Jackie laughed harder and wiped tears from her eyes. “Yes, everyone knows what happened. Adam had actually already told Ethan about me and everything that had happened; Ethan still wanted to meet me. Dana didn’t like me at first last year when she and Adam started dating, but after she hung out with me and Ethan she got over it really quick. And Anthony decided he wanted to go into the army, so he left after his second fall semester.”

“Oh my word.”

“I know.” She took a deep breath in and out to calm her laughing. “All that is to say, people do stupid shit when they’re upset. Don’t be too hard on Gage. He’s not cheating on you, and remember, I get to hear what goes on behind enemy lines since I’m dating one of his best friends. He fell for you the moment he saw you. I didn’t have to hear that from you to know it; he told Ethan too. We were all just waiting for you guys to come together.”

“Ugh, I feel so stupid for overreacting!” I jumped off the bed, pulling her with me. “Thank you, Jackie, what would I do without you?” I hugged her quickly.

“Well, let’s just hope Gage is still here so we don’t have to go track him down.”

Just then there was a loud crash and a few guys started yelling, one of them distinctly my Gage. “Oh shit.”

GAGE

ETHAN HAD TO pull me out of the room so I wouldn’t continue to make an ass out of myself and dig myself into an even deeper hole with Cassidy. Was it too much to ask for us to have a normal night out without something happening?

I shoved him. “Get the fuck off me.”

“You need to calm down, man.”

“I am calm! I just can’t fucking lose Cassidy because of Cara!” God, in December I thought I’d die if Cassidy ever found out because I knew she would look at me differently, and I didn’t think I’d be able to handle that, but I didn’t know just how painful that death would be. I didn’t think I could handle seeing her look at me like that one more time. Like . . . exactly what she said: she was looking at me like I disgusted her, and I couldn’t blame her; I disgusted myself. But how could she for one damn second think that I would use her as a fucking game, or that I would ever treat anyone else the way I treated her? I hadn’t made it a secret since we’d been together how special she was to me and how different she was for me. But apparently she’d never believed any of that anyway.

“Fuck,” I growled, and stormed past Ethan toward the living room, stopping short when I saw Tyler and Cara with smug looks on their faces. “Are you happy now?” I asked both of them.

“Told ya, cousin, Cassi will always be mine. Now I just gotta wait. She’s done with you, and soon she’ll realize I’m all she has left. She’ll come running back to me.”

Cara’s eyes grew wide and she turned to Tyler. “What?!”

“Don’t act shocked and hurt,” Tyler said with a roll of his eyes, “you knew exactly why I brought you with me tonight. You already played your part.”

My eyebrows raised high and I almost expected Cara to slap him, but she just turned with a huff and stormed out of the apartment.

“I’m sure you can still catch her, if you think you need to go back to your days.” Tyler raised an eyebrow in my direction.

“Cassidy’s mine. You really think she’s going to come back to you after you cheated on her and treated her the way you did?”

Before Ty could respond, Grant decided to step up and put his two cents in. “Honestly, I’m surprised either of you think you’re getting another shot with her. Cassi gets done with one of y’all and moves on to the next; now that she’s got both of y’all outta the way, she’ll be looking somewhere else,” he taunted.

“You best shut up, Grant. Now,” I growled.

His smile just got wider and the challenge in his eyes was more than a little apparent. “And damn if I haven’t wanted to fuck that piece of ass since the first night Ty showed up with her. I promise not to be too rough with her. Now, if you’ll excuse me . . .” He smiled wryly at me and started walking toward Ethan and Jackie’s room, where Jackie and Cassidy still were.

“You son of a bitch!” Tyler yelled, and stalked toward Grant, but I had already plowed into him and was knocking him into the table, breaking it with the weight of both of us.

Immediately all the guys started yelling at each other and the girls scattered away from us. Adam and Ethan pulled me off Grant, yelling at me to calm down, and Tyler took my spot, slamming his fist into Grant’s face—or arm if Grant was able to block it. Jake had just started pulling Tyler away when Sean came to Grant’s defense and punched Ty in the stomach. Jake let Tyler go and went after Sean as Ty doubled over and tried to catch his breath.

“Man, is she that good of a lay?” Grant asked even as he spit blood onto the floor.

“You have a death wish, dumbass? Shut up!” Adam yelled, but I was already out of his and Ethan’s grasp and charging back toward Grant.

