Promise Me Always (25 page)

“Holy shit!” I gasped, my eyes widening. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I yelled. “Wait, Christina…as in Christina Summers?”

“Yep,” Avery sighed.

“I thought she left the party? When the hell did this happen… and what the fuck was Devin thinking?” I screeched.

“I thought she did, too, but after your ‘incident’ on the dance floor, I went to find him so he could talk to Blake. Someone said they had seen him heading for the bathroom. I was walking down the hall when I heard his voice coming from the bedroom. I poked my head in the door and saw her on her fucking knees, giving him head. I gasped out loud by accident and they both looked up and saw me,” she said, shaking her head at the memory. “I slammed the door shut. I heard Devin yell ‘Fuck!’ as I made my way back down the hallway.” Avery sounded disheartened. She had never said she had feelings for Devin, but the way she acted when he was around gave her away—so this wasn’t a complete shock.

Avery had a very rough childhood. She never talked about it, though. Every time Lex and I would try to get her to open up, she would change the subject. We never pushed her into telling us—we figured that if she wanted us to know, one day she would tell us. Whatever it was, I think it made her dislike men. She never gave any guy the time of day and there were plenty that tried. In fact, I don’t think she ever had a serious boyfriend. Lex and I thought she was a lesbian when we befriended her our junior year because she never seemed attracted to guys. About three months after meeting her, she put that theory to rest when we were watching “The Hangover” and she told us that she thought Bradley Cooper was hot. Since high school, she had dated a few guys, but never made it past three or four dates. She would always end it for some lame reason. From what I could gather from the conversations we did have about her past, I think it had to do with a boyfriend she had freshman year.

“Guys suck balls!” Lexi shouted, punching the seat in front of her. We all giggled a bit at her sudden outburst. “I think I saw your friend Cara fighting with her boyfriend, too. They were yelling at each other when they got into his truck earlier.”

“What the hell! Is there a full moon tonight or something?” I asked as I looked out the windows. I was halfway kidding but, sure enough, I spotted it shining brightly. No wonder everyone was having a shitty night.

Avery turned into my apartment complex just after midnight. I was still looking out the window when she pulled up to my building. She parked the car and I opened the door to get out, “Thanks for dropping me off, Avery. Sorry tonight ended up being so crappy for all of us.”

“Anytime. You want us to come up with you?” Avery asked. Lexi got out of the back seat and made her way around to the front passenger side, stopping to give me a hug.

“No, I think I just need to go to sleep. Love you both. Call me tomorrow,” I said, releasing Lex.

“Sure thing, doll.” Lex plopped down into the front seat. “Sleep well. Love ya.” She shut the door and I watched as they drove away.

As I turned to head up my stairs, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I spun around and saw a black car sitting at the very far end of the parking lot. I stopped and stared into the darkness, focusing solely on the dark vehicle. It looked strangely familiar to me, but was so far away, I couldn’t make out what kind it was. I got an eerie feeling in my stomach—like I was being watched.

I stood there, gaping at the mysterious vehicle. A shudder ran through my body when another vehicle’s headlights swept across the back window, lighting up the inside of the car and I noticed a dark figure sitting in the driver seat. My heart skipped a beat and I was suddenly cold with fear. I spun around quickly and headed up to my apartment. Once I was inside, I locked my door and, in the darkness, I snuck over to the window to peek outside. Just as I peeled back the blinds, the car squealed out of the parking lot and vanished into the night.

It had been two days since I left Tess, two days since she told me she loved me. Two days since I tore both of our hearts out and I literally began dying inside.

I couldn’t eat, I could barely sleep and, when I did, I was haunted by visions of her. Every time I closed my eyes, I relived the fucking nightmare. I couldn’t get the image of her sitting on the porch out of my fucking head. My knuckles were red and bruised from all of the holes I had punched in the wall. I had spent the past two days in agonizing pain, fighting the urge to call her. It took all I had to control the aching need to go to her and apologize for being such an ass.

Matt came over yesterday to try and keep my mind off of her, but it didn’t help. Devin tried to get me to go to the bar with him for drinks last night, but I knew if I drank anything at all, I would give in to the hedonistic side of me. So far, I was winning the internal battle waging inside me and had stayed away from her. I knew it was what was best for her and, as hard as it was going to be, I had to do it.

I was happy this morning when I woke up. I thought it would be easier to forget about her while on shift, but boy was I wrong. Being at work usually cleared my head, but today it was almost as unbearable as sitting at home. I tried so hard to push her from my thoughts, but I couldn’t do it. Everything I saw reminded me of her. I couldn’t even turn on the fucking radio without hearing a song that made me think of her. I had almost called in sick, but knew it would be worse to be stuck at home, wallowing in self-pity. I was here now and I had to stop thinking about her. I needed my head on straight. There was only one place in the whole station where I would be able to clear my head—the gym.

