“Avery and Delsin have already gone there to get your Mercedes. They’re going to bring it to our house.”
“They can’t just go and hotwire my car!” I snap hoarsely, shocked at the criminal energy of my friends.
Cami throws me an irritated glance. “You left your spare car keys with us, don’t you remember?”
“Oh,” I say helplessly, as we walk to her Mustang convertible. “Okay then.”
When we reach the car, I get in without bothering to open the door, because the top is down. The sun burns down on me, but its heat makes me glad I’m back in Miami. My friends are here, and maybe they can help me get through this, even though I previously thought I would want to avoid them for a while. Now I think that a few days at their house might be good for me. And if it doesn’t work out, I can always go to my apartment and lock my door behind me.
Cami has taken my suitcase and puts it in the backseat now. She gets in and starts the car. Thankfully, she doesn’t say anything. She’s probably waiting for me to start talking first, but I’m not ready for that. I’ll need a few days to process what happened, and that Linden has been lying to me the entire time.
I lean back against the headrest and close my eyes.
“How are you holding up?” she asks cautiously.
“Awful, but I guess now at least it can’t get any worse,” I answer with a calm that frightens me, because it’s devoid of feeling. But inside, the hurricane of the century is still tearing me apart.
“I’m here for you if you want to talk, Thally.”
“Thanks, honey,” I say in my small voice.
“And while you’re staying at our place, you can call for me anytime. I mean, even at night, when we’re sleeping, okay? The main thing as that you pull through this.”
For the first time, I feel my lips curve into a tiny half smile. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me for that. You’re my best friend, and of course I’m there for you, whatever you might need.”
“How’s Hailey?” I ask, because she and her loud mouth suddenly pop into my head.
“She’s been rather subdued since that revelation on Friday.”
“Could you call her for me? I’d like to talk to her, but I’m afraid she’ll ignore my calls.”
“I don’t think she would do that, but I’ll call her right away and ask her to drop by soon.”
“Thanks.” The anger and disappointment about Hailey’s behavior has evaporated, because now all of that is projected on Linden. I didn’t expect to be no more than an affair for him, but his pretending not to know why I was upset when I left earlier really showed me that I never meant anything to him. Now it also makes sense that he left the framed photograph of him and Trish on display in the living room.
Cami drives into their garage and parks the car. “I guess you want to be alone for a while now, huh?”
I nod slowly and get out. I walk into the house ahead of her. Dale is standing in their living room. “Hey … I heard the car coming and wanted to greet you.” She gives me a compassionate look, wringing her hands nervously.
“Hi,” I say hollowly and walk past her.
“I prepared the bed in the guest room upstairs, right across from the large bathroom,” she says.
“Thanks.” I climb the stairs, enter the guest room, and close the door behind me. Then I lie down on the bed, pull the pillow over my head, and close my eyes. I roll over on one side and curl into the fetal position.
As soon as I’m alone, all my feelings hit me, crashing like a tsunami wave. I can hardly breathe because I’m sobbing and shaking so badly.
“Thally? Are you okay?” It’s Cami’s soft voice.
I can’t respond, because I’m gasping for air between sobs.
She approaches the bed, lies down behind me, and holds me like a baby. “I am so sorry,” she whispers.
“I … I shouldn’t … have … gotten involved … with someone … like him.”
“You trusted him,” she says softly.
“I know. That was … a mistake.”
“Try to think about the good times you had. Sure, what he did is shitty, but … Well, what did he do exactly? Your dad only said that he broke up with you.”
I try to breathe in deeply. “I was woken by his manager this morning, and he told me that Linden was breaking up with me. Then he offered me an envelope full of money so I wouldn’t talk about the whole thing to the press and so I could book a flight home … They wanted to get rid of me quickly, that was it.” And then the sobbing starts again, because it just hurts so much.
“That is unbelievable,” Cami breathes.
I nod. “Yeah.”
Cami strokes my hand, which is lying underneath hers, and remains silent for a while. I’m glad she’s here, preventing me from melting into a puddle of desperate tears.
