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Damn it. She’d been charmed by him too.
But Calvin’s jaw hung open, and he didn’t stop to think twice about who he was with. He was more worried about whoIwas with. “You’re kissing Levi Hensen, andthat’swhat you say to me?”
“I ... Is there something else to say? You’re with my friend too.”
He rolled his eyes, clearly seeing me as a lost cause, and his gaze fell to Levi.
“Andyou.I invite you to show off my party, and you get revenge by kissing my sister?”
Levi’s smile was so different from the ones he had been giving me that it made me do a double take. “What, does it bother you?”
Calvindidlook bothered as he glared and crossed his arms over his chest. “There is no limit to what you would do to piss me off.”
Levi only shrugged.
Whatever joy I felt dissipated into a cloud of smoke. He ...what?
Suddenly, it all made sense. Levi and Calvin’s odd competition had reached a boiling point, and now I was involved.
I was collateral in their fight.
God, I was an idiot. How did I not see this coming? There was never a time when Calvin and I were in the same place and I was the one who got the attention.
Hurt bloomed in my chest and spread to every corner of me, started by Ava being with Calvin, and brought to the forefront of my mind by Levi’s words.
But I wouldn’t cry—not in front of everyone who had hurt me.
“I should have never invited you,” Calvin said. “You can’t handle seeing me do well.”
“Andyou—” Levi started, but I’d heard enough.
I stood. “Excuse me.”
Levi turned to me. “Wait?—”
I didn’t give him a chance to say anything else. I brushed past Calvin and headed outside, fishing my phone out of my pocket.
The only place I wanted to be was the one where someone would listen to me cry. I had one person in my life who fit the bill.
Gram.
Gram pulledup alongside me as I walked down the road, my arms crossed to keep myself warm in the cool spring air. Her gray hair was in a braid today, and she was so tall even when sitting that the top of her head brushed the roof of the tiny Toyota she drove.
“What are you doing a mile away from home?”
“I didn’t want anyone to find me,” I said. “I’m pretty sure some of the neighbors are scarred, though. They all saw me crying, and I amnota pretty crier.”
“Crying is no way to spend your nineteenth birthday,” she said. “What did Calvin do this time?”
“He didn’t do anything. Well, nothing more than what I’m used to.” I wiped my face. “Mom and Dad tried to make the party equal.”
She raised one brow.
“Tried.It was a guy who did this.”
“A man, huh? Typical. I know how they are.” And she did. Gram had been through her fair share of heartbreak. Her first husband had left her the second she found out she was pregnant, and others seemed to disappoint her when things got real. It had started with her first love, a man who she never liked to speak of, and only got worse from there.
She always told me that romance was never like the books, but I held out hope.