As I opened the door, I saw Cam beating the hell out of the poor punching bag that hung from the ceiling. He looked infuriated as he unleashed whatever aggression was raging inside him. As he pummeled his fists over and over again, he seemed lost in his own thoughts. He didn’t even look up when the door slammed shut behind me. As I crossed the room and made my way over to the treadmill, he finally noticed that he was no longer alone. He threw one last hard blow to the bag and stopped to rest for a bit.

“Everything okay, dude?” I asked as I stepped onto the treadmill, “or did that punching bag sleep with your girlfriend?”

Cam chuckled a bit, “What girlfriend?” His voice sounded downright dejected as he reached for a towel.

“I take it you and Cara ended things?”

“More like—she ended it with me.” He wiped the sweat off of his face and then stepped up on the treadmill next to me.

“What the fuck did you do to her?”

“I don’t know. We got into it at Matt’s party. She was already pissed at me because I refused to meet her parents while they are in town this week. Then, to top it off, I saw my ex at Matt’s party and Cara freaked out when I started talking to her,” he shook his head in disbelief. “She thinks I still have feeling for Amber. Cara met me yesterday and told me it was over, but didn’t really give me a reason. She just said that we were both better off if we just ended it.”

“Shit. Sorry, Cam. You holding up okay?” I suspected he was taking it pretty hard by the way he was beating the shit out of the punching bag when I came in.

“Not really,” he said as rubbed the back of his neck with the towel. “She was different, ya know? I’ve always been scared to settle down, but I was actually warming up to the idea of spending my life with her.” He sounded disappointed as he spoke.

“Then why did you refuse to meet her parents?” My treadmill started to pick up so I was jogging at a steady pace.

“I don’t know! I guess I just freaked out,” he shrugged. “I’ve never actually met a girl’s parents before and this is all new to me. Do you think that’s why she ended it?” He looked at me with a small glimmer of hope in eyes.

“I don’t know, Cam. Seems like maybe there is something else going on. Maybe you just need to go talk to her and find out what it is.” I was now running and talking was getting harder to do.

“Yeah, I guess.” He slouched and hopped off the treadmill. “How are you holding up by the way? Have you talked to Tess at all?”

When he said her name, it felt like a knife was inserted directly into my chest. I had managed to forget her for the last fifteen minutes and then, just like that, all the despair and emptiness consumed me again. Lucky for me, I was running steady now and couldn’t catch my breath to answer Cam. I shook my head no and he left the room. I sped up the treadmill so I was at a full-on sprint, trying to lose myself in my workout.

It had been two days, fourteen hours and twenty two minutes since he walked away from me. Two days, fourteen hours and twenty two minutes since he tore my heart out. And I was absolutely devastated.

I had spent the last two days trying to put the pieces of my fragmented heart back together, but every time I got a section figured out, memories of that night would shatter it all over again. Blake was the only person that would ever be able to put the pieces back together and I didn’t know if I would ever see him again. He had made his decision. He didn’t want me.

I had been sulking around my apartment for the past two days, unwilling to leave. I wasn’t ready to face the real world and there was no way I was going to risk running into Blake. Palmer had stopped by twice, trying to get me to go shopping with her, but I wouldn’t budge. Lexi was kind enough to retrieve my car from Blake’s house the day before and, when she dropped it off, I couldn’t help but ask if she had seen him.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t, but Devin had told her that Blake was brooding around the house like a baby one minute and punching walls the next. The fact that he was as miserable as me put a small smile on my face for a moment… and then confusion set in. I couldn’t understand why he would be so distressed. After all, he was the one that left me. Before he interrupted me and ruined everything, I was about to open up to him—lay all my cards down and tell him I loved him. That was something that petrified me beyond belief, but I was willing to do it for him. And he just walked away.

Maybe he was having a change of heart—maybe he still wanted me and just felt bad for everything that had happened. I knew he had been drunk that night, so there was a possibility, I hoped, that his mind had cleared as the alcohol left his system. Either way, I wasn’t going to chase him. If he wanted me, then he was going to have to come to me. I had already put my heart on the line and he smashed it into a thousand different pieces.

I finally decided to get up and try to get back to regular life, even though I knew it was going to be hard. I had gotten ready, feeling brave. I was heading out the door, when my phone started ringing. I looked down and saw Cara’s bubbly smile pop up on the screen.

“Hello,” I said into the phone.

“Hey. What are you doing?” She didn’t sound like her usual spunky self.

“Just heading out to… well, actually, I don’t really know where I’m going. What’s up?” I asked.

“I just called the spa to see if they had any openings today and they do. Want to come with me? I have the auction package, so it won’t cost you a dime. I could really use a relaxing afternoon.”

“Hell yes! I would love to do that,” I squealed.

“Perfect. I really need some girl time,” she said, hesitating. “I broke up with Cam yesterday.” I could hear the defeat in her voice.

“Oh no, Cara! What happened?” I questioned, feeling her pain. I knew Cara really liked Cam and he must have done something pretty bad for her to break up with him.

I could tell she was fighting back the tears as she spoke. “I… I’m just so scared he is going to hurt me. So I ended it before he could.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll tell you all about it at the spa though. Meet me there in twenty?”

“Sure thing, lady. See you soon.” I hung up and headed down to my car.