“You can insult me all you want, but you’re still coming home with me.”

She shifts, tightening her arms across her chest. “Why do you want me to come home with you anyway? Wouldn’t you rather call Erin?”

“I’m not asking you to come home with me for sex, Skyler. I’m your friend and whether you want to let me or not, I’m helping you get ready for May and we need to talk about tonight.”

The cab pulls up to my apartment complex and Skyler whips around to face me. “You aren’t asking me anything. You’re blackmailing me.” She throws open her door and slams it shut again before leaning down to glare at me through the open window, her face twenty shades of pissed off. “And it’s so nice to know that if it were Erin here, it would be for sex. Sorry I’m cock-blocking your cardio plans.” She slams the door and the cab driver eyes me in the rearview mirror. She shakes her head, clicking her tongue as I hand her cash for the ride.

There it is. There’s Skyler admitting what I knew all along. What happened at the gym earlier messed with her head and she hates it. I know my goal was to fuck with her head, but now I’m just as pissed off as she is. She’s the one who called things off. She’s the one who wants Adam. So then why is she jealous of my fake-hookups with Erin? Why did it throw her off her game so much that she lost a tournament she should have bagged easily?

No. Fuck that. She doesn’t get to pin this on me.

I slam my door, too, causing Skyler to flinch slightly as she stomps off toward my apartment, but she doesn’t turn around. She wants a fight? Fine. But tonight, she’s in my ring. Round two.

Ding ding.

I have no idea what I’m doing.

I always have my stuff together. I’m confident. I’m sexy. I’m Skyler fucking Thorne, damnit! I play boys. Boys do not play me. Kip got to me today and I just let him know that by word vomiting inside the cab. I held myself together, regardless of throwing the tournament. He didn’t know why, it could have been anything, but now he knows it was him.

He holds power over me. It kills me to admit that, but it’s true. For whatever reason, he rattles my cage and, as far as he knows, it doesn’t make sense. I’m supposed to be about Adam – that was the game plan. Whether I’m really into him or not, that was my role to play. I’m not supposed to care about Kip yet I just proved that everything I said to him at the dance was complete bullshit.

Fuck my life.

“Skyler!” Kip calls after me but I keep my pace. He yells my name again as I jog up the stairs and reach his door, tugging on the handle violently with no result. It’s locked, of course, because this is South Florida and you’d be an idiot not to lock your apartment. I cross my arms and wait, debating whether I should just make a break for it and call a cab but I don’t know if he’s bluffing about calling Lacy or not and that’s not a bet I’m willing to make.

“Just open the damn door.” I cut him off before he can start in as he reaches me. He huffs and shoves his key in the lock, swinging the door open and letting me in first before closing and locking it behind him again.

“What the fuck, Skyler?” He throws his keys on the small table by his couch before running his fingers through his hair. “Why are you mad at me? You wanted this, didn’t you? We’re friends, you have Adam and I’ve moved on. I haven’t made this weird. I didn’t hold what happened against you and I didn’t make shit awkward. I moved on and you got what you wanted because clearly Adam wants you. I see him texting you every fucking day and he’s always talking about you. This is it. You asked for this. So why does it matter who I’m fucking?”

I swallow hard, his words sinking deep in my gut and taking my breath with them. I assumed before, but now I know it’s true. He’s had sex with Erin. I’m not allowed to care, but I do.

Instinctively, I wrap my arms around my stomach and take a deep breath to keep from throwing up. I pull my eyes from the floor and meet his. He’s standing across the room from me, arms outstretched now, his chest heaving with rugged breaths as the muscles move under his light green t-shirt. His blue eyes are wild and darker in the soft light coming from the kitchen. He looks beautiful and dangerous and I know without a second thought that he truly is both.

“Let’s just drop it, okay Kip?” I plead, hoping he’ll head my words and just let it go. “Let’s just talk about the tournament and then we can both go to sleep and clear our heads.”

“No. Fuck that.” He spits the words out violently, shaking his head. He takes a few steps toward me and I back into the wall. “I don’t know what fucking game you’re playing but I’m calling it tonight. Why do you care about me and Erin?”

“Kip, please,” I beg, my lip quivering against my will. I bite both lips between my teeth and look up to the ceiling like I’ll find refuge there, but nothing comes.

He moves closer and my breaths quicken along with my heartbeat. “You broke me that night, Skyler.” He taps his fist on his chest lightly, his eyes intensifying. “Everything I felt between us, everything I know is here, you told me it didn’t exist. And you know what? I knew it was bullshit. I knew it. The words were coming from your lips and it was your eyes I was looking into as each one slammed into me, but it wasn’t you I was hearing. So, now’s your chance to tell me – why do you care?”

I shake my head, tears blurring my vision but I keep my eyes wide, refusing to let them fall. Kip takes another step, his chest just inches from mine now. “Was it Erin?” He waits for me to respond but I just breathe. In and out. Inhale and exhale. One lone tear breaks free and slides down my cheek, burning a scar in its wake. It might be an invisible scar, but I’ll feel this tear forever. And that’s the thing about scars. They’re like skid marks on the highway. No one slows down enough to see the painful proof that something happened. But the road? The road will always remember. The road can’t forget, no matter how many times it’s repaved.

“Was it?” Kip asks again, his breath sweet as it escapes his lips. “Or was it that you were starting to feel something, too? I know you, Skyler. I know who you pretend to be in front of all these people.” He gestures with his hand toward the school. “And I know who you really are. I know the you who doesn’t fit in because you were never meant to. You were born to stand out. You want to pretend like you’re untouchable and nothing can faze you with those people? Play around with a few frat boys, dress up in frilly dresses and keep your reputation? Fine.” His breaths are coming even harder now. “But don’t sit here and feed me that bullshit. I see you, Skyler. I. See. You.” Kip’s hands find my arms and he slides them up over my shoulders and grabs my face gently, keeping my eyes on his as the tears continue to spill over, falling down the same path as the first, deepening the scar. “Why do you care?”

“I,” the word leaves my mouth quietly, just above a whisper. “I don’t.”

“Liar.”

I lick my bottom lip and look up again, desperately trying to hold it together. My entire body is shaking as my eyes find his again.

“I don’t want to.”

Kip shakes his head. “But you do. This is a no-limit game, Skyler. Neither of us went into it thinking we would be here but now we’ve got everything on the table because we’re both too stubborn to give in. I raise, you call. You raise, I call. Back and forth, always in this fucking game. You want to win? Fine, take it. Take everything I have but I’m not the one who’s going to walk away the real loser. If you don’t wake up and realize what you’re feeling – what we’re feeling – is real, then it’s you I feel sorry for. It’s you who loses.”