Chapter Twenty-Five

Luke

I watched Ayla walk across the parking lot with Chloe when I picked up Landon from play practice. My stomach knotted. I’d mostly managed to avoid her since our breakup a couple of weeks ago. A part of me missed her. Her late-night texts. Her jokes. The way she used to smile at me when we were alone. How could I miss her? It was ridiculous—she’d torn my heart out and stomped on it.

The wind caught her dark hair, and she raised a hand to smooth it back down, not even noticing me.

I should’ve known better than to fall for her, so in a way, it was my own fault. Besides, she’d been very up front with me when we broke up. Everything had been an act. She’d used me.

Not wanting to rehash it all again, I turned up the volume on my radio and stared at the school building instead, waiting for Landon to come out.

At least things at my dad’s had been going okay. So far, anyway. Landon had been doing so much better, as far as sleeping and eating. And if I was being honest, so was I. At least for the most part, when I wasn’t thinking about Ayla.

My phone buzzed, and I rushed to see who’d messaged me. Brady. For a brief second, I’d thought it might be Ayla. Which was stupid to even consider.

Brady: Want to meet up at my place? I’m having one last bonfire for the season.

I sighed and typed: Sorry, don’t really feel like it.

Brady: C’mon. I promise, it’ll just be us. No Jack. No girls. Just us, hanging out.

Did I really want to just go back to my room and think about the breakup all night? Because that’s exactly what’d happen. I’d try to focus on my homework, then something would remind me of her. Then I’d get pissed off all over again that we broke up, then I’d be up all night rehashing every single conversation we’d had. I needed a break.

I’ll swing by for a little bit, but I have to drop Landon off first.

Brady: See you then.

Landon came out the side door, and I pulled up to the curb. When he climbed in, he slouched down in the seat. “I hate this,” he said.

“Hate what, buddy?”

“Hate that you and Ayla aren’t together. Why’d she have to break up with you?” He turned his big blue eyes on me. “I miss her.”

I chewed on my dry lips, turning to face forward. “I do, too.”

“Can’t you fix this? Like you fixed us being able to be with Dad again?” He touched my arm. “Because I don’t think she really wants to be away from us—I mean, she wouldn’t have helped us all those times if she didn’t like us, would she?”

He didn’t understand that there were some things I couldn’t fix. Ayla had made it super clear that she didn’t like me. But Landon was right—why would she have gone to all that trouble of helping us if she didn’t care? It made no sense. Maybe he was onto something. Maybe I needed to confront her. But I didn’t want to get Landon’s hopes up.

“I would if I could, Landon. Trust me.”

“You miss her, too. You’ve been really sad since she’s been gone. So has she. She’s been messing up during play practice, and I saw her crying the other day. So if you’re both sad, that means you miss each other.”

I didn’t respond, but again, my eight-year-old brother seemed to have a lot more insight than I gave him credit for. Damn it. I didn’t want to think about Ayla. But could it be possible that she did miss me, too? If so, was I ready to really give up on us? Maybe I should fight for her, let her see I liked her and that it wasn’t about the video or the blackmail.

I had a lot of things to think about.

For the rest of the ride, he was quiet. When we pulled up in front of our house, I let him out. “Aren’t you coming in?”

“I’m going to head over to see Brady for a while. Can you let Dad know I’ll be back later?”

“Yeah, I guess,” he said. He grabbed his backpack from the passenger seat, then hurried inside.

I drove around the looping road until I reached Brady’s house. After I parked, I followed the path that led to the backyard.

The fire pit blazed with the bright orange and yellow flames. Brady sat on one of the benches, roasting a marshmallow. “Hey, man, you made it.”

“Yeah.” I plopped down beside him and grabbed a roasting stick. He handed me the bag of marshmallows, and I took two out and slid them down the metal prongs, then proceeded to hold it over the fire. “So how come you didn’t invite all the guys over?”

“Because I wanted to hang out with you,” Brady said. “Haven’t been seeing a whole lot of you since you and Ayla broke up. You’ve been hiding out.”

I shrugged. “Just didn’t want to talk about it. Besides, I’ve had a lot of homework.”

“Really? That’s your lame-ass excuse?” Brady snorted. “You do know we have almost all the same classes, right? And you’re not busting your ass at Crusty’s anymore, which means more free time.”

With a sigh, I took my marshmallows out of the fire and slid them onto a graham cracker that already had a square of chocolate on it. “Look, I don’t really want to get into this tonight. It’s been a long couple of weeks.”

“I know,” Brady said. He set his s’more down on a plate and watched me for a second. “So before you decide you’re totally done with Ayla—”

“I said I don’t want to talk about it. We’re done, end of story. I want to move on.”

“Damn, you’re being a stubborn ass tonight. Chloe told me today that Jenna found the video on Ayla’s phone, and that’s why she broke up with you. She was trying to protect you. She gave up the election—and you—in order to keep Jenna from turning us in.”

“Wait, what?”

Brady ran a hand through his hair. “Think about it—even you said the breakup seemed to come out of nowhere. And from what Chloe said, Ayla’s miserable, too.”

Could it be true? Landon had said something similar. I wasn’t sure I wanted to get my hopes up again. “She said she’d only used me for the election.”

“Then why didn’t she wait to break up with you until after she won? See what I mean? Doesn’t make sense. You have to fix this…I don’t care if there are consequences for us or not. You’re my bro, and I hate seeing you like this.” Brady stood and came over to me. He grabbed my arm and tugged me up. “Whatever you decide to do, I got your back.”

“Shit. How could I be so stupid? But I said some mean things to her, too. She hurt me, and I got pissed. I don’t know if I can fix that.”

“You can and you have to, because I’m sick of seeing you all depressed and shit.”

“Well, this definitely changes things. I’ve got to find a way to make this up to her. She took the fall for me. Well, I guess for us. Damn. I mean, the school paper got canceled. She’d planned on using her presidency to save it.” Which meant she and the others were likely screwed for their college stuff. “There’s something I need to do. Can I get a rain check on this?”

Brady grinned. “Only if you’re going to get your head out of your ass and fight for her.”

“Yeah, I am.”

I raced home and barged into the house.

Dad came out from the living room looking frantic. “Is everything okay?”

“It will be, but I wondered if I could ask you for a huge favor?” I had no idea if this would work, but I was going to try. Ayla was worth it.

And she needed to know it.