“Help?” My heart sinks. I feel sick. I cannot believe that I’m back here. “What do you mean?”
“I want to get out of here. I’m afraid I’m going to die. They threatened to shank me. I need some money to get out of here, even on bail. I can’t take it any longer, and you’re my only friend, Jodi.”
I toss my head back and laugh. “Are you kidding me? I have nothing. I have no money, almost nowhere to live, a baby on the way, and you still want me to support you? It can’t happen!”
“A baby? You’re having a fucking baby? Are you still with him? He’ll pay it.”
“No.” My breaths come in short and sharp. I cannot believe that we’re back here again. “No, I’m not with him. I’m alone, obviously, or I wouldn’t be in this financial mess, would I? I’d be just fine.”
“Fuck off, Jodi. I can’t believe you’ve le
t me down again. After everything I’ve done for you, and you’re keeping your rich-as-fuck boyfriend to yourself. What sort of bullshit is that?”
He hasn’t changed at all. This isn’t an apology call . . . this is me getting dragged back into the same old vicious cycle. I can’t go back there, not now, not after all of this. I need to cut ties forever.
“You’re in the right place, Lucas. You need to be in jail. I can’t bail you out. I have to focus on me at the moment. I need to work out what I’m going to do, how I’ll have this baby.”
A string of expletives follow me, but I hang up the phone and burst into sobbing tears. Then I yank the sim card out of my phone and chuck it to the side, damaging it because I throw it so hard, but that’s probably a good thing. I don’t want Lucas to ever be able to get in touch with me again. I’m done with him for good.
Only . . . now what? I’ve broken my phone and now can’t contact Brock, not that it was going to happen anyway. I really am on my own. I lean my head on the table, and I cry and cry until there aren’t any tears left in me. The world is closing in around me, and I don’t know how to make it stop. Soon it’s going to swallow me up whole.
Knock, knock.
I barely lift my head off the table as the sound radiates through my brain. “I’m here, Millie. Just come in already.”
Knock, knock.
“Millie, you have a key. Just come in already. Don’t make me move. I’m comfortable here.” I’m not in the mood to talk to anyone, but if she’s already here, then I don’t have much choice.
Knock, knock.
Urgh, I raise myself upright and force my sluggish body to take me to the door, to open it. I grab the knob and swing the door open, preparing myself to make up some excuse for my friend as to why I look like shit. I just can’t tell her about my money troubles or the conversation I’ve just had with Lucas. She’ll never understand it.
But it isn’t Millie standing in front of me. It’s another face I recognize well. One I didn’t think I would ever see again. All the air is stripped from my lungs, leaving my chest tight and deflated all at once. I don’t know what to do. I run my eyes up and down him, completely convinced I’m dreaming.
“B-Brock?” I rub my eyes, unable to believe this is the truth. “Is that really you?”
19
Brock
“Oh my God, you have a bump.” Tears fill my eyes all over again. “It’s real. Millie was telling the truth.”
“Millie?” Jodi snaps into high alert. Clearly, this isn’t something she knew was happening. “What?”
“I’m sorry, I just . . .” I can’t stop looking at her gorgeous round belly. “This is all just a bit much.”
“A bit much for you? What about me? You don’t think this has all been too much for me?” She steps back and stares at me with a pure white face. “I’ve been trying to contact you, to talk to you, but you wouldn’t listen.”
“Yeah, because of my pride, but I can see that was stupid now. I didn’t mean . . .”
I don’t know what I’m even saying anymore. Words are just spilling out of my mouth. I had this whole beautiful speech planned out. I knew exactly how I was going to woo Jodi back around, but seeing her has completely stripped that away from me. I don’t know what to think anymore. That bump, her beauty—I think I forgot how intoxicating she is. I spent so long hating her that I forgot how much I love her.
“Your pride?” she spits out angrily, not as enamored as me. “Fuck your pride. This isn’t about you. Not anymore. It was at first, I’ll give you that. I was completely intoxicated by you, but now I’m done. Now I have someone else to worry about, another person who needs me. I can’t focus on petty drama.”
“No, I understand. I get that now.” I try to step inside, but she won’t let me. “Please, let me talk.”
“I’m not talking to you. Not now. This isn’t under your control. You don’t just get to walk back in whenever the hell you feel like it.” She drags her fingers through her hair, pulling strands down from the ponytail as she does. The ashy strands frame her face perfectly. “You ignored me, and now it’s my time to ignore you.”