“I’m always here for you,” she whispers and presses a kiss to the back of my head. “And so are the others.”
“Thank you,” I force out hoarsely. “Y’all are the best.”
I can feel her soft chuckle at my back, can barely hear it, but she doesn’t say anything else. She just tries to help me calm down, stroking my hair and simply being there. I wouldn’t be able to stop crying if I were lying here alone.
I hear someone clear his throat. “Dale told me you were in here. What happened?”
“Hey, Ave,” Cami greets him in a low voice. “Thally, I’ll be back in a minute, okay?”
I nod again. “Okay.”
She gets up and follows Ave out of the room, softly pulling the door closed. And I shiver with the sudden loss of warmth, feeling utterly lost and alone.
***
They left me a while ago, and I’m getting thirsty. I get up and leave the room to go downstairs. In the large living room, everything’s oddly silent, a state I’m not used to in my friends’ house. And then the doorbell rings.
“Delsin?” I call out.
“Coming,” he calls back from the kitchen and comes in, passing me to open the door.
“Can I speak to Thalia?”
It’s Linden’s voice.
Delsin gives me a questioning look and then turns to the door again, shaking his head.
“Look, I know she’s here. Please let me in, or get her to come to the door.”
He obviously tries to push the door open, but Delsin pushes back and gesticulates with his free arm. “You are not coming into my house, and if you don’t leave right now, I’ll give you what you deserve,” he growls.
“Let me talk to Thalia, you asshole!” Linden yells, shoving him backwards.
“Enough.” Delsin’s voice has suddenly become dangerously quiet. I know that’s not a good sign. Back when he and I slept together a few times, there was another guy who made a stupid pass at me, and Delsin tried to help me. The other guy was all aggressive, and Delsin reacted this same way—deceptively quiet voice, followed by real trouble for the attacker. Now he jumps back toward the door and takes a step outside so that I can’t see him. “I told you that you can’t speak to her, and you think you can shove me around in my own house? Really?”
“I want to see her. I need to explain.”
“And I want you to leave, or I might lose control.”
“Well, go ahead, lose control. I’m not leaving without speaking to Thalia. She needs to hear the truth!”
“The truth?” Delsin spits. “The truth is that your asshole manager broke up with her for you! Don’t act like you didn’t ask him to. He offered her money, like she was a cheap hooker! What is this, Pretty Woman for losers? Get lost, Linden, just get lost.”
I hear a muffled sound that makes me flinch.
“Are you insane, dude?” Linden yells.
Hesitantly, I walk to the door to see what’s going on. And what I see makes my blood curdle: Delsin has Linden by the collar, and Linden is trying to wrest himself free of Delsin’s grip, but the skater is stronger. Linden’s lip is bleeding.
“DELSIN!” I scream in
my hoarse voice once I’ve managed to shake off my shock.
Linden looks at me. “Thally, please, I need to speak to you.”
Outside, Gavin and Alexis suddenly appear and try to pull the two struggling men apart.
Delsin looks at me, nods, and lets go of Linden. “Don’t you ever show your face around here again, or I’ll beat it to a pulp for you,” he says. Then he turns away and comes to stand by me. “Do you want to talk to him?”
I shake my head, and Delsin puts an arm around me to lead me back inside.
“Thalia, please, let’s talk about this!” Linden says behind me.
I force myself to ignore him until Delsin closes the door behind us.
“What was that?” Cami asks. She’s just emerged from the kitchen.
“Nothing, Caramel. I’ve got it under control,” Delsin says. “You want me to bring you upstairs, Thally?”
“I was going to drink something, and maybe not spend the entire evening hiding alone in that room,” I explain. He nods and gestures to the kitchen.
“Delsin, what was going on outside?” Cami probes.
“It’s nothing, Caramel. I just taught that damn pop star a lesson he won’t forget very quickly.”
“What did you do to him?” she asks. She sounds pissed.
“He hit him, Cami,” I interrupt, “and if he hadn’t, I probably would have.”
“Are you out of your mind?” she barks at Delsin.
