Chapter 3

"You seriously believed that stupid dare?" Ava asked.

"The post wasn't the whole problem."

Mason admitted he'd published it as a penalty for losing a game. One of Ava's friends confirmed it. They expected me to laugh in relief.

Instead, I remembered the nights she answered Mason's calls while lying beside me. I remembered her rushing across town to pick him up while telling me to handle my own problems.

I didn't need to prove they'd slept together. The boundaries I'd begged for had never existed.

Ava tried to lead me back into the private room.

"Come inside. We'll talk and go home together."

I stepped away.

"We're not going home together."

"What else do you want me to say?"

"Nothing. I don't need an apology anymore."

Her face hardened. "Noah, you can't just erase five years."

But I could. I'd spent six months learning how to breathe without waiting for her to choose me.

I looked at the man beside her. "You can keep taking care of Mason. It's no longer my concern."

"It's not like that," he said, eyes shining with carefully timed tears.

"Then you shouldn't have anything to worry about."

Ava's voice rose. "You think we're really over?"

"We have been for half a year."