Don't Bet on Love by Victorine E. Lieske

Author:Victorine E. Lieske [Lieske, Victorine E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Victorine Lieske
Published: 2019-03-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Trudy closed her eyes. What in the world was she doing? Spilling her guts to the big, fat faker? She should know better, but the words wouldn’t stop coming. “When it happened, my mother freaked out. Had a nervous breakdown. She was almost hospitalized right along with me. And my father. He just retreated into himself even more.”

“That’s terrible.” Lane drew little circles on the back of her hand with his thumb. She wasn’t sure if it was subconscious or if it was intentional, but it was kind of driving her crazy. His touch did that to her. Sent her heartrate into the stratosphere.

She tried to ignore the little zings of energy coming from his thumb. “I was in a really bad place when we moved. My sister had been sick for a while. I knew she wasn’t going to come back home. And then I had to say good-bye to everyone and everything I knew. And my new school was terrible. Everyone already had friends. No one talked to me except for Gabe, and he only talked to me to taunt me and call me that horrible nickname.”

“Trudy...” Lane’s voice sounded almost strangled, and she looked up at him. Pain colored his blue eyes. “I swear, I never would have let him call you that if I had known what you were going through.”

She blinked back the tears. “That’s just it. We’re all going through crap. When is it okay to bully someone? Only when they’re not hating life so much that they’re at the brink of killing themselves?”

Lane’s face grew white, and he looked like he was going to faint or something.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that,” Trudy said quietly. She laid her head back on his shoulder. His slimy, scummy shoulder. She had to look like his girlfriend. She had to pull this off, so he would never again do this to another girl. He had to know how it felt to be the one on the other end of the prank.

“I’ll talk to Gabe. I’ll get him to lay off the Prudy thing.”

He wasn’t listening, was he? Couldn’t he see he was a part of all this? Couldn’t he see that his very bet with Gabe was exactly what she was talking about? She sighed. “No. Forget it. What’s done is done.”

“No. I’m serious. That nickname is done.”

“All right. Whatever.”

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder again and she snuggled into him. She hated having to pretend with him. Hated that even though she knew he was a liar and a bully, the feel of his warm skin next to hers made her heart race. Stupid body.

“You’re seeing someone, though? A therapist? How’s that going?”

“Fine.” She was done talking about it with him. He didn’t deserve what she’d said already.

“I’m glad you’re able to go talk to someone.”

“Yeah. Me too.” She sat up. “Are you ready to go back? The sun is starting to set and I’m getting a little chilly out here.” She wasn’t, but she rubbed her arms anyway.

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