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Twenty Six

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April remained silent, allowing the shock in her body to dissipate before speaking again. She stepped aside to allow him into the room, then left him there as she made her way to her bed. She really didn't want to stand.

"Walked," she repeated after him, shooting him a disbelieving look. How could he have walked all the way back? And for what?

He still hadn't said he'd come back for her, so no disaster yet, she thought.

He ran a hand through his hair and blew out his next breath. "I'm not lying. I don't know what came over me, but I got into a fight with my dad. He dumped me and I had to walk."

She stretched her legs out. It relieved her to know that he'd only returned because it was his only option, rather than a choice. "What did you do?"

"I told him I wasn't going back to Harvard." He paused to lick his lips and look round her room. "Look, you were right, April, you've said all the right things."

There was nothing April liked as much as being right. Here, though, she felt anything but right. She felt wrong for trusting him, wrong for ever believing anything could work between them...and that pained more than any other kind of wrong. "Good to know," she whispered.

He sighed. "I'm not getting off easy, am I?"

"I've spent way too much energy on this, Javier. I don't think my mind can take spending one more joule with games. If you came to say something, say it. You've ten minutes."

•~❉᯽❉~•

"Get out of my car."

Those were the last words he heard before he felt imaginary walls close in on him. He blinked to make sure he was still on earth. What had he done?

"James, for goodness' sake!" Mariana cried out. "He makes a point!"

"With bullshit about quitting?" James flared but did not make eye contact with her.

Javier clenched both fists in annoyance. "That's not what I meant. I'll go back to school, just not there and one major, not two."

James threw his door open. "I should have never let you in contact with that girl a second time."

"At least she knows what she wants," Javier objected. "most of the time," he added under his breath to to his own hearing.

"She's unstable and her parents are letting her do what she wants because they have money to last them the next four generations. Patrick can pay his way into anything but that's not this family."

"This family is way worse!" Javier couldn't help but object. He could feel sweat building in the hair he had almost pulled out of his head. "You talk about them, but look at you, look at us! We're not any different!"

"That is a lie."

Javier threw his hands up, getting more frustrated by the minute. He wanted to strangle his father. "You almost paid me into Sanford, don't talk about monetary advantage!"

James stretched his neck muscles before speaking again. "That only nearly happened because you were being silly at the time. I called it off, didn't I?"

"Because you realised you could pull strings and teleport us into another city within the blink of an eye. Dad, it's not fair at all."

"I'm done talking about this. We've missed our flight because of you."

His head veins pulsed until he was pink in the face. "Fuck this!" He shouted, pushed the door open and slammed it behind him.

•~❉᯽❉~•

"If I told you—" He took a few steps forward and turned around. "what I had to do to get here..." he continued.

"What happened?"

"I'm probably in the most trouble I've ever been in my life."

April rolled the rumpled material of her bedsheets between her fingers, then unrolled and patted it down as she listened to his rambling. It reminded her so much of the Javier she used to know. The one who listed pros and cons for everything, the one who thought everything through...the one she was allowing to ruin her carpet, despite the resentment she had for him.

She hated feeling this pathetic. "Are you done? I have things to do."

"I thought I had twenty minutes?"

She rolled her eyes. "Eight, and be quick. I have a party to attend."

"Eight minutes isn't nearly enough time."

"For what? Did you plan a speech?"

"I don't need a speech to say the words I'm sorry. I was wrong and you were right."

Her heart did a backflip. "Stop it," she told him, not just for her sake, but his as well. He shouldn't be apologising, not when she was finally getting comfortable with things as they had left them.

He took a step closer to her. "I've been through so much shit...some of which I caused myself and some of which just happened, but I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

"You think?" She blinked at the moisture in her eyes to clear it. This was not what she wanted to hear.

"I left almost all my notes behind cause I thought I'd be able to move on if I didn't see them anymore, but I cannot do the same to you. I'll never forgive myself."

"You think you deserve anyone's forgiveness?" She asked him. Feeling small and weak from sitting down, she got up. "Javier, you used me."

"You used me first but that doesn't matter because I'm telling you right now that I'm sorry and I love you."

She balled her fists to hold in a reaction. She couldn't break her resolve, not now, not after everything. "You said it yourself. You're putting up with me because you want something, so what is it? What do I have left that you could possibly want from me?"

"Forgiveness."

Disbelieving, she raised her chin and narrowed her eyes. "What do you want, Klein?"

He hesitated, looking up as if in thought.
"A second chance."

"I already gave you a second —"

"Then a third," he cut in. "A third chance."

She took her eyes down because she knew there was nothing that could break her the way the look in his eyes could. "Just go."

"What?"

"I said go."

"Look at me and say it."

She bit her inner cheeks.

"Look at me," he pleaded, his voice soft and sultry, attempting to pull her head up like a magnet would a nail. "At least look at me and say it and I'll go."

