Free Pieces of Summer (A stand-alone novel) by C.M. Owens Page B

shifts. “Ah, fuck. She’s the one. Isn’t she?”
    I’ve never fucking told him her name, or any of the story, but I did get drunk enough once to admit to him a summer girl had fucked my head up.
    “Shit, man. I didn’t know,” he goes on.
    My eyes shift over to Mika about the time she sees us, and confusion mars her face before her eyes turn to angry slits. She spins around and walks away, and I fight with myself not to go after her. Maybe she’ll fucking leave soon before I completely lose my mind.
    “Ah, hell,” Blake groans. “You’ve really fucked up now.”
    I let him go, cracking my neck to the side, and I watch as Mika pulls her keys out of her pocket, heading toward the parking lot.
    “I don’t care if she’s pissed. She shouldn’t even be in Hayden. She has the entire fucking country she can go to. This is the one place she shouldn’t have ever come back to.”
    Blake’s hand clasps my shoulder, and we both watch until Mika disappears from sight.