“I was angry,” he defends himself. “The dude shoved me first, and I just retaliated. Hey, he broke your best friend’s heart, so it’s only fair I spice up his pretty face!”
She rolls her eyes. “I hope, for you, that the cops don’t show up on the doorstep.”
“I don’t think they will,” I say calmly and head to the kitchen. I open the fridge to grab a cold can of Sprite. After I’ve taken a sip, I sit down at the counter. My fingers trace the lines the condensed water makes on the outside of the can.
Cami sits down next to me. “Do you think he’s going to leave again?”
“I don’t know, but I know that I don’t want to see him.”
“I’m not trying to take his side,” she says cautiously, “but is it at all possible that this was a ruse planned by his ex and his manager? A conspiracy, you know? Who knows how crazy these people can get?”
“I think Linden knew what was going to happen, otherwise he wouldn’t have acted so different last night. It was as if someone had flipped a switch. No, I don’t want to see him anymore. I want to focus on my classes and spend the summer at home.” I manage to say it with some conviction.
“You’re going to spend summer break in Austin?” she asks.
“Yes. I have to work at my dad’s company to pay off my debt,” I explain. “He’s given me quite a lot of money.”
“Delsin?”
“I’m here,” he says with a salute.
“Would you come with me to visit my mom?” Cami says. “She keeps asking when she’ll see us again, and I promised her I’d come this summer. If Thally’s also going to be there, we won’t be alone in Texas. We could also ask Ave and Dale if they want to come, too.”.
“Cami, I won’t have a lot of time to hang out with you guys,” I warn. “I really have to work, except for the weekends.”
“Doesn’t matter. I mainly want to go because of Mom and Buck.”
“And probably also because of Steve,” Delsin grumbles.
“He’s still no more than a friend,” she counters.
“Yeah, and my name is Santa Claus.”
“Hi, Santa,” I say, and I feel a smile coming on.
“You’re wearing a red baseball cap, so it could be true,” Cami adds, rolling her eyes.
“I could sew a white bobble on the top; then it would be almost perfect,” he says dryly.
“If only you knew how to sew.”
“Jesus, woman, you’re really too much,” he growls and leaves the kitchen.
Cami giggles and stares at his retreating back. “I’m sorry,” she says to me, “but we keep having arguments about Steve.”
“It’s okay. Delsin’s jealousy is the best proof of how much he really loves you,” I state thoughtfully. “I wished Linden felt something like that for me.”
“Do you love him?” she asks softly.
“Yes. We hardly know each other and yet I’ve fallen in love with him. Do you know what he told me when I said we were immature for falling in love so quickly?”
“What?”
“He said that he loves a lot of small things about me. That I love listening to the rain. That I cry more at happy endings than sad ones. That he knows I’m about to put my head on his shoulder when I tuck my hair back behind my ear. He literally told me that he loved those things.” I feel the tears threaten to well again. I put my head on Cami’s shoulder instead. “It hurts,” I whisper.
“I know, but that’s going to pass,” she murmurs. “You know that, too. At some point, you’ll be able to pass him on the street again and feel nothing. It’s going to get better, Thalia.”
“I hope it gets better soon.”
“The jerk is still camping out in the front yard,” Delsin snaps, sticking his head into the kitchen again and then disappearing.
I rise. “If he’s come all the way here, maybe I should go out and meet him face to face. That way I can hit him, too.”
“Are you sure?” Cami asks.
I nod slowly. “Yes.”
“Okay. Otherwise I would have taken care of the beating he deserves.” She smirks. “But you should splash some cold water on your face, because you look like you’ve been crying for hours.”
“Well, that’s because I have. He should see how I feel because of him.” I take a deep breath and walk to the front door.
In the hallway, Avery tries to take a baseball bat out of Delsin’s hands. “Dude, you can’t beat him with that! You’d go straight to jail for a thing like that.”
“This is my property, so I can do as I see fit to get him to leave it,” Delsin objects.
“That may be the case in Texas, but not in Florida,” I interrupt them. “Just be there in case I need you, okay?”
