I froze. What did she know?

Then she admitted, “I’m a little excited to see him play. He’s our hometown celebrity. Maybe we should ask for his autograph.”

Justin frowned. “I don’t like that idea.”

Angie laughed before she draped herself over him and fluttered her eyelashes at him. Then she pressed a kiss to his cheek and hugged tight. “Oh, come on. I love you, but Jesse Hunt is gorgeous.”

A small grin escaped his frown. “I have a little bit of a man crush on him. I’m man enough to admit that.”

As I went up to my room, I couldn’t hold back my smile. I was excited. I wasn’t even going to try and stuff it down. It was the first time in a long time I’d felt that emotion. When I checked my cell phone, I got even more excited. It was a text message from Jesse, but then I read it.

‘U in Vegas? Your folks are here, said they stopped in for a few days before some trip? U here? Call me.’

I plopped down on my bed.

Everything went numb. The phone fell from my hand and I couldn’t do anything. I sat there. And I didn’t know how long I was there until Angie poked her head around the door. She had a wide smile on her face, but it vanished in a heartbeat. She pushed through the door and sat beside me. “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head. I couldn’t speak.

Then she bent and lifted the phone from the floor. After she read the text message, she studied me for a moment. Her voice was so small when she asked, “You didn’t know they were going there?”

I shook my head. I still couldn’t speak.

“How long has this been going on?”

Everything in me throbbed. My heart ached. My head hurt. I couldn’t get my fingers to work, but I rasped out, “What?”

She lifted my phone. “Your parents. They upped and left you. Now they went to see Jesse and you didn’t even know. Or did you?”

I shook my head. Why did everything hurt? It always hurt.

She sighed. It was a soft sigh, one that spoke of so much emotion. “I’m sorry, Alex. I really am.”

I jerked a shoulder up. What did it matter?

Then she asked the question I’d been dreading. “How long have you and Jesse been texting?”

My eyes closed.

She watched me. I felt her gaze. And I shook my head. Now wasn’t the time to push that button. And she expelled a ragged breath. “Okay. I’ll leave that one alone, but I’m going to ask you later. You know I will.”

I nodded as I bit my lip. Even that slight bit of pain was welcomed. It distracted from the other pain inside of me. I was helpless against that form.

One of Angie’s hands caught the side of my head and she pulled me against hers in a side-ways hug. We stayed there, with her arm around my shoulder and then she said, “I’m sorry, Alex. I really am for what I can’t even imagine has happened.”

My eyes clasped shut. The tears were there, they wanted to cascade out, but I couldn’t let them. It’d be over if I did. I’d been holding everything in so well until then. I couldn’t let it happen now. Not now.

But my hand grasped her arm and I held on tight. I didn’t want to move away, not in this lifetime.

CHAPTER TWELVE

My stomach was in knots the entire time in the plane, so when we landed in Vegas, I was barely able to stomach the idea of food. Angie and Justin suggested food, but I shook my head and they grabbed something on the way from a food cart. It didn’t take long to get our bags and then we were in the taxi and headed towards Marissa’s hotel. As we got closer to the Tropicana, my heart was pumping louder and louder. I couldn’t believe Angie or Justin hadn’t heard it.

When the taxi got to the hotel and we walked into the lobby, Marissa and Eric were waiting for us. She jumped up and down, waving her hand. As she lifted her arm each time, her white dress inched down a centimeter with each wave. As we started in their direction, she grabbed Eric’s hand and dragged him towards us. We were met halfway. Marissa kept bouncing up and down, hugging each of us. When all of us had been greeted, she repeated the process and repeated it again.

“You’re here! You’re here.” Marissa clapped. “Yay, yay!”

Eric looked green around his mouth. He held a hand to his stomach, but tried for a smile. “Hey, guys.”

Angie’s eyebrows went high. “And she’s drunk.”

Justin chuckled and clapped a hand on Eric’s shoulder. “Been drinking since you got here?”

He nodded, and gulped for breath. His cheeks swelled suddenly.

Justin’s laugh grew in volume. He swatted him once again. “Yep, sounds like Marissa’s influence has done its job. Good job.”

Eric jerked forward, clapped a hand over his mouth, paled, and then fled down a hallway.

“Honey!” Marissa followed after him, with clumsier movements.

“Hey! What about us?”

“Oh.” She put the brakes on and skidded back. A key card was flung at us from her purse before she turned back around. “You’re all in room 5214, right next to us. You’re checked in and everything. I’ll come over in a bit.”

“All of us?”

A distracted wave was her response.

Angie sighed in disgust. “I can’t believe she did that. We should’ve gotten a suite with three separate rooms. That would be less awkward then.”

“Uh…” Justin glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “Um, honey. We’ll be fine. It’s no problem.”

“No problem?” she seethed. “This is all Marissa’s fault. She called us at the last minute and demanded we all do this, and then she doesn’t think things through. Honey, we’re in Vegas and we can’t—”

Then she stopped and turned to me. Horrified.

The knots in my stomach had dropped like stones, but I swallowed my pride and shrugged. “It’s fine. I can get my own room somewhere.”

“Oh, my God. I am so sorry, Alex. I didn’t mean—” She balled up her fists and pressed them to her forehead. “None of this is going the right way. I can’t believe I said it like that. I’m really sorry, Alex. I really am. I’m mad at Marissa, not you, never you.”

But, I was the problem. And she knew that I knew that. A deep guilt started to settle in when Justin threw his arms around us both and pulled us tight. He squeezed us together and said in a cheerful tone, “No worries, Alex. Me and Ang can have daytime sex if you’re not around.”