Chase Me (Broke and Beautiful #1)(64)

Roxy’s chest hurt from hearing Louis had sent another round of falafel. Why wouldn’t he stop? Too much had happened, too many of the wrong words exchanged. He’d stolen her independence. It might make her stubborn, but even if she weren’t pissed at him, she didn’t think she could ever look him in the eye again. He’d seen her at too many low points. The lowest points of her life. Every time she looked at him, that’s what she’d see. She’d wonder if he was imagining her stripping or singing in a costume or running from a man she’d known was bad news from the beginning but had ignored the warning signs.

“Next time, don’t answer the door. Please. I don’t want him to think I’m accepting it.”

Honey crossed her arms. “You going to tell us what happened? I need some incentive if I’m going to turn down free food.”

“I have an idea.” Abby clasped her hands together and split an anxious look between them. “We’ll tell you our worst breakup stories first. Maybe that will make it easier.”

“It won’t.”

“I’ll go first,” Honey said, neatly ignoring Roxy’s protest. “Elmer Boggs was my high school sweetheart. Just a big old lug, linebacker for the football team. Sweet as pie and slow as molasses.” She tilted her head and smiled. “If he had his way, I would have been barefoot and pregnant before the ink dried on our high school diplomas, but I shared no such notions.”

“What about college?” Abby whispered, as if she couldn’t imagine a world where everyone didn’t earn a degree. “Didn’t he want to go?”

“Well, that’s where we differed. Elmer was more than happy to take a job selling cars at his father’s dealership. I wanted something more.” Honey paused for a moment. “I broke up with him the day I was accepted at Columbia. Let’s just say he didn’t take it well. Showed up outside my house, drunk as a skunk at two in the morning. He held a giant boombox over his head, just like in that movie Say Anything. But instead of Peter Gabriel, he was blasting “The Devil Went Down the Georgia.”

Roxy quirked an eyebrow. “Was that your couple’s song or something?”

“No.” Honey shook her head. “I think he just liked it.”

“Huh.”

After a minute, Abby broke the thoughtful silence. “When I was seventeen, I dated Vince Vaughn for one whole week.”

“Wait.” Roxy massaged her forehead. She so wasn’t equipped for this conversation right now. “Vince Vaughn the actor?”

“No, no. Different Vince Vaughn.” Abby smoothed her hair, suddenly looking self-conscious. “It was Halloween night, and we’d planned on dressing as M&M’s. I was going to be green, and he—aptly—chose yellow. But when I got there, he wasn’t in his M&M costume, he was dressed as Popeye and his new girlfriend came as skanky Olive Oil.”

“Ouch.”

Abby acknowledged Honey’s comment with a severe nod. “I stormed out of the party dressed like a giant piece of candy.” She blew out a breath. “Half a block away, my high heel broke, and I fell facedown on a neighbor’s lawn. Of course, I couldn’t get up because the costume was so damn awkward. I had to scream for the owners of the house to come out and help me up.”

Roxy and Honey stared at her a moment in stunned silence before bursting into laughter. There was no way to avoid it, the image of her struggling to stand was too funny. Abby’s cheek’s colored, but she took it in stride, even chuckling along with them. At first, it felt great to laugh. To have any emotion at all besides regret and sadness. But it busted open the dam Roxy had constructed inside her, letting everything else out, too. Her laughter subsided, to be replaced with tears. Hot, noisy tears, the likes of which she hadn’t cried since she was a child.

“Dammit.” Roxy pressed the heels of her hands over her eyes. “I shouldn’t have let things with him go on so long. If I’d ended it when I should have, this wouldn’t hurt so bad.”

“Why did it have to end at all?” Abby asked softly.

She told them. The whole sordid story about Johan, straight through to Louis’s involvement in getting her the part, his reluctance to introduce her to his family. Honey and Abby listened without saying a word, which was exactly what she needed to get the words out. “He needed to feel better about me. Or himself. I’m not sure.” She swiped at her damp eyes. “I just know he wasn’t happy with who I am, and he tried to change it. If he tried to change me after a couple weeks, he’d do it again. And again. I won’t lose myself. I’m all I’ve got.”

Honey exchanged a look with Abby. “What are we, yesterday’s trash?”

Roxy gave a watery laugh, even though the simple effort of it hurt. “I guess I’m stuck with your asses now, too.”

ROXY FLOPPED DOWN onto the stoop and kicked off her high heels. Her old, worn-in high heels. The ones Louis had given her were stuffed in the back of her closet underneath winter clothes, where she couldn’t see them. She would just sit here for a while and watch Ninth Avenue sprint by in a flash of colors and white noise. Just until she pulled herself together enough to face her roommates, who’d been freakishly nice to her for the past week. At first, she’d put on a brave face and let them fuss over her. She’d let them make her plates of leftovers, and she’d indulged them in watching a slew of Molly Ringwald movies. But as the week had worn on, she’d started hiding from them more and more, wishing they would just go away and let her cope.