As She Fades(66)

“You’re not walking all the way back to your dorm. It’s not safe. Your fu … boyfriend should have thought about that.” He was going to think about it once I got my hands on him. That was for damn sure.

“He’s not my boyfriend. I don’t think he has been for a very long time.” She tugged at her hand, but I wasn’t letting go. Especially after a comment like that one. If he wasn’t her boyfriend, then what the hell happened?

“What happened, Vale?” I asked.

She tensed, then I saw the tears in her eyes as she quickly looked away from me. “Crawford has been with others … since coming here.”

Was he a dumbass? He had Vale—why would he want anyone else?

“He’s an idiot,” I said, squeezing her hand gently.

She sniffed and reached up to wipe her eyes.

“Slate, let’s go,” Grace called out again. I had forgotten she was even there.

Shit. I glanced back at the Jeep, then at Vale. “I need to take her home, then we can go wherever you want and talk. Or drink. Or break things. Just get in my Jeep, please.”

Vale started to shake her head, and I pulled her close to me and whispered in her ear, “I will leave that Jeep right there and walk the entire way back with you if you don’t. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

She sighed and finally gave me a nod. “Okay.”

I wanted to pull her into my arms and swear to her I’d never let anyone hurt her again. But right now I couldn’t. Because she may not choose me. She was heartbroken over the guy she did love. Just because I loved her didn’t make it enough for both of us.

“Where is she going?” Grace asked as we walked up to the Jeep together. “I’m not getting in the back. She is.”

Vale looked up at me. “Sorry about her” was all I could say.

“I like the back,” Vale replied.

I held her hand as she crawled up into the Jeep and took the backseat.

“Again, why is she with us?” Grace asked, her tone getting more annoying by the second.

“She needs a ride,” I said as I drove back onto the road and toward the sorority house where Grace lived.

“Are you taking me home?” she asked incredulously.

“Yeah.”

She glared back at Vale. “Unbelievable. He’s worse than his reputation. I hope you know that. If he’ll do this to me, he’ll do it to you.”

I didn’t expect Vale to respond, and I wanted to shut Grace up. Even if she had a reason to be pissed. I didn’t have time to worry about that.

“Actually, there’s a side of Slate no one sees because he doesn’t show them. Or they don’t look closely. You went out with him because of his reputation. Maybe you should have tried to see beyond what you thought you knew about him.”

My heart slammed against my ribs. Girls didn’t talk about me like that. They never had.

“Whatever. You’re young and stupid. You’ll learn,” Grace snapped, turning around in her seat.

“Hopefully sooner than you,” Vale shot back.

I laughed. I wasn’t able to stop myself. Her response was unexpected.

I pulled up in front of Grace’s sorority house and she shoved her door open. “Don’t call me,” she yelled before slamming the door behind her.

I hadn’t been planning on it, but I knew it helped her to say it. What had she wanted from me tonight? To say she screwed me? To say she was one of the many? Why? When had that become such a big thing for girls?

I opened my door and held out my hand to Vale. “Come on and get up front.”

She didn’t argue, and although there was still sadness in her eyes, she didn’t look as broken as she had when I picked her up.





CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

VALE

I WAS SORRY about the girl. She had been on a date with Slate and he’d ended it for me. I should have been nicer. She just caught me at a bad time.

“What happened?” Slate asked as we started down the dark road.

“What was going to happen sooner or later. We have grown apart.”

“There’s more to it than that,” he said—and he was right.

I stared out the window of the Jeep and wondered when, exactly, did Crawford pull away? When I was in the coma? How long did it take him to go live his life? Had it been hard on him?

“I think if the situation had been reversed … I wouldn’t have been able to go so easily or quickly. I was only in a coma for a little over a month. We had been together since we were six. Wouldn’t it take longer than a month for him to accept that he needed to go on with his life? Surely if that had been me, I would have had a hard time leaving him. He … he didn’t. He left and he made a life here. So quickly.”

I felt guilty even saying all this. Should I be complaining that he didn’t sit and pine for me?

“I wanted him to live his life, but I expected him to at least have held out some hope that I would join him like we’d planned. He didn’t. He was having sex with Cat. It didn’t take him long.”

Slate didn’t respond right away. I didn’t expect him to. What was he supposed to say to this? “I’m sorry”? There was no response he could give me to make it better.

“Tonight we were at a party. He had this life, and these friends who didn’t even know who I was. I didn’t fit, and he didn’t seem to notice or care. He wanted me to sit there beside him while he laughed and had a good time. That wasn’t what we were always like. I used to at least know his friends, and I wasn’t as lost. But I’ve realized that he had always been the center of attention and he expected me to just fall into place at his side. I don’t want that anymore.”