As soon as I landed a solid punch to Grant’s jaw someone put me in a choke hold and I tried to bring my arms back to get him off, but Grant grabbed them and sent his foot into my stomach. The next thing I knew my neck was free and I didn’t have time to catch my breath before both Grant’s feet went into my stomach again. I rolled back and scrambled to my feet, vaguely registering Adam wrestling with Reid and Ethan trying to hold Tyler back.

Grant was getting back to his feet but I swiped his legs out from under him, grabbed his shirt, and lifted him slightly off the ground to deliver another blow to the right side of his face. My arm cocked back again and someone grabbed it; I turned, but Tyler was already punching some guy I didn’t know and my arm was free again. After another hit, Grant’s eyes started fluttering and I had to struggle to keep his weight up as I was still having trouble catching my breath and was constantly getting hit from all the other fights going on around me.

CASSIDY

JACKIE AND I stood there in shock watching as the party turned into an all-out brawl. Girls were huddled in a group near the patio door, and while a few guys were standing with them, the rest seemed to all be in the fight or trying to pull guys off each other.

I looked up and saw Tyler slam someone back onto the hardwood floor and lean back to start hitting him, only to be flipped onto his back and get hit himself. Ethan grabbed the guy and pulled him back enough for Tyler to stand back up, but he stumbled into someone else before going back to the guy Ethan was still holding. I realized Gage was the one Ty had just run into and saw him holding Grant up and punching him in the face.

Why is this happening? My body was shaking watching the guys punching, kicking, and choking each other. Different days and nights with my mom and stepdad kept flashing through my mind and all I wanted to do was scream at them to stop, but I couldn’t find my voice. My legs were weak as my worst nightmare played out before my eyes and again I tried to yell at them, but my voice still wasn’t working. I let go of Jackie’s arm and rushed up to Gage before he could hit Grant again. I couldn’t deal with seeing the man I love hitting someone else for no apparent reason.

GAGE

“YOU SAY ANYTHING like that about her again, I will end you.” I brought my arm up one last time, but Grant’s eyes rolled to the back of his head and I felt someone try to grab at my arm. Without straightening my arm or my body I flung my elbow back into the person. Before I could realize that I’d hit a face instead of a torso, I’d turned around and had my arm cocked back, ready to throw another punch, and what I saw stopped my world.

The fighting around me, the yelling, the girls on the other side of the room shrieking, my heartbeat.

Everything. Stopped.

My eyes focused on my beautiful girl on the ground, Ethan’s hands under her arms. One eye was wide with what should have been shock but instead was outright fear, and the other was covered by her hand. Her mouth was slightly open, and as she took a staggering breath in and began to cover it with her other hand, my world unfroze and I dropped to my knees in front of her and tried to reach for her, but she flinched back into Ethan.

Cassidy flinched away from me.

It felt like I’d been shot in the chest with a shotgun.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Jackie screamed at me.

“Oh God, Cassidy!” I took a short, painful breath in. “Baby, are you all right? I’m—” Another painful breath. “I’m so sorry.”

I got to my feet and followed as Ethan lifted her up and walked quickly back to the bedroom with Jackie; Ty wasn’t far behind.

“Are you kidding me? You’re always going on about me hurting her and you hit her?!”

I felt like I was going to throw up. “I had no idea it was her, I didn’t even know she was in the room. God. Cassidy, are you okay? Please say something.” Ethan had already sat her on the bed so I got closer and gently touched her arm but she jerked away.

“Don’t touch her, you asshole!” Tyler pushed me back and went toe-to-toe with me.

“Stop fighting,” Cassidy said in a soft, robotic voice. I turned and my heart broke when I saw the right side of her face was in that familiar, lifeless mask. “Tyler.”

“Yeah, sweetheart?” He squatted next to her and grabbed her hand, the smile on his face showing how happy he was that she was going back to him, like always.

“I need you to leave, I need some time—”

“Cassi, I’ve always—”

“Not anymore, not after what you did to me.” Her voice lost some of its mechanical sound and got soft as a whisper when her eyes focused on his. “You closed the window, Ty.”

I could see that was the one thing that could hurt Tyler the most. Having Cassidy say those last words, confusing as they were, killed him. He stood there wide eyed for a moment before nodding and walking out of the room. As much as I hated him, I still felt somewhat bad for him. I couldn’t imagine how much that hurt, but from the way Cass glanced up at me I thought I was about to find out.