Birthday Girl(115)

I have no doubt that’s true. And will always be true. Pike doesn’t walk away from his responsibilities. He’ll always look out for me.

And I can’t think of anything I’d rather be less to him than an obligation. I can’t be like Cole or his job, his house or his bills. I’m not a duty.

I’m everything else.

“Do you love me?” I ask. “Are you in love with me?

He holds my eyes, and even in the dark, I can see his eyes are red, tired, and hurting. But when he opens his mouth, no words come out.

I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter, I guess.” I give up. “You have no courage, so you won’t be forever.” I stand up straight, tightening my hand around the straps of my bags. “And in the end, you’ll wind up being nothing more than a waste of my time.”

His face falls, and he looks so completely deflated. He doesn’t have the conviction to do anything. All he knows is he doesn’t want me to go.

“Oh, this is too good,” someone says. “So that’s your kink, huh, Jordan?”

Pike and I jerk our heads to see Jay has just come out of the kitchen and stepped into the living room. Pike drops his hands and stands up straight, fixing Jay with a hard look.

“Come on, baby,” Jay taunts me, and I can smell the beer on his breath from here. “I’ll be your daddy and you can open your legs for me, too, for a little rent money.”

Pike lunges for him, and I gasp. He grabs Jay by the collar and whips him around, sending him flying through the storm door. Jay barely even flinches, probably because he knew what he was doing.

My heart stops, seeing him stumble onto the porch and Pike charge after him.

They both barrel down the stairs, a few people scattered around the lawn as they leave the party from the back gate or come in from their cars.

Jay shoves Pike away, but Pike grabs his arm, throws his fist back, and comes down like a hammer, pounding Jay in the face and sending him collapsing to the ground. I walk onto the porch, seeing the bystanders stop and watch, while others call out.

“What the hell’s going on?” I hear Cole’s voice.

Glancing over, I spot him come out from the side of the house. I step up to the railing and watch Pike, pulling Jay up off the ground and throwing him into a car.

“Dad!” Cole shouts, rushing up.

But no one else seems to notice him.

“Don’t worry.” Jay laughs at Pike, blooding trickling off his lip. “We can share the little whore.”

Cole turns to me. “Did Jay hurt you?”

I guess it wasn’t hard for him to figure out who the ‘whore’ was he was referring to. I say nothing.

Jay turns his gaze on me, shouting, “Why don’t you tell Cole how cozy you and his dad have been here without him?”

“What?” Cole looks between us, confusion etched on his face.

“I’ll see you again, Jordan!” Jay calls out, shoving Pike’s hand away and pulling out his car keys. “You’ll be working at The Hook just like your sister, and I’ll come in there and buy your ass. That’s a prom—”

Another fist lands across his face, but it’s not Pike this time. Cole has rushed over to him and sent him tripping backward to the sidewalk.

Jay growls, spitting on the ground and bringing his hand to his lips and pulling it away, inspecting it.

“You knocked out one of my teeth!” he barks.

“Get out of here!” Cole yells, throwing out his arms. “Go!”

Sweat glistens across Pike’s brow, and he looks at me with the same eyes he had the night we first slept together. When I straddled him on my bed, and he gazed up at me, giving in and giving me everything he had.

Everything else around us disappears. He grinds his fists at his sides, and his body is rigid, like he’s about to charge me and pull me into his arms and carry me away.

“You two?” I hear Cole say.

I blink, Pike drops his gaze, and the spell is broken. Cole stands between us, looking back and forth at us as people slowly disperse, and I see him start to connect the dots with the way we were just looking at each other.

“Jordan?” Cole nudges for me to say something, but I just lower my gaze, unable to look at him.

Pike swallows, breathing shallow. “Cole—”

“Oh, fuck you,” Cole tells him, cutting him off and backing away.

Pike takes a step but Cole spins around and charges away, out of the yard and down the street.

Pike doesn’t follow. He knows his son at least as well as I do, and Cole won’t hear anything tonight. And what would Pike say to make it better anyway? Damage is done.

Pike stands there, staring after Cole and looking like the life has been sucked out of him. What does he have now?

Pulling out my keys, I head down the porch stairs and walk to my car, not stopping or hesitating as I pass Pike Lawson.

And he doesn’t follow me, either.

I now know he meant what he implied last night. I’m not worth it.





I know everything is a mess, I type on my phone. Please know it wasn’t about revenge. It just happened, and I’m sorry.

I’ve been staring at my phone for twenty minutes, trying to figure out what to say to Cole. I’m logging off social media and only talking to my sister and select few others for a while. I need space and quiet. I just didn’t want to go silent without something.