After We Collided (The After Series) (49 page)

D
o you want another cup of coffee?” she asks. “It’ll help with the hangover.”

“No, I know how to get rid of a hangover. I’ve had plenty,” I growl.

Carly rolls her eyes. “Don’t be a dick. I was just asking.”

“Stop talking.” I rub my temples. Her voice is annoying as hell.

“Charming as ever, I see.” She laughs and leaves me alone in her small kitchen.

I’m a dumb-ass for even being here, but it’s not like I had another option. Yes, I did, I’m just trying to not take the blame for my overreaction. I was harsh on Tessa and said some pretty fucked-up things, and now here I am in Carly’s kitchen drinking fucking coffee this late in the afternoon.

“Do you need a ride back to your car?” she yells from the other room.

“Obviously,” I respond, and she walks into the kitchen wearing only a bra.

“You’re lucky that I brought your drunk ass home with me. My boyfriend will be arriving soon, so we need to go.” She slides her shirt over her head.

“You have a boyfriend? Nice.” This keeps getting better.

She rolls her eyes. “Yes. I do. It may be surprising to you that not everyone just wants an endless parade of fuck buddies.”

I almost tell her about Tessa, but I decide against it, since it’s
none of her business. “I gotta piss first,” I tell her and walk toward the bathroom.

My head is pounding and I’m angry at myself for coming here. I should be at home . . . well, on campus. I hear my phone buzzing on the counter and snap back around.

“Don’t you dare answer that,” I bark at Carly, and she takes a step back.

“I’m not! Man, you weren’t this big of an asshole last night,” she remarks, but I ignore her.

I follow Carly to her car, my head pounding with each step against the concrete. I shouldn’t have drunk so much. I shouldn’t have drunk at all. I look over at Carly as she rolls her window down and lights a cigarette.

How could she ever have been my type? She’s not wearing a seat belt. She puts makeup on at stoplights. Tessa is so different from her, from any of the girls I’ve ever been with.

As we’re driving back to the bar where I got shit-faced last night, I keep rereading the texts from Tessa, over and over again. This is terrible—she’s probably really worried. My head’s too foggy to think up a good excuse, so I just text her,
I fell asleep in the car after drinking too much with Landon last night. Be home soon.

Something feels off, and I pause for a minute. But my whole brain is just rattled, so I hit send and watch the phone to see if she’s replying. Nothing.

Well, I can’t tell her about this, about staying at Carly’s house. She’ll never forgive me, she won’t even hear me out. I know she won’t. I can tell she’s getting tired of my shit lately. I know she is.

I just don’t have a fucking clue how to fix it.

Carly interrupts my rumination when she hits the brake and curses. “Aaagh, fuck. We have to go around—there’s a wreck up there,” she says, pointing to the cars blocking our way.

Glancing up, I see a middle-aged man standing with his
hands in his pockets while talking to a police officer. He points to a white car that looks . . . just like . . .

I panic. “Stop the car,” I demand.

“What? Jesus, Hard—”

“I said
stop the goddamn car
!” Without thinking, I open the door as the car comes to a stop and rush over to the damaged cars. “Where’s the other driver?” I ask the officer angrily and look around the scene.

The front end of the white car is badly damaged, and then I see the WCU parking pass hanging from the rearview mirror.
Fuck
. An ambulance is parked next to the police car.
Fuck.

If something happened to her . . . if she isn’t okay . . .

“Where’s the girl? Someone fucking
answer me
!” I scream.

The cop gets an aggressively annoyed look on his face, but the other driver sees my anxiety and says softly, “There,” and points to the ambulance.

My heart stops beating.

Wandering over in a daze, I see the ambulance doors are open . . . and Tessa is sitting on its back bumper, an ice pack on her cheek.

Thank God. Thank God it’s only small.

I rush over to her, and the words start tumbling from my mouth. “What happened? Are you okay?”

Relief takes over her features when she sees me. “I had an accident.” Above her eye is a small bandage, and her lip is swollen and split on the side.

“Can you go?” I ask rudely. “Can she go?” I ask the young EMT who’s standing nearby.

