Mad Boys (Blue Ivy Prep, #2)(79)

“How else do I get updates? You boys aren’t calling me back. Lachlan’s been a ghost since he left, and now even Jonas doesn’t answer my text messages.” The mournful note grated on me. “His birthday is coming and…you boys are all so grown now.”

“Mom…it’s been crazy here. Jonas is in his senior year, and you know how tough that is. Lachlan’s in college classes, and he’s been working with the Lacrosse Coach and the team. They’re picking up drills this semester ‘cause the season is coming…”

“That makes sense, I suppose,” she said, the ice clinking as she took a drink. “I just—I miss my babies, and I don’t like fighting with all of you. With that girl there…”

“There are lots of girls here, Mom. Speaking of which, I need to go…”

“Speaking of which?” Her voice climbed to a hint of a shrill note. “Is she there?”

“What?”

“You know who,” Mom said, her tone going quite unfriendly.

“No, Mom, she’s not here. No one is here. I’m by myself, and I have some grading to do and classes of my own to prep for tomorrow.” I had one more year and I’d be graduating college, too. If I stacked my classes right, I might be able to graduate early.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, anyway, I gotta go. I’ll let them know you were asking after them. Talk soon, and good luck with the rest of the album. I’m sure it will be great.” I hung up before she could say anything else and groaned. The earlier headache had redoubled in force.

On the list of problems we had right now, this one went lower on the list. I turned over the rest of the issues on my list. Jonas not applying to college was at the top, along with the situation in Knots and Chains.

While I was still stumped on the latter, I had to wonder if KC could help with the former.

It would give me another reason to talk to her…





Thirty-Two





KC


"How do you break up with a girl nicely?” Bronson asked when he answered the phone. It was a cold, damp day on the campus, with rain having washed away most of the snow and turning the area muddy. Course, it would be frozen by the next day.

“That’s how you say hi?” I’d just left the library. Aubrey and I had both set up there to work on research papers. Mostly because I needed out, and neither of us wanted to deal with her roomie. When Forrest swung by to talk to Aubrey, I’d left them the study room for some privacy.

“Hi, K,” he said. “How you doing? Good. Great. Busy with school? Yeah, I get that. More press drama? I know, I know, we just have to ignore it. Fantastic, now that we’re caught up on you, can we switch back to me?”

A snort of laughter escaped me. A blonde ahead of me pivoted like she’d suddenly decided to change directions, and I braced—nope, not Payton. Good.

“Sure,” I said to Bronson. “Let’s talk about you.” The girl hurrying back to the library shot me a shy smile, and I nodded to her. Then I had to pretend I didn’t notice her stumble and half-squeal.

“You’re my favorite sister,” Bronson informed me, a chuckle underscoring the words.

Weirdly, I hadn’t seen Payton since the day Lachlan dumped her naked ass in the hall. I wasn’t sure if I should be grateful or worried about that fact.

“For the moment,” I countered, and he laughed for real.

I hurried through one of the open areas to avoid getting too wet, then slowed when I got under cover. At the moment, I was loving being outside. I was also a little worried about Aubrey. She hadn’t talked about Forrest much over the last few weeks. That didn’t have to mean anything. We’d all been busy.

Still…

“How do you break up with a girl nicely?” Bronson asked and I really couldn’t help it. He opened the door.

“No idea, I’ve never broken up with a girl. I can ask Aubrey when she gets back.” I grinned.

“Bitch,” he said, almost groaning as he laughed. “KC, help me out. I like Diane, I do, but it’s just not working for me.”

“Okay, tell me why it’s not working. Not sure I can help, but maybe I can give you the right words.”

“She’s—great, but she doesn’t have any passions. Most of the time she just wants to do what I want to do, or she wants to go to a movie, and that’s it. We hang out, we talk—sometimes we make out—”

“You can keep the graphic stuff to yourself. I’m still dealing with the scars of my mother’s relationships, thank you very much.”

He snickered. “Right, the point is—she’s nice, really nice and… that’s it. Maybe it’s ‘cause of all the crap with Pen or the fact that I’m getting ready for college and I think I really do want to go for law school…I need to focus on the here and the now and not…”

“Is she your friend?”

The long exhale of his breath came out in a rush. “Am I an asshole if I say no?”

“No,” I said, glancing over the wet quad. Usually there were people out here, even in the snow, but the rain tended to chase people inside. We were almost at the end of January. February was right around the corner. Then spring and… “Sometimes we want to like people and we can’t, no matter how hard we try. Sometimes we don’t want to like them at all, but we can’t stop thinking about them.”