I nodded. Strangely, I was. When Becky sniffled and wiped her nose, all the hurt and anger was gone. She had admitted it, and that was what I needed. I guess…

"I'm going. I'm not sticking around to hear about how godly these douches are. See you, Sam. Becky, you two want a ride home?"

She looked at me, a deep question in her, but I slunk back against the counter. She could stay if she wanted. She could go if she wanted. This was her time to choose if she was going to be there for me or not. I wasn't going to tell her what to do.

"I…" She opened her mouth, then closed it.

Raz spoke up again, "She's staying. I'm coming. Let's go to the Hop-It. All this crying made me hungry."

He pressed a kiss to Becky's forehead and whispered something in her ear, which had her grinning. She relaxed in his arms, but then he skipped around her, swatted Adam on the butt, and led the way out of the room.

Adam followed behind him, "It's the IHOP, Raz. It's not the Hop-It."

Raz called to him, "It's always the Hop-It. That's what you do. You hop it, you get it?"

A long frustrated sigh came from Adam before the door closed behind them.

Both of us looked at each other, now alone in Nate's fortress. It never seemed larger than in that moment. A clock should've been ticking behind us. The awkwardness of the moment would've fit well with that idea. As I grinned to myself, she took the leap first. "Why are you living here, Sam?"

There was the old Becky, she was my friend again.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

"So…"

She gave me a timid smile. There was a twinge of hope in there, but I didn't know what to do about it. I wasn't mad anymore, but I didn't trust her either. I gave her a small grin back and said the same, "So…"

Her smile fell flat. "Oh."

I sighed. "What do you want, Becky? Thank you for being honest and thank you for apologizing, but we can't bounce back to what we were before. I don't trust you anymore."

"You don't?"

I shook my head. "Nope."

"Oh." Her shoulders lifted up in a small shrug. "Well, I guess I understand. I wouldn't either, if I was in your place. I mean, well, I might've. I don't know. I've never had anyone be jealous of me before. I don't know what I would do."

"It's not about you being jealous. You believed a lie about me, even though you knew it wasn't true, to get back at me. You knew it'd hurt me if you stopped talking to me. Congratulations. You hurt me."

"I really am sorry," she whispered.

Then we heard the door open and someone yelled out, "Hey! Yo! I took off early, figured you'd want your phone asap. It keeps flashing that you've got texts, didn't know if they were important or not."

Becky froze, but I relaxed. It wasn't long before Heather strolled around the corner. She saw Becky and stopped in her tracks. "Oh. Hi?"

I sighed. Heather's eyes narrowed as she raked her up and down with a sneer while the other looked ready to piss her pants. "Uh…" I swept a hand between the two. "Becky, this is Heather. Heather, Becky."

Becky took a small breath. "You're the new friend."

Heather's eyebrows shot up. "That means you're the old one?"

I laughed.

Becky threw me a dark look.

"Sorry. I—sorry." I waved for them to forget me.

Heather snorted as she fished something from her pocket and tossed it to me. I caught it, my phone. When I glanced at it, my eyes went wide. She'd been right. There were a few from Mason.

'Our mom called. She's pissed. Found out we got kicked out.'

'Family meeting called. Have to head with Logan. I won't be at Manny's tonight. You'll be alright?' That one was followed with, 'love u.'

I checked the rest. 'Things got interesting, can't text for awhile.'

The last text was sent an hour ago. 'Hoping you're ok and work is just busy. Not good here.'

"Things okay?" Heather was frowning as she lounged against the wall. Becky was against the opposite wall with her arms folded across her chest.'

A raging headache was coming. I felt it at my temples and pressed my hands there for a moment.

"Sam?" It sounded like a whimper from Becky.

"What?" I tried to hold back my own glare. This wasn't about her and she was making it like that.

The pout twisted into a confused scowl, then a grimace. "Are you okay?"

"No."

"Where's he at?" Heather gestured to my phone.

I shook my head. "Family meeting. It doesn't matter."

"Aren't you in the family?"

"Not that one. It's with his mom."

Heather grinned. "I heard about the Wicked Witch of L.A. She's a pretentious socialite, isn't she?"

I shrugged. Helen was more than that in my opinion. "She's…confident."

"Confident?" The amusement on Heather's face didn't deplete. It doubled. She threw her head back as a smooth chuckle slid out. "I've never heard that one used to describe her, but then again," she eyed me up and down, "you are in that family so I hear ya. I gotcha."

Becky had been scowling as she looked back and forth between us. "What is going on? Your mom is confident? Your mom is mean, Sam."

"No," I sighed, but stopped. Maybe it was for the best if she thought we were talking about my mother.

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