Chapter 144 (1/2)

“Done,” I say, and he smiles despite the fact that his mouth is swollen as well. Why am I always cleaning up wounds?

“Thank you.” He smiles again as I rinse off the bloodstained towel.

“I’ll send you a bill,” I tease.

“Are you sure you’re okay, though? You hit the ground pretty hard.”

“Yeah, I’m a little sore, but I’m fine.” The events from tonight took a drastic turn for the worse when Hardin followed me outside. I had a feeling he wasn’t too hurt by me leaving him, but I thought he would be more affected than he was. He said he was busy and that’s why he hadn’t called me. Even though I thought he wouldn’t care as much as I did, I thought he loved me enough to care a little. Instead, he acted as if nothing had even happened, as if we were friends having a casual conversation. That is, until he saw Zed and lost it. If anything, I thought seeing Trevor would anger him and he would try to start a fight in front of everyone, but he couldn’t have cared less. Which is kind of strange.

Regardless of how brokenhearted I am, I know Hardin wouldn’t hurt me purposely, but this is the second time something like this has happened. The first time I was quick to excuse his behavior. I was the one who convinced him to go to his father’s for Christmas, and he just couldn’t handle it. Tonight was his fault—he shouldn’t even have been there.

“Are you hungry?” Zed asks me as we leave his small bathroom for the living room.

“No, I already ate at the party,” I say; my voice is still hoarse from my excessive, embarrassing sobbing on the way to Zed’s apartment.

“Okay, we don’t have much anyway, but I could order you something if you want, so just let me know if you change your mind.”

“Thank you.” Zed is always so incredibly sweet to me.

“My roommate will be here in a little while, but he won’t bother us. He’ll probably crash as soon as he gets in.”

“I really am sorry that this keeps happening, Zed.”

“Don’t apologize. Like I said, I’m just glad I was there for you. Hardin seemed pretty angry when I got there.”

“We were already fighting.” I roll my eyes and take a seat on the couch, wincing from the soreness. “Go figure.”