I charged forward, slamming my shoulder into him, but Fox knew me and swung up, hitting my jaw hard.

It only spurred me on, and I pushed harder until he fell back against the car.

Before I could hit him, I was being pulled back.

“Alright, children,” Jax said, grabbing my shirt and ripping me back until I was tripping over my own feet. “Kye, go the fuck home.”

“I don’t want to go home. How the fuck am I supposed to go there and sit around thinking about her being there? What the fuck do I do when she won’t even respond to me?”

“You wait,” Jax said.

“For what?”

“For her to respond? Or maybe you tell her that it isn’t a charade anymore? Have you even said that you want to date her for real?”

“Of course, I haven’t said that. That’s ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous because you haven’t said that, or ridiculous that you want to actually date her.”

I shook my head, more confused than before. “Both? Why would I want to date her? I don’t know how to be in a relationship. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with a girlfriend.”

“You’ve been doing it for months now,” Fox said, calm now. “There’s not much more to it than what you’ve been doing. Don’t be a dick and care about her.”

“And then what?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” Jax asked, eyebrows furrowed.

“I mean, I go tell her all this and that I do want to date her, and then what happens?”

They looked at each other and then at me. “You date?” Jax asked. “That’s what comes next.”

“Just endless dating? Endless time together?”

“Isn’t that the goal?” Fox asked. “Aren’t you upset right now because you feel like you’ve lost her?”

He was right. That’s exactly what the problem was, and I hated it. I wanted her back around. I wanted her texting me, bothering me, and touching me constantly. Anger swelled in my chest that she cut off our relationship without even talking to me. She didn’t even have one conversation to ask what I wanted or even tell me what she wanted. She had been too worried about what everyone else wanted to not even bother about what we wanted.

“You got this, Kye. Just tell her you want a real relationship and then take it one day at a time. You’re already better at it than a lot of people,” Jax said.

I stared at them both before stalking out to my car to leave. I didn’t want to be here today. I didn’t want to work on cars; I didn’t want to go out for a drive; I didn’t want to do anything but find Daisy and fuck her until all she could say was my name.

A few hours later, Carly barged into my apartment, Riot right behind her.

“Hey, I heard you’re being an asshole today. Very on brand,” she said, smirking as she grabbed my candy bar off the counter and tore into it.

“That was mine.”

She nodded, taking a bite. “Kinda figured. Going to fight me now, too?”

“No. I don’t feel like getting my ass kicked.”

“At least you haven’t lost your mind completely,” she said, smirking as she took a bite.

“How can I be sure of that?” I asked, feeling like I had lost any sanity I had left.

“Oh, I would for sure be the first to let you know.”

“Did you need something? Or just came to steal my candy?”

“Mainly the candy, but I also figured you forgot that we all made plans tonight to go to the haunted acres and do all the haunted houses.”

I hadn’t forgotten. I’d almost been looking forward to it, but now I felt so on edge that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go anywhere.

“I’m not going now.”

“Come on, Kye,” she groaned. “Let’s just go out. You love the haunted house, and I heard this year is the best one they have ever had.”

Fake blood, the sounds of screams and chainsaws, scary clowns. It did sound like a good way to get my mind off the girl who hated all of that. There was nothing there that would remind me of her, and maybe that’s what I needed.

I could barely sleep in my bed without thinking of her there with me.

“Fine. I’ll go. It’s better than this.”

Carly rolled her eyes. “Moping around isn’t as fun as you hoped?”

“Not at all.”

She waved me out of the apartment and downstairs to all our cars.

Everyone avoided me when I went downstairs, choosing to tiptoe around me and the questions I knew they had for me.

“I’ll meet you guys there,” I said, wanting to drive myself and avoid more of their awkwardness.

It was short-lived, though, because when I finally made it into the haunted acres and met them by the first haunted house, they did not look happy.

“What now?” I groaned.

Jax pushed Carly forward, and she glared back at him. “Nice,” she said. “Literally throwing me to the wolves.”

“You’re the one that wanted to be best friends with him. So go on, be a good friend.”

She rolled her eyes and pointed to something behind me.

When I looked back, my chest sank. The pit of my stomach churned until I felt sick. There was Daisy, dressed up in what appeared to be an attempt at a scary costume and a guy next to her. His hand moved to her lower back, pointing her towards a food cart. Red blurred my vision, and I wanted to scream.

The only girl that could touch me, the only one I wanted to touch, and now another guy’s hands were on her.