Chapter Twenty-Three

Luke

Ayla was quiet as she tugged me to a stop in an alcove. She was acting strange. She stared at the floor, refusing to meet my eye.

“What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

“No.” Her voice quivered. “Everything’s not okay. Luke, I—we—this thing we have, it’s over. I can’t do it anymore,” she said.

My body stiffened. My pulse drowned out every other sound. “If this is about the video—”

“That’s the problem, this whole thing has been about the video.”

“Wait, no, it hasn’t. It might’ve started that way, like we said last night. But this thing between us…it’s real, Ayla. I know this sounds cheesy as hell, but I’ve never felt something so complete. So pure. So perfect in my entire life. I never knew this kind of thing existed.”

“Please, don’t make this any harder.” She finally raised her face to mine. Tears welled in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I never should’ve blackmailed you. But I can’t be with you.”

“Hold on. What the fuck is going on? Ayla, you can’t tell me that last night you hinted at having feelings for me, and now today, you just, what, suddenly don’t?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. I’m sorry. I thought I could make this work, but I can’t. But don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. In fact, I’m dropping out of the race altogether. I don’t have time for any of it.” She stared at me now, no emotion on her face. “I never cared about you—I was only doing all this for the election, and now that I’m not running anymore, I…I don’t need you.”

My chest hurt, like someone had ripped open my body and peeled the skin off. I stood, watching her, waiting for her to say she was kidding. To say she took it all back and wanted to see what my reaction would be. But she didn’t.

“I’m really sorry, Luke,” she whispered.

“Sorry? That’s it? C’mon. Talk to me. We made a deal.” Desperation took over. I’d lost too many people in my life. Or maybe that was the point. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to truly be happy.

“The deal’s off. It’s over. I’m deleting the video now. So you can go back to your life and your friends, and I’ll do the same. We can pretend this never happened.” She held up her phone to show me the video and her putting it in the trash can. “There. It’s done.”

Anger raced through me. I wanted to hurt her the same way she hurt me. To make her feel like the world was falling out from under her, like it had been for me my whole life. If I was going to be miserable, then she should be, too. “You’re right…it’s done. Everyone was right about you. In fact, I don’t know what the hell I ever saw in you. You’re just an angry, hypocritical wannabe. Always spouting off about making changes but never having the balls to do anything about it. You never fit in with me or my friends, anyway,” I said.

She didn’t answer. Instead, she spun around and raced down the hall. I stood there for long moments trying to figure out what’d just happened. I leaned against the wall and slid to the floor, propping my head up on my knees. I swallowed back my frustration. My anger. My tears.

This was why I didn’t like to get close to people. They always let me down. Hurt me.

But what had changed since last night? When we’d spent hours talking and eating pizza and cuddling. Had I done something wrong?

This fucking sucked. Like hard-core sucked. I fisted my hands and rubbed at my eyes, not wanting to break down at school. To let anyone see me as weak.

“Hey, man, what’re you doing? I thought we were going to eat with Ayla at her table today?” Brady said.

I shook my head, picking the dead skin by my fingernail. “No.”

“Luke? What’s wrong?” Brady knelt down.

“She broke up with me.”

“Ayla broke up with you? But you two seemed fine this morning…”

I shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I have no idea what I did. This came out of nowhere.”

“Look, I know what’ll cheer you up. Come over to my house tonight. We can play some pool, maybe throw back a couple of beers or something.”

“Nah. I’m good. Listen, I’m going to go sit in Mr. Brewster’s class and work on that study guide. I’ll catch you later.”

Climbing to my feet, I headed down the hallway, away from Brady and away from the memory of Ayla’s words. If I hadn’t already missed so many days this year to take care of Landon, I’d have just skipped class.

It didn’t take long for the rumors to start spreading. By fifth hour the whole school knew about me and Ayla.

Jack came over to my desk and sat on the edge of it. “Heard about you and Ayla. Don’t worry, bro, you can do a lot better than that cow.”

My lips tightened into a thin line. My gaze bore into his. “Shut the fuck up, Jack. I’m not in the mood for your shit.”

He held up his hands. “Whoa, chill, dude. Don’t take it out on me.” He smirked.

For a moment, I wondered if he had something to do with this. If he’d pressured Ayla into breaking it off.

“If I find out you had anything to do with this, we’re through as friends, you hear me?” I shoved him off my desk and opened my textbook. Not that I could concentrate on anything. All around me, the whispers continued.

Everyone wondered if I’d dumped Ayla or the other way around. Some people said that I was sick of dating a nobody, others said I’d cheated on her. And on and on they went.

By the end of the day, I welcomed going to the weight room. I needed to burn off some energy. To just lose myself in something thoughtless. Brady joined me but didn’t talk. He spotted me as I lay on the bench and hefted the bar up and down.

I did several reps before sitting up and turning to look at him. “I have no idea what happened.”

“Chloe was just as shocked. Ayla called her last night and told her about the tree house. She said she sounded so happy. This whole thing sucks. I’m sorry.”

“If she would’ve at least told me why…I mean, did I come on too strong? Did I say something that hurt her feelings? Did someone else say something to her?” I sat up. “Not that someone can’t change their mind, but there were no signs.” She’d also said she was just using me. Ayla was in drama club. Maybe it really had been an act. Pour it on thick, lure me in, then fuck me over.

And if there were signs, would I have recognized them? I wasn’t exactly the best judge of character. It took me until senior year to realize what an asshole Jack was. This was why I didn’t put myself out there. Why I didn’t date. I should’ve known better. After all, look what’d happened with my parents. They were prime examples of what happened when you fell in love in high school.