The woman nods and walks away quickly. I reach for Tessa’s ice pack and move it, revealing a knot the size of a golf ball. Her cheeks are stained with tears, and her eyes are swollen and red. I can already see the black eye forming under her delicate skin.

“Fuck—are you okay? Was it his fault?” I turn and try to find that asshole again.

“No, I ran into him,” she says, wincing as she grabs the ice pack and puts it back on her skin. Then some of the relief leaves her eyes as she looks up at me and asks, “Where were you all day?”

“What?” I ask, honestly confused, between my hangover and seeing her like this.

With a colder look in her eyes, she says, “I said, ‘Hardin, where were you all day?’ ”

I snap back to the situation.
Fuck
.

And right as I’m about to make an excuse, Carly walks up and smacks me on the ass. “Well, Mr. Dark and Moody, can I go? You can walk back to your car from here, right? I really need to get back home.”

Tessa’s eyes go wide. “Who are
you
?”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Not this. Not now.

Carly smiles and gives Tessa a little nod. “I’m Hardin’s friend Carly. Sorry about your accident.” Then she looks at me. “Can I go now?”

“Bye, Carly,” I snap.

“Wait,” Tessa says. “He was with you last night at your place?”

I try to make eye contact with her, but she continues to stare at Carly, who says, “Yeah, I was just trying to take him back to his car.”

“His car? Where’s that?” she says, her voice shaking.

“
Bye
, Carly,” I say again and glare at her.

Tessa stands up, though her knees buckle a little. “No—tell me where his car is.”

I grab hold of her elbows in an attempt to stop her, but she pushes me away and then whimpers from the pain of the motion. “Don’t touch me,” she says through her teeth.

“Carly. Where is his car?” Tessa asks again.

Carly raises her hands and looks back and forth between Tessa and me. “At the bar where I work. Okay, I’m going now,” she says and wanders off.

“Tess . . .” I plead.
God, why am I such a fuckup?

“Get away from me,” she replies. Her cheek goes in a little; I can tell she’s biting down on it to keep her tears at bay. Now that she’s standing here, staring off in the distance and trying to appear emotionless, I’m missing the days of her constant crying.

“Tessa, we have . . .” I begin, but my voice cracks. Now I’m the emotional one, and for once I don’t care. The panic from seeing the front end of her car smashed still courses through me, and I don’t want anything other than to hold her right now.

She still doesn’t look at me. “Go. Now. Or I’ll tell the officer to make you.”

“I don’t give a fuck about them—”

Her eyes whip back toward me with a vengeance. “No—I’m done listening to you! I’m not sure what happened last night, but all morning I knew—somehow
knew
—you were with someone else. I was just trying to force myself not to believe it.”

“We can work this out,” I beg. “We always have.”

“Hardin! Do you not
see
that I was just in an accident?” she yells and starts crying, prompting the EMT to walk back over. “Actually, you probably can’t tell, your version of reality is so warped. You write me a note last night about going out with your dad this morning,
then
you text me that you fell asleep drunk in your car after drinking with Landon. With
Landon
! You must think I’m stupid enough to believe anything—even things that contradict each other.” She glares at me. “Of course, you’re a walking bundle of contradictions, so, yeah, I can see how you might mistakenly think the rest of reality is, too.”

The realization of just how stupid I was fills me, and I can’t speak for a moment. I’m so stupid, so very, very stupid. And not just because I couldn’t keep my stories straight.

The EMT takes that moment to put a hand on Tessa’s shoulder and says, “Is everything okay over here? We need to get you to the hospital, just to check everything out.”

Wiping her tears from her cheeks, Tessa looks dead at me and says to her, “Yes. I’m ready. I’m ready to leave now.”

I
crack open my fourth beer and spin the cap on the glossy wooden surface of our coffee table. When is she going to be here?
Is
she going to be here?

Maybe I should just text her and tell her that I
did
have sex with Carly, just to end both of our miseries.

A loud knock on the door breaks me from my plotting.

Here we go. I hope she’s alone.
I grab my beer, take another swig, and head for the door. The knocking quickly shifts to pounding, and I swing open the door to find Landon. Before I can react, his hands grip the collar of my T-shirt and he slams me against the wall.

