Page 106 of Unspoken Rules (Rules 2)

Noticing that I’m somewhere else, Bianca follows my eyes.

“Don’t tell me you’re hung up on the new girl.”

I take a sip of beer as a reply.

“I was right, wasn’t I? You two were together this whole time.”

Well, isn’t she smart?

“What? Are you like dating or something?”

“We will be” is all I say.

I’ll find a way to get her back. I have to.

“Come on, she’s clearly flirting with that guy.” She points to Ryder, who keeps devouring Winter with his eyes, and I clench my fists. “Don’t you want to go upstai—”

“I said no thanks!” I interrupt her. How many times am I going to have to reject her for it to stick?

“What’s wrong? You used to like it.” She presses her breast to my arm, and her fingers trail down my chest. Her hand takes a very inappropriate direction, and I gasp. Is she insane? I’m about to push her off when she stops moving and whispers the worst four words I’ve heard today.

“We have an audience.”

That’s all it takes.

My eyes jump to Winter.

In her gaze are anger, disappointment, pain. She looks down, shakes her head, and walks off.

Shit.

“There. Problem solved.” Bianca grins victoriously.

I don’t waste a second listening to her nonsense and walk around her to follow Winter—no, wait, I try, but Bianca stops me, sinking her five-foot-long fake nails into my arm.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“What don’t you get? I don’t want to fuck you,” I snap. “I didn’t even want to fuck you back then; you were just too easy. Now get the fuck out of my face.”

I squeeze my way through the crowd, the hateful words I spat leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. That was harsh. I know it was. After telling her a hundred times that we weren’t happening, I lost my temper. I’ve tried to let her down easy, but nothing I do ever seems to work. I guess I thought maybe rejecting her the hard way would do the trick. I push all Bianca-related thoughts out of my mind and turn the corner, desperate to figure out where Winter went. I need to explain myself. She’s got this all wrong. I walk into the living room and curse at the endless sea of heads surrounding me.

How am I ever going to find her now?

Winter

Sitting on a bench I found while wandering around in Rose’s backyard, I swallow the sobs filling my throat and shiver in disgust at the scene playing on a loop in my head. We aren’t dating. He’s not my boyfriend anymore, but I still couldn’t stand to see him with her. Bianca, out of all girls? That’s low.

I hate him.

I really, really, really hate him.

Okay, fine. I want to hate him.

No matter what I do, I can’t seem to convince my heart to mirror my brain. You’d think seeing Bianca try to grope him in public would pave the way for my hatred but nope, I’m still an idiot hung up on a guy I can’t want. What’s it going to take to get these feelings out of me? A freaking heart transplant?

“There you are,” a familiar voice calls behind me.

Ryder.