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because of me, not Aiden. I let my grip loosen until he fell to my feet, clutching his face and crying like a bitch.
    “Cops!” Someone yelled and the crowd took off in different directions like a herd of antelope running from a wolf.
    I took off with Trey on my heels, laughing so hard that I had to stop running after only a few blocks.
    “What the fuck is wrong with you, man?” Aiden’s face was a cross between delight and disappointment.
    “He had enough,” I replied, rubbing my bloodied knuckles with the bottom of my dark blue T-shirt.
    “Yeah. You almost fucking killed him.”
    I shrugged as my eyes scanned the street. He deserved more than what he got. Visions of that prick grabbing Rose’s ass in the hallway flashed in my memory. Anger began to creep back as I saw the look of fear on her face. Not the normal reaction you would expect from a girl who was used to getting attention from dumb high school boys. That look…I had seen it before on my mother a million times. It doesn’t matter that he thought this was all about bumping into me in the hall, doesn’t matter that Rose didn’t know my true motive. I knew.
    “Which way did Rose go?” I asked.
    “What? Who the fuck cares, man?”
    I turned back to him, still seething and ready for round two.
    “I fucking care.”
    “Yeah, I see that. It’s just weird because I’ve never even seen you two talk.” He took a step back and shook his head.
    “We don’t.” I scanned the street again, not hearing any sirens. “I just don’t want her going down for my stupid shit.” I had barely said two words to Rose, but I knew she wasn’t like them. The way she looked at me it was just…different. She didn’t see the worthless criminal everyone else saw, even though that was exactly who I was.
    I sank down on my couch and listened to Rose sobbing in the bedroom. I fucked up. There was no coming back from what I’d just done. She had broken my heart into a million shards and I had never recovered, and now I was going to return the favor.
    I pushed myself up from the couch and made my way to the kitchen in a haze of confusion. I grabbed the bottle of Jack from the freezer and tilted it to my lips, closing my eyes and letting it burn a path of fire down my core.
    “Please! I won’t tell anyone,” she cried from the other side of the locked door. I shook my head and tilted the bottle back to my lips. I knew she wouldn’t tell anyone, just like she had never told anyone about us. My memories were mine alone. No one else saw the way she held my hand, the way her eyes sparkled before she pressed her soft lips to mine. It was like none of it had ever happened, and I wasn’t sure that it ever really had, until today when she walked back into my life.
    “Why are you doing this to me?” Her voice wavered as she called out to me. I wasn’t there. The guy standing in the kitchen with liquor burning his throat was not the guy she fell in love with. I was an angry, empty shell of my former self.
    “Why?” I called back, laughing maniacally as my brain began to succumb to the fog. I was an angry drunk, and I realized too late that this was going to end very badly. “You have always been such a selfish bitch. Why am I doing this to
you
?”
    Her cries grew louder and I ran my hand roughly through my hair, trying desperately to calm myself before I did something I regretted.
    “Why the fuck are you even here?” I screamed, on the verge of losing it. I tipped the bottle back one last time. Chilled amber liquid ran down my chin and over my chest before it stopped at the waistband of my sweatpants. “Fuck that’s cold,” I said to myself as I screwed the cap back on and placed the bottle back in the freezer.
    “You’re going to be the death of me, Rose.” I shook my head and stumbled back into the living room, falling gracelessly onto the old leather couch. A pile of stacked books behind me toppled and slammed into the hardwood floor. Rose stopped crying