Scarred (Scarred #1)(22)
Author: J.S. Cooper

“You know that’s not true,” he sighed.

“So why do I have to wait for this perfect coupling?”

“I don’t want you to get hurt, Lexi,” he sighed. “Guys like Bryce, they don’t care who they hurt.”

“He’s not like that.”

“You’re just another piece of flesh to him.”

“No, I’m not.” I looked at him with hurt eyes. “He likes me and he respects me, Luke.”

“No he doesn’t, Lexi,” he said, angrily. “He didn’t give you the time of day in high school.”

“That was years ago, Luke, we are past that now.”

“Are we?” He looked at me with pained eyes. “All you seem to do is talk about Bryce from high school. You barely knew him then and you barely know him now, yet you think he is boyfriend material?” he laughed, bitterly. “Give me a break, Lexi. I know your mom sucks and you are emotional, but don’t go making any silly mistakes because you are rebelling against her. You don’t want to end up pregnant and single.”

“How dare you!” I screamed and slapped Luke across the face. He had no idea how much his words had hurt and stung me. He had no idea how close to home he had come. Especially because of the secret.

“I dared to tell you the truth because I am your best friend, Lexi. I thought that was what best friends did. But I guess, maybe, in your world best friends only get to hear some of the news.”

“I didn’t tell you Briget was a bitch when you first started dating her, did I?” I snarled, angry that he was being this way.

“You weren’t exactly friendly to her.”

“I didn’t have that much time to be, you guys pretty much disappeared once you started having sex,” I hurled at him and he flinched.

“I made a mistake, Lexi. I dated Briget because I thought I needed to be a different type of guy. I realized I wasn’t that guy and she wasn’t who I wanted.”

“Okay.” I rolled my eyes at the seriousness in his voice.

“I already had someone very special to me in my life,” he continued and my heart stilled. I didn’t want him to continue. I didn’t know what he was going to say, but I was scared—scared he would say he loved me, or Anna. I knew I didn’t want to hear either of our names mentioned. I didn’t want to know. Not now. Not when it would complicate everything. I needed him to just be my best friend.

“I’m tired, Luke.” I pulled away from him. “I’m going to go to bed.”

He looked at me with sad eyes and I felt myself pulling away from him. I couldn’t give him the comfort that he needed at this point. I couldn’t tell him that I was going to push Bryce away, because it was the last thing I wanted to do.

“Good night, Luke.” I walked away from him slowly and I felt him walking behind me.

“Do you want to Dawson’s Creek it tonight?” he whispered, hopefully, and my heart sank.

“Not tonight,” I whispered, without looking at him. “Not tonight.” My heart felt heavy as I walked into the house and locked the door. I didn’t look back to see if Luke was still there or not. I didn’t want to think about him. Not now. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t be happy for me. I had been thinking about—and talking about—Bryce for years. He knew how much I cared about him. I didn’t understand why he wasn’t more supportive. I wanted him to jump up and down with me. I wanted him to ask me for details and to give me advice on what to do to find out if Bryce really did like me. I wanted him to be happy for me. I sighed as I walked to my room and drew the curtains.

Chapter 12

I was excited as my mom got the food ready for the evening. And my excitement pleased my father who, for some inextricable reason, had decided that he wanted to attend my party. I guess it was his way of trying to influence the younger folks of Jonesville to vote for him. My mother was delighted that both myself and my father were going to be home and was whipping up cookies and cakes to her heart’s delight. I wanted to tell her that I was having a party and not an evening soiree, but I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. Knowing my friends from the football team, the food would get eaten up, so it really wasn’t a big deal.

“Phone, Bryce!” My mom called out to me and I picked it up without thinking.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Bryce,” Suzannah’s sultry tone purred at me through the phone line and I groaned.

“Oh hey, Suzannah, what’s up?” I tried to keep my tone friendly.

“Just checking to see if you want me to come to the party earlier tonight?”

“No, why?” I frowned into the phone. “We aren’t together any more, Suz.”

“Well not currently,” she purred.

“Suz, it’s not going to happen.” My voice sounded frustrated. “Please accept that.”

“You never used to tell me no, Bryce.”

“You never slept with my best friend the night before he died before.”

“Bryce.” Her voice was shocked.

“Sorry,” I sighed. “Look, I’m kinda seeing someone else.”

“Who?” Her voice was mean and catty. “Not that bitch, Mary?”

“Isn’t Mary one of your good friends?”

“I grace her with my presence, yes.”

“Look, I have to go,” I sighed, eager to be away from this juvenile conversation. “I’ll see you later tonight.”

“I think we need to—” she continued, but I didn’t hear the rest of her sentence because I hung up. I had no interest in what she had to say. The fact that I had dated her so long was proof to me that I had been in a bad state of mind for a really long time.

“Hey, son, can we talk?” My father walked up to me with his political grin and I knew he wanted something from me. I sighed, but knew that this moment was inevitable. I had been waiting for it since I had gotten back.

“Shall we go and talk in the study?” He walked in and sat down before waiting for my answer. “Close the door,” he said as I followed him in. I rolled my eyes as I closed the door and sat across from him.

“Yeah?” I questioned him, hurriedly. Whatever he wanted to talk about was not important to me.

“I think you should enroll at Notre Dame and then come and work for me as an aide.”

“I don’t think so.” I spoke quietly but firmly and I saw his nostrils flare.