Page 136 of Forgotten Rules (Rules 4)

Guilt sinks into me.

Will loses it. “Call her a slut one more time, I swear—”

“Stop!” I screech, wedging myself between them. “Luke, I admit it. At the beginning, I strung you along, and that was wrong. I’m sorry, I really am. Then we started working together and… I thought we’d become friends. I promise I never meant to play with your feelin—”

“Fuck this. You two deserve each other,” Luke snaps, racing toward the door. Seconds before he walks out, he stops. “Oh, and Kass?”

I know exactly what he’s going to say.

“Consider yourself fired.”

Here we go.

His footsteps fade down the stairs, and the front door closes with a bang. We don’t speak for several seconds. Until Will elbows my door shut. I morph into a nervous wreck. We all know what happened the last time we were alone.

“Golden boy has a temper. Who knew?” He tries a joke, but I can’t bring myself to laugh.

“Are you seriously making jokes right now? You just kissed Zoey. How can you do that, then have the audacity to show up at my house and pretend to care about me?”

“I’m not pretending!” he argues. “And she kissed me. I would never do that to you.”

I pace around my room, lifting my hands to my forehead as though it will help me understand his nonsense. “Yeah, but you still let her get close enough to do it.”

“She told me you slept with Luke.”

“You keep stringing me along and you—” It takes me a second to realize what he just said. “What?”

“She said you were together. That you’d opened your legs today.”

Classy.

“That’s bullshit.” I’m outraged.

“I know that now. Morgan told me. She cussed the fuck out of me after you left.”

I think back to Morgan’s text and smile. This is what a best friend looks like.

“I’m such an idiot. I should’ve known better than to believe that bitch.” He beats himself up.

“It doesn’t excuse what you did,” I remind him.

“I know, I know, and I’m so fucking sorry. You have to understand I didn’t even realize what was happening. I blacked out after she said… I couldn’t deal with the thought of you choosing him.”

I can’t believe I’m about to say this but…

I kind of get it?

It’s not like this was a consensual kiss.

“Zoey and I aren’t friends anymore,” I admit. “Since this morning, actually.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You’re not?”

“No, you were right. She only cares about herself.”

He pauses.

“What happened?”