Page 91 of Hard Rock Tease

"Clearly you do because the way you're playing right now is trash."

"And I'm sure you're going to tell me exactly what you think I should be doing differently."

"You need to stop shutting me out. You need to get back to the Noah Hart who actually opened up to people. Who let himself be vulnerable."

"You think you can just fix everything, don't you?" he snapped.

"I want to help you," I shot back.

"How in the hell can you help me? You're just a fangirl. You can't help anyone. You couldn't even keep your mother from—" he cut himself off sharply.

A burning hot spike pierced my chest before it froze over completely.

"Go on," I challenged. "Finish that sentence."

Noah looked pained. "I didn't mean…" he murmured.

"No. Finish that sentence. I couldn't even keep my mother from what?" My words dripped with a glacial chill. The scabs that had finally begun to heal threatened to tear wide open again.

"Jen…"

"From killing herself?" I saw the others flinch out of the corner of my eye. One of the twins glared at Noah. Cameron looked appalled. "You're right. My mother killed herself and I wasn't able to stop her." I ignored the rest of them as if we were the only two people in the room. "As much as I wanted to, I couldn't fix her." I pinned him down with an icy stare. "And I sure as hell can't fix you."

I turned to Naomi. "Sorry, but I'm out. You need to deal with Noah by yourself." I spun on my heel and stormed out.

I thought I caught Noah calling my name, but I couldn't hear over the blood rushing through my ears and the angry pounding of my heartbeat.

Good riddance to Noah Fucking Hart.

I was done.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

With the curtainsdrawn to cast my bedroom in shadow and with Darkest Days blasting at full volume, I was practically re-living my teenaged years.

Listening to Noah's voice sing words of both love and loathing wasn't going to help me get over him. Still, I kept listening to his albums, one after another, torturing myself.

Half the time I wondered what in the hell I even saw in that man. He was biting, caustic and cantankerous. He never had a kind word for anyone, and he had a huge ego on top of it all.

But there had been moments of thoughtfulness, too. Moments when he'd been sweet and caring. I knew how hard it was for Noah to trust people. I'd been touched to be one of the few he let inside those carefully guarded walls of his.

None of that made a difference. Noah always turned cold and shut me out at the first sign of conflict. As much as I'd come to care for him — as much as I loved him — I didn't need the emotional rollercoaster ride that came with being in a relationship with Noah Hart.

When Ivy and Nat came over one day only to find me huddled in blankets in complete darkness with Darkest Days on repeat, I didn't even need to tell them what had happened. They decided on the spot to take me out clubbing to distract me from my misery.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. When our taxi dropped us off at the same club where Noah and I had sex in the limo, I began to have second thoughts.

"Get drunk and dance and forget all about him," Natalie urged.

"Focus on having fun tonight," Ivy said.

"Aren't your boyfriends wondering what you're doing out at a club on Saturday night?"

They both shrugged.

"It's a girls' night out," Natalie explained.

"Ren can live without me for one night," Ivy said.