“Huh?”

“I’m going with Dani Salazar to your homecoming.” He winks at me. “Gotta love it when a girl asks a dude from her rival school whose nemesis is her brother. Classic.”

The restraint lifts and I’m suddenly free. I stumble out of the seat with my body protesting and spot Trey, who’s leaning against a railing waiting for me. He’s still on the phone. Bonk passes him, but Trey doesn’t even notice.

Unbelievable.

I walk past my boyfriend, trying not to show any signs that my body is less than thrilled with me right now. Trey and I don’t fight or argue much because we decided a long time ago we didn’t want a relationship full of bullshit and drama. This is unfamiliar territory for me. I don’t even know what to say, so I say nothing.

“Monika, wait up!” I hear Trey call after me.

I keep walking. But what if Trey wasn’t talking to Zara? What if his mother got in a car accident or his dad had a heart attack? What if his sister got sent back to rehab?

Ugh, I don’t want to be a cold, rigid bitch.

I stop and face Trey. “I’m sorry. What was the call about? Was it an emergency?”

“No,” Trey says. “It was just my cousin Darius hitting me up for some money.”

“Are you kidding me?” My eyes go wide with annoyance. “You left me to ride on that… that death trap for Darius?” The dude is a gang-banging drug dealer who hit on me more than a few times when we were both at Trey’s house. I never told Trey. If he knew, it would hurt him so much.

“Sorry, baby.”

“Don’t baby me, Trey.” I start walking toward the exit.

“I don’t want to fight about this,” he adds.

“Things are changing between us.” I hold back what I really want to say, because I don’t want us to argue.

When we’re in the car, he turns to me. “I’m really sorry.”

“Me too.”

He turns on the ignition and heads back to Fremont. When we’re almost home, Trey turns off the radio. “Will you go to homecoming with me, Monika?”

I give him a sideways glance. He’s asking me now? In the car? While he’s driving? I muster a “Yeah, sure.”

He runs a hand through his hair. “It’s obvious you’re distraught. My plan was to ask you while we were on the roller coaster.”

“Really romantic, Trey.”

“Jet gave me the idea,” he admits. “It sounded good when he said it.”

“You took Jet Thacker’s advice, a guy who brags about being an emotionally unavailable male version of a slut?” I cross my arms and settle back in the seat. “That figures.”

“Okay, I get it. I fucked up big-time.” He takes my hand and squeezes it gently. It used to make my heart flutter when he did that, but now I’m just numb. “I’m under a lot of stress and I made a bad decision. I’m sorry.”

“Stop saying sorry. I’ll get over it.” I give him a small smile as he pulls into my driveway. “Just call me later,” I tell him.

I walk up the brick path to my house, then glance back to see Trey drive off.

But he’s not driving away. Instead, he’s busily texting someone. At this point, I don’t even care who it is.

Chapter Fifteen

VICTOR

Trey called me this morning and said he was taking Monika to Wild Adventures to ask her to homecoming. I told him he was making a mistake, but he was still going through with it.

I’m in my room, attempting to sleep even though it’s the middle of the day. I’m trying to forget that Trey is asking Monika to homecoming right about now.

Listening to music isn’t helping.

Staring at the ceiling isn’t helping.

The door to my room creaks open. I don’t want to deal with Dani, who’s been bugging me all day to drive her to the mall. “Get out—”

My words are cut off when I catch sight of sexy curves in a loose tank top and jean shorts that reveal long tan legs that can only belong on the girl who invades my thoughts.

It’s Monika.

“Hey,” she says, slapping a hand over her eyes when she notices I’m only wearing boxer briefs. “Dani let me in and said I could come up here. Obviously I didn’t know you were practically naked. I’ll just, um…”

“It’s cool,” I say, quickly reaching down to pick up a pair of pants from the floor and slipping into them.

“It’s two o’clock in the afternoon, Vic.” She still has her hand over her eyes. “Aren’t you up yet?”