Page 102 of I Dare You

Me: Lydia and I had a fight. She just walked out. Let me know if she shows up at one of your places.

Me: Please.

Wes: Do you need me to look for her?

Me: No. She was just mad. I don’t like not knowing where she is though.

Luke: When did she leave?

Me: Ten minutes ago

Luke: She isn’t here. I’ll call her now. See if I can get a hold of her.

Wyatt: She’s probably just driving around to let off some steam. Let her be.

Luke: She didn’t answer my call.

Wes: Are you sure you don’t want me to track her down?

Wyatt: You are all insane, do you know that? She’s been gone TEN minutes. Relax.

Me: Thirteen minutes now.

Reid: Two things. First, I’m with Wyatt. You’re all way overreacting. Second, she’s fine. She’s here with me and Claire. Pissed. But fine.

I ran my hands through my hair again. At this rate, I would be surprised if I had any hair left by tomorrow. A part of me felt a sense of relief. She was fine. She was at her brother’shouse. But another part of me just felt… empty.

I locked up and went to bed, leaving the light on in the kitchen in case she decided to come back in the middle of the night.

Me: Good night, little wild. I love you.

33

Sebastian

The subtle scent of Lydia surrounded me. I punched the pillow, pretending it was to make it more comfortable, and picked up my phone to check the time… and to see if I had somehow missed a call or text from Lydia. It was 4:00 a.m.… and I hadn’t.

I threw myself back into the pillow with a frustrated sigh. The words from the other night played on my mind on repeat. It didn’t even seem like a fight. A disagreement was all it was. But after spending the last two days without her, I had to concede that we’d had our first fight, and it wasn’t looking good for me. I rolled over, trying to get even a few minutes of sleep before the sun rose, which in July was only about an hour away.

I must have nodded off at some point, the sound of my phone ringing jolting me awake. I frantically grabbed for it on my nightstand, ripping the charging cord out when I pulled it to me.

Not Lydia calling. It was Luke.

I answered it, my voice hoarse from being woken up. “Areyou calling to yell at me?”

After everything, it turned out Luke was right. I wasn’t any good for Lydia. If he was calling to lay into me, I would let him.

“Open the door. I’ve got breakfast.”

He disconnected the call before I could say anything. At least if he was going to give me shit about my fight with Lydia, I was getting food out of the deal. Silver linings.

I stalked out to the front room in nothing but a pair of sweatpants I picked up off the floor. I opened the door to Luke standing on my front steps with a Downtown Diner to-go bag in hand. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until the smell of the food hit me. My stomach growled.

“Hey,” I muttered, turning back to go to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee, scratching at my chest like a caveman. Luke followed me, closing the door behind him.

“Did I wake you up? It’s after 8:00 a.m.,” Luke said.

“I didn’t get to sleep until sometime after 4:00.” I looked back at him over my shoulder as I scooped the coffee grinds into the filter. Luke put the bag of food on the table and grabbed two forks from my drawer. “Have you talked to her yet?”