What the fuck?
He’s much stronger than I ever expected, and I’m astounded by his aggressive behavior.

“What the hell is wrong with you!” he yells. I didn’t know his voice could even get that loud.

“Get the fuck off of me!” I push back, but he doesn’t move. Fuck, he’s strong.

He lets go of me and for a second I think he’s going to punch me, but he doesn’t. “I know that you slept with another girl and you caused her to wreck her car!” He gets in my face again.

“I suggest you lower your fucking voice,” I snap.

“I’m not afraid of you,” he says through his teeth.

The alcohol makes me indignant, when I should be ashamed. “I already beat your ass before, remember,” I say as I go back to the couch and sit.

Landon follows me. “I wasn’t as angry with you then as I am now.” He lifts his chin higher. “You can’t just go around hurting her all the time!”

I wave him off. “I didn’t even sleep with that girl. I just slept over at her house, so mind your own damn business.”

“Oh, wow! Of course you’re drinking!” He gestures at the empty beer bottles on the table and the one in my hand. “Tessa is all banged up and has a concussion because of you, and here you are getting drunk. You’re such a prick!” he practically screams.

“That wasn’t my fucking fault and I tried to talk to her!”

“Yes, it
was
your fault! It was your damn text message that she was trying to read when she crashed. A text that she knew right away was a lie, might I add.”

The breath is knocked out of me. “What are you talking about?” I choke.

“She was so anxious to hear from you all day, she grabbed her phone as soon as she saw your name.”

This is my fault. How did I not put it together? I cause these injuries to her. I hurt her.

Landon continues to stare at me. “She’s done with you—you know that, don’t you?”

I look up at him, suddenly weary. “Yeah. I know.” I reach for my beer. “And you can leave now.”

But he snatches the bottle from my hand and walks into the kitchen.

“You’re really fucking pushing it,” I warn him and jump up.

“You’re being an idiot and you know it. You’re here getting shit-faced while Tessa’s hurt, and you don’t even care!” he yells.

“Stop yelling at me! Fuck!” I twist my fingers into my hair, tugging at the roots. “I do care. But she isn’t going to believe anything I say!”

“Do you blame her? You should have just come home, or how about this, never left at all?” he says and pours my beer down the
drain. “How can you be so uncaring? She loves you so much.” He goes to the refrigerator and hands me a bottle of water.

“I’m not uncaring. I’m just sick of waiting for some shit to happen. You were babbling on and on about your fucking perfect love life and making sacrifices, blah, blah. Then Tess goes and says his damn name.” I roll my head back, staring at the ceiling for a moment.

“Whose name?” he asks.

“Zed. She said his name in her sleep. Clear as day, like she wanted him to be there instead of me.”

“In her sleep?” he asks, and I can hear the sarcasm in his voice.

“Yes. Sleeping or not, she said his name instead of mine.”

He rolls his eyes. “You do realize how ridiculous this sounds, don’t you? Tessa said Zed’s name while she was sleeping, so you go out and get drunk? You’re making a big deal out of this for no reason.”

The water bottle crunches and collapses in my hand from my grip.

“You don’t even—” I start, but then hear keys and the sound of the front lock turning and opening.

I turn around and see her come through the door.
Tessa.

. . . and Zed. Zed next to her.

I can’t see straight as I get up and move toward them. “What the fuck is this shit?” I scream.

Tessa takes a step back, stumbles, and catches herself on the wall behind her. “Hardin, stop!” she yells at me.

“No! Fuck this! I’m sick of you coming around every time shit goes down!” I say and shove my hands against Zed’s chest.

“Stop it!” Tessa yells again.

“Please,” she says, then looks at Landon. “What are you doing here?” she asks him.

“I . . . I came to talk to him.”

I nod sarcastically. “
Actually
, he came here trying to fight me.”

Tessa’s eyes nearly pop out of their sockets. “What?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Landon says.

Zed is breathing hard and he’s staring at her. How could she bring him here after everything? Of course she’d go running to him. The man of her
dreams
.

Tessa turns to Zed and puts a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Thanks for bringing me home, Zed. I really appreciate it, but it’s probably best you go.”