20.

☆☆SUMMER’S POV☆☆

The restaurant was too fancy, too quiet, and way too full of smiling families. This was the kind of place rich folks would be at for dinner, not us.

We weren’t poor, but dinner here would cost dad a fortune. A bottle of water was twenty five dollars. That was Insanely expensive. Next, they'd be charging us for the air we breathe.

I sat across from Dad and Keith at a round table with folded napkins and the said twenty dollar water that tasted like metal.

“What are you doing, Keith?” I asked.

“I’m searching for the precious diamonds,” he said, scrutinizing the water in a glass cup.

“You’re going to be looking for a long, long time.” I emptied my glass.

Dad had insisted on “one last dinner” before I left for college. Said it was tradition. Said he wanted us to feel like a family again.

“Keith, stop playing with the water,” Dad said, not even looking up from the menu. “It goes in your mouth.”

Keith swirled his glass. “I’m trying to figure out why it costs more than my soul.”

“You might as well drink it in peace,” Dad muttered. “Your silence is what’s costing me a fortune.”

I snorted into my napkin. Keith turned to me and narrowed his eyes like a cartoon villain. Then, in the worst impression of me ever, he said in a high-pitched whine, “Daddy, this water tastes like pennies and capitalism.”

I blinked. “Really? That’s your Summer voice? I don’t sound like a squirrel on helium.”

“You kinda do,” he said, sipping the water dramatically. “Yup. Tastes like your shame after you fainted in front of Hayden.”

I stared at him, then slowly turned to Dad. “Tell me again why we didn’t leave him at the hospital when he was born?”

Dad just smiled without looking up. “Because they wouldn’t take him back.”

I cracked a small smile. But under the jokes and overpriced water and napkins folded like weapons, I could still feel it. The barbed wire wrapped around my chest.

It was hurting despite everything. Hayden hadn’t texted me since he left my house. It’s been a week now. I told myself I didn’t care. That I wasn’t angry. But I was lying to myself, same way I was lying to Jake. I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

“I’ll be right back,” I said quickly, pushing my chair out before anyone could ask.

“Restroom?” Dad asked, sipping from his wine.

“Yeah.”

“Girls have weaker bladders,” Keith said to him, like he’d just made some scientific breakthrough.

“Is that so?” Dad said, ruffling his hair playfully. “My little scientist.”

I rolled my eyes and walked away.

I walked fast. Down the long corridor with all its polished wood and dim antique lights. My heels clicked softly on the floor. My hands were cold. My brain louder than the music piping in through invisible speakers.

Then it happened.

Out of nowhere, strong hands wrapped around my wrist and yanked me hard. I stumbled, nearly cried out. But then a body crashed into mine and shoved me against the wall. The impact stole the breath from my lungs.

“Hey—!” I barely had time to see who it was before hot lips crashed into mine.

The kiss wasn’t gentle. It was wild. Breath. Tongue. Like he was trying to brand me with his mouth. I pushed him off hard, chest heaving.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“Hey, you.”

I gasped as I looked up.

“Hayden?”

His voice was low. Too calm. And his mouth was already on mine again before my brain could process it. He then broke our kiss, meeting my gaze.

He smirked. “Miss me?”

My stomach flipped. He looked like a sin I’d already committed—black shirt, tousled brown hair, that lazy look in his eyes that said he knew exactly what he was doing to me. He just grinned. That same dangerous smirk I hated myself for missing.

“You—you can’t just show up and kiss me like that.”

“I can’t?” He leaned in again, eyes burning mine. “Are you sure? You looked like you needed to feel something.”

“You’ve lost your mind.”

“And you lost your clothes in my bed,” he whispered darkly.

His smile deepened, and his fingers brushed the inside of my thumb—the exact spot Jake had pricked for our blood oath.

My throat closed. “Point of correction, it was my bed. And you’ve been ignoring me ever since. It’s been more than a week now.”

“I’ve been giving you time to breathe.”

How did he know he always leaves me breathless?

Jake told me he had another girl. Suddenly, I imagined his hands on her like the way his hands were on me now. Since he couldn’t fuck me, did he fuck her instead?

I hated him.

I hated him so much.

I missed him.

I missed him so much.

“I didn’t stop thinking about you,” Hayden said, voice low. 

My mouth opened. Nothing came out. I should’ve pushed him again. I should’ve screamed. But instead, I gave in. My fingers curled into his shirt, and I kissed him. Like I’d been starving for it. Like it would fix the hole he’d left in me.

His hands gripped my waist, pulling me closer. His mouth moved against mine like he knew every weak spot I had. My back arched into him. My body forgot the lies I’d told myself all week.

I didn’t care if someone walked in. I didn’t care if the world burned. He felt like fire and pain and relief all at once. I didn’t want to pretend I didn’t still want him. 

◇AGNES’S POV◇

I was on a date with Alien John. He was cute, sweet… and completely obsessed with spaceships. After fifteen minutes of listening to how the government was hiding aliens in cornfields, I smiled politely and excused myself. I told him I needed to use the restroom. Truth? I just needed to get away from him for a while.

I was drying my hands with a paper towel when I heard it—a sound. A soft breathless gasp. Then a moan. It wasn’t loud or obvious. It sounded like someone was either in pain… or enjoying themselves way too much.

It was the kind of sound that made my ears perk and my curiosity burn. So I stepped out of the restroom. Rounded the corner. And stopped dead.

There, hidden in the dim shadows just a few feet from me, stood two people tangled against the wall like they were trying to become one person.

The girl’s back was arched. The man’s hand was gripping her hip. My eyes narrowed. I knew that profile. That hair.

Summer?

And that man… that man… was that… Hayden?

My heart lurched in my chest. At first I thought—maybe I was wrong. Maybe it wasn’t her. Anybody else could look like that.

But then she pulled away just slightly, enough for me to see her. 

Summer! Oh God!

Her lips. They were kiss-swollen and her eyes were glassy from desire. I didn’t need to see the man’s face now to confirm my suspicion. The hair, the grip, the black shirt, the smug body language. That Greek god build—that’s Hayden.

It was Hayden Dylan. Jake’s brother. Summer never told me about this. She never said a word. That night at the party, I was high, but the next day, I recalled having a conversation with Summer about Hayden.

I’d suspected he was the one who entered the bathroom with her. She lied to me. She lied to my face. My hand moved on its own.

I pulled out my phone.

Snap.

The camera clicked softly, but they didn’t even hear it. They were too lost in each other. Too busy drowning in lust and betrayal and whatever secret mess they’d been hiding from the rest of the world.

I stared at the screen. The image frozen in time. Summer. Hayden. Locked together like they were made to break every rule in the book. 

Jake’s gonna love this.

My heart thundered. Not from heartbreak, but from rage. From betrayal. From the taste of revenge already blooming at the back of my throat. Summer knew I once had a crush on Hayden. What girl didn’t?

But she told me she didn’t. That she hated him. She made me feel like a fool for crushing on him in high school. I never knew she wanted him for herself all those years.

How long has this been going on? I wondered.