She swallowed and looked up, feeling goosebumps erupt down the length of her exposed arms as her eyes met his hopeful, sorrowful ones. The words hurt to speak, but it was her first step to moving on. "Javier, go."

The air grew silent, her words hanging in the balance between them. They hadn't quite left her yet, but at least they were out. She couldn't keep going in circles with him. Euphoria, pleasure, games, pain, repeat. She wasn't sure she could take any more of it.

Her bedroom door opened with an insistent 'bang' as it hit the wall. Nathan and Amanda appeared in seconds, pulling all attention to themselves.

Nathan was the first to speak. "What's going on—"

"Nate, it's fine," April cut him off, finding her voice and disconnecting her gaze from Javier's. "He was just leaving."

"Were you?"

"Yes," April answered on Javier's behalf. He'd asked her to look at him and ask him to leave and she'd done just that. It was his turn to leave.

The air went taut as the two guys walked out, leaving April and Amanda facing each other.

"April-"

She already knew the 'trust your heart' speech coming. "I'm fine."

"What did he say?"

Even she wasn't sure she'd heard right. "He apologised... And he said he loves me, but—"

Amanda folded her arms. "But what?"

"I don't think I can believe it," April whispered, her eyes looking anywhere but at Amanda's.

"Why's that?"

"He's a good liar. He wants something, I just don't know what it is this time. He didn't walk all the way back because of me."

"He went to pick his notes. I saw him when I went into the other house to cross check and make sure no one forgot anything. He told me he has limited time back here, and that his mom was tryna fix his dad's mind after their fight." Amanda stepped closer to April, placing a hand over hers. "He made a mistake."

"Mistake or not, all we do is drive each other crazy, it's stupid."

"Because you've both been stupid all summer," Amanda said with a roll of her eyes. "I witnessed most of it. The night he arrived, camping, two truths and a lie, you and Shawn, everything...I hated it for you, but if there's anything that ring on your necklace proves, it's that you're still holding on to even the tiniest sliver of hope. Why do you keep it if not?"

April shrugged. "I don't know, it's a Cartier ring."

Amanda sighed. "Wrong answer."

April knew what Amanda was thinking, and as much as she wanted to truthfully deny it, the words wouldn't leave her head, so she shrugged. "I don't know."

"Well when you figure it out, I'll be here to watch. I'll tell Javier about Shawn's party for you."

"Thank you, Amanda."

•~❉᯽❉~•

She checked her watch for the third time since she arrived Shawn's smoothie shack. Past nine, all hope wasn't lost...yet.

She hoped Amanda had kept her word.

Her heart skipped a nervous beat when two guys walked in wearing hoodies, but when she saw them under the light, she sighed with both relief and disappointment.

It was like day one all over again, only this time she was outside, the air was biting cold despite the summer, and there were less old people around her. She was also waiting for slightly different reasons.

Neither Amanda nor Nathan were there yet. Paige was, but she was with Shawn and his friends, who hadn't noticed her arrival yet—more because she hadn't wanted to be noticed than anything else.

"April!"

So much for being unnoticed.

She waved back at the guy who had hollered her name even though she didn't recognise him. She did, however, remember introducing herself to a number of Shawn's friends earlier.

"C'mere, pooch!" It was Paige this time, and she was sitting on one of the barstools, dressed peppy in jeans and a small, pink tube top.

April was in a white cropped top, paired with jeans that hugged her legs like a second skin. She had put her long, brown hair in a loose ponytail and applied minimal makeup. Like many times before, she had ditched her jacket, but this time, unlike others, she had truly forgotten it.

When she arrived Paige's side of the counter, she flashed Shawn her two favorite fingers in the peace sign.

"You good?" He asked, shaking something in a lidded cup. Her guess was that it had ice, due to how much it sounded like a Maraca.

April gave a small smile, so forced that the muscles in her cheeks contracted before time, leaving her looking distant as she shrugged. "Yep."

"Try this new mixture. They don't think it's much alcohol but I do. It's a battle to keep my eyes open right now," Paige said, passing a tiny glass her way.

"April!" She heard the yell from behind her, just when Paige and Shawn had started bickering.

She whipped around, half hoping it to be –oh wait, nevermind.

"Hi Nate," she greeted, sliding off her seat. She had half a mind he was only there to say something that wouldn't help. Bad news, probably.

Nathan greeted the others with a beaming smile before turning to her. "Mr Klein pulled a few strings and they have a flight back to L. A. tonight. I asked, but Javier didn't tell whether he's going or not."

"Why the hell not?" Paige asked, getting up.

"I wonder who else would like to know that," Amanda answered, arriving behind her boyfriend. "Hey y'all!"

April's brows creased. She didn't need rocket science to know that Amanda was referring to her. Did she really want to stop him from leaving, though?

"Yo, April, you getting up or what?"

As if on cue to knock her out of her seat, her phone beeped in her pocket.