Ave gives me a warm smile. “I’ll walk out with you. I think I’m the only one who doesn’t want to see Linden six feet under yet.”
“Okay.”
He follows me outside, where Linden is standing with Alexis and Gavin. “Linden,” Gavin is saying insistently, “we’ve got to go back, seriously. You know tomorrow’s stuff can’t be canceled.”
I clear my throat when I reach them. “What do you want, Linden?”
He turns and looks at me, then swallows hard. “Why did you run away?”
“Because your manager broke up with me in your stead,” I say. “He tried to give me an envelope full of money so I wouldn’t talk to any journalists about our affair. Go home, Linden. I don’t want to see you anymore.”
“Thally, me and Trish are not together anymore,” he states insistently.
“Then it’s strange that neither Pierce nor Trish seem to know that. But now I can see why he was so upset when our little thing made it onto TV.”
Linden sighs. “I went out early this morning to buy this for you,” he explains, taking a small box out of his pocket. “It’s a bracelet engraved with our initials.” He holds out the gift.
I raise my hands as if to fend him off. “I no longer want anything to do with you. Fly back to New York and leave me in peace.”
When I turn away, he grabs my wrist and pulls me back toward him. “Please don’t go. Don’t go!”
I jerk myself free. “Don’t ever touch me again. I want to be left alone.”
But he doesn’t heed my warning. Instead, he pulls me closer and tries to kiss me. I’m not a fan of slapping people, but now I don’t see any other way out. I start hitting him in the face, several times. “You lied to me, you betrayed me and threw me to the dogs! And now you think you can ridicule me on top of that? I HATE YOU!” I scream a
t him.
Avery wraps his arms around me from behind to stop me from going even more ballistic. He lifts me up and pulls me away from Linden. “Calm down. Don’t kill him.”
“Let me go, Avery, I’m not done yet!” I screech.
“You should all leave now, because once I let her go she’s gonna scratch your eyes out,” Ave says breathlessly, while I struggle to get free from his grip.
“Let’s go, Linden. I don’t want to watch you being beat to a pulp,” Gavin interrupts.
Linden gives me a wounded look. “I love you, Thally.” Then he turns around and walks to a black SUV.
I stop struggling and stare at his back. “You should have been honest with me. I can’t believe anything you say anymore,” I say, but he probably can’t hear me. My voice won’t obey me; I can’t yell after him.
Ave loosens his grip slowly. “Promise me you won’t run after him now.”
“I won’t,” I say weakly.
He lets go of me, and I walk hastily back into the house, straight to my guest room. Tomorrow I’ll go home. It’s great of my friends to be there for me, but I need to be alone and find peace and quiet. Draven and Nate will be at my apartment, but they don’t know how to deal with such drama, so they’ll tread carefully and leave me alone. Maybe I should go home right now. No, I know I’m too exhausted and unfocused to drive a car. I’ve been restless ever since I got here.
I lie down on the bed and close my eyes, but sleep, of course, won’t come. Now that I’ve seen him, the lump in my chest has grown to painful proportions. I don’t want to think about Linden, but our brief history unfolds before my eyes again and again. The memories will kill me.
“Thally?” Hailey’s voice suddenly interrupts my despondency.
I look up at her. “Hey.” And then I feel the tears start to flow again. “Can you forgive me for being so mean?”
She nods and comes closer, sitting on the edge of the bed. “I’ve already heard what happened. I’m so sorry. I really thought he was serious.”
I shrug in an exaggerated fashion. “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. Someday, I guess.”
Hailey scoots closer and listens to me explain what’s weighing me down. Then she tells me why she’s been preoccupied recently. She and Logan have problems of their own—he’s taken to staying out late, starting arguments, and rejecting her opinions across the board. He seems to be massively frustrated because he can’t find a new job. Therefore, he’s thinking about going back to Texas. I’m sorry for her, because she used to be very happy with him, but at the moment I can hardly deal with my own situation, let alone give her the support she needs. I’m a loser of a friend right now!
Linden: Rocking Pleasure: New Adult College Romance (Coral Gables Series Book 3) Page 22
