Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 125845 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 629(@200wpm)___ 503(@250wpm)___ 419(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125845 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 629(@200wpm)___ 503(@250wpm)___ 419(@300wpm)
That was the day I realized my mother has no self-worth and my father has too much of it.
Still, an angry trip down memory lane was no excuse to take it out on Demi. I knew there was a chance she wouldn’t believe me when I told her about Nico. I shouldn’t have mocked her about getting her head out of the sand, insinuated she was a naïve fool.
She called you a fuckboy.
Ugh, true. She was as much of a dick to me as I was to her. We’re both dicks.
Fuck. I should try to clear the air. I look toward the side table where I left my phone. But no. Texting is garbage. A text conversation about this would feel too impersonal.
“You know what.” I hop off the couch. “I have to go.”
Summer glances over. “Are you sure? We could start a new game.”
“Nah, I think the zombies can have this one. I’ll be back later.”
“Where are you going?” Brenna asks.
“To see a friend.”
“Ha!” Mocking laughter rings out. “I knew the celibacy wouldn’t last.”
“Not for sex,” I clarify. “It’s the girl I’m working on that project with. We got into an argument the other day, and I want to smooth things over.”
“You know you can just text her,” Summer says helpfully.
“You know you can mind your own business.”
“All right then.”
I haven’t been drinking, so I make the ten-minute drive to campus and turn onto Greek Row. I can’t find a spot in front of the Theta house, but there’s a stretch of empty curb a few houses away. I park the Rover and that’s when I hear the yells.
Oh shit.
I quickly jog down the lane, skidding to a stop cartoon-character style when I spot Nico on the lawn of the Theta house, shouting up at the second-floor window.
“Come on, Demi! Please!”
The man sounds utterly destroyed. I’d probably feel genuine sympathy for him if not for the fact that I know precisely what’s going on. He cheated on Demi at the party. There’s no other reason why he’d be outside Demi’s house, begging her to let him in.
“Please, mami, I love you! I fucked up, okay!”
I lurk near the hedges that separate the sorority house from its neighbor.
“Go away!” comes a high-pitched voice.
It’s not Demi. I peer up and see two girls at the window, their figures backlit by Demi’s bedroom lights.
“She doesn’t want to talk to you. Go away,” one of them yells.
“We’ll call the police if you don’t,” the other one warns. “You’re disrupting the peace. People are trying to sleep.”
“It’s nine o’clock on a Friday and this is Greek Row!” Nico growls. “Nobody is fucking sleeping, Josie! Just tell her to come down.”
“She doesn’t want to see you, you cheating prick.”
Yup. I called this one.
“Demi,” he wails. His voice actually cracks, and this time I do feel for the guy.
I know narcissists—I lived with one my whole life—and they don’t usually experience remorse. If they do show any regret, it’s probably an act. Yes, Nico could be putting on that act, but my gut says he isn’t. He seems genuinely heartbroken.
He made his bed, a voice in my head points out.
“Demi! I’m going to stand out here all night until you let me in! Please. We’ve been together forever! You owe me a conversation. You owe me a chance to explain—”
A shriek of epic proportions slices through the night air. It’s shrill enough to give Rupi Miller a run for her money.
Demi appears at the window, shoving her sisters out of the way. “I owe you?” she thunders. “I OWE YOU?”
Nico instantly recognizes his mistake. “No, I didn’t mean it in that way—”
She cuts him off. “You cheated on me with one of my friends! And then you cheated on me again with some random chick at a party!”
Oh, Nico, you stupid bastard.
Any sympathy I had for him is long gone. I’m solidly on Team Demi. I mean, I always was, but now I don’t care how gutted the guy appears to be. He deserves it.
“We’re done,” Demi screams out the window. “Do you hear me, Nicolás? We’re done.”
“Baby, don’t say that.”
“You’re right—we’ve known each other forever. I’ve been loyal to you forever. But you’re incapable of reciprocating that loyalty. So please, just go.”
“We can work through this,” he pleads. “Please, give me another chance. Let me earn your trust back.”
“Dude!” a random voice shouts from one of the neighboring houses. “You’re pathetic! Bitch wants you to leave!”
Demi ignores the interruption. “There’s no earning my trust back,” she calls to Nico. “We’re done. I don’t want to be with you anymore. I don’t want to be with a liar and a cheater. I’m worth more than what you’ve given me.”
She’s right about that. And call me a perv, but I’m disgustingly aroused by the sight of her right now. Her cheeks are flushed and her dark eyes are blazing like hot coals. She’s got a hand on her hip as she glares down at Nico. Fierce and confident. Scorned but not defeated.