Page 5 of Blitz

I want to say yes. I want to give in to that selfish desire to hurt her as much as she hurt me.

But I can’t sink to her level.

“Leave her alone.”

She nods. “If you change your mind…”

I won’t. I can’t let myself sink to her level.

Mason looks up as we pass her table. Her mouth drops open at the sight of Sam and me wrapped up together. A look of hurt crosses her face before she quickly blinks it away.

We take our seats again. Miles quirks an eyebrow at the two of us. I’m not generally a touchy-feely kind of guy, and I would never make a move on my best friend’s girl.

“I hate her,” Sam announces to the table at large.

“You don’t even know her,” I remind her, taking another big bite of my sandwich. The peanut butter clogs my throat and soothes my soul in a way my spaghetti couldn’t. Damn it. I should have made two.

“I know enough.”

“You really don’t.”

“So talk to me. Tell me.”

And we’re back to this again. I make a face, and she laughs. She wraps her arm around my elbow and rests her head on my shoulder.

Sam has only been a part of our social circle for a few months, but she’s weaseled her way in good. We couldn’t get rid of her even if we wanted to. She’s good for Miles, yes, but she’s good for the rest of us, too. She’s brought some much-needed light into our dark house of socially awkward introverts.

“Let’s go back to the house and watch the new superhero movie,” she suggests.

“Can’t. Homework.”

Miles rolls his eyes. “It’s the first week of school.”

“Yeah, and I’m already behind.” Especially if I have to spend two days a week in hell instead of studying.

“You’re not going to get out of talking to me,” she warns.

I’ll take that bet. Her puppy dog eyes don’t work on me.

Chapter three

Mason

I’m a confident, capable woman, comfortable in my own skin. I can do anything I set my mind to. Except, perhaps, reunite with my ex-boyfriend.

I thought transferring to Newton would… I don’t know. I didn’t expect Tucker to fall into my arms at the first sight of me. But I didn’t expect to spend the first semester ducking and running from him all over campus, scared of my own shadow. Transferring universities isn’t for the faint of heart, and I thought I knew what I was doing when I left my safe, comfortable school for the scary and unknown of Tucker’s school to try to win him back. And yet I spent the first four and a half months on campus losing my nerve every time I saw him.

King looks good. He’s grown at least two inches and put on at least fifteen pounds of solid muscle since I saw him last. College has been good for him. Whereas before he was a lanky, overweight teen trying to figure out his place, he’s grown into a man who knows who he is and what he wants.

And what he wants isn’t me.

I can’t get that blonde out of my head. The way she wrapped herself around him. The way she rested her head on his shoulder. Playing footsie beneath the table.

He must really love her.

I never thought he would go for a blonde. Definitely not a white girl. His mothers are probably happy. I guess I didn’t know him as well as I thought.

I lie in my bed and wish he were there with me. I walk through this campus, still unfamiliar to me even after a full semester, and wish he were beside me.