off into the sunset together?” he sneers.
“I didn’t want her to spend the rest of her life knowing what you were capable of,” I mutter. “I wanted her to go on believing that the brother she idolized was worthy of it. But I’m done making decisions for her, man. I won’t have this shit hanging over us for, pulling us apart, the rest of our lives. You took everything from me that mattered once. I’m not letting you do it again by keeping my fucking mouth shut when it matters now.”
“You didn’t just ruin his life,” Sutton whispers. “You ruined mine, too, Jamison. I believed you. I trusted you. And the whole thing was a lie. I spent years thinking he was in love with Vanessa. I never got over it. I never moved on. I was just…broken. Do you have any idea how it feels to wake up every single day and feel like you’re in hell? To feel like you have nothing and no one? You did that to me because you took everyone from me.”
He hangs his head, not saying anything.
“And Vanessa?” Sutton growls at him, jabbing him in the stomach again. “How could you?” she cries quietly. “That girl loved you. She would have done anything for you! And you recorded her and showed your teammates?” She stares at her brother like she’s seeing him for the first time and doesn’t like what she’s seeing at all. “You destroyed her, and this whole time, you let me believe she shut me out because she was in love with your best friend. How am I ever supposed to look at you the same again? How am I supposed to forgive you?”
Jamison stumbles back against the wall, his face paling. Neither of us tries to help him as he slowly slides down it, landing on his ass with his head in his hands. “I’m sorry,” he whispers, his big body shuddering. “Christ, I fucking hate myself for what I did.”
“Good,” I grunt, not willing to take it easy on him. Fuck that. “You should hate yourself for what you did. It should haunt you.”
“You think I don’t know that?” he asks, staring up at me through bleary eyes. “You think it doesn’t eat at me? I couldn’t fucking keep lying to her, so I told her what I’d done. She walked out on me. Threatened to go to the police if I ever came near her again.” His gaze flickers to Sutton. “Said she’d tell you what I did if I even thought about contacting her.”
“I wish she had told me,” Sutton says quietly.
“I never wanted you to know. I never wanted you to look at me like you are right now.”
“How am I supposed to look at you?” she asks quietly. “I don’t even know you.”
He flinches like she hit him.
“At least tell me why,” she demands. “Why did you do it? Why’d you lie about it?”
“I don’t fucking know,” he says, his voice whisper quiet. “I was fucking up with her, making her miserable. But I couldn’t fucking accept that I was the problem. I convinced myself that Jordan was always following the two of you around because he wanted her. It was so fucking easy to convince myself that she felt the same way about him…” He shakes his head. “I never intended to show anyone those videos when I recorded them. But we had an argument before the game, and I just fucking…did it.”
“You need help,” Sutton whispers sadly. “Real help, Jamison. Not that bullshit rehab you went to last year, but one that you actually commit to.”
“I know.” He glances down at his hands. “I’ve known that for a long fucking time.”
“Then get it. And don’t come back here until you do.”
“I…”
“I mean it,” she says, her voice shaking. “I don’t want to see you again until you get help. I don’t want to hear from you. I don’t want to talk to you.”
He jerks his head in a nod, climbing unsteadily to his feet. I pull Sutton up against my side, holding her tightly as he looks at her like she just broke his heart. “Do you think you’ll ever forgive me?” he asks her.
“I don’t know. I really don’t.”
He flicks his gaze in my direction as if he’s asking me the same question…but any relationship we had ended a long fucking time ago. There’s no getting it back now. For her sake, I’ll learn to be civil if that’s what I have to do. But we won’t be friends. We won’t ever be cool. He’s not the kind of friend I need. He never was.
He sighs quietly and then walks out. “Take care of her,” he mutters to me before pulling the door closed behind him with one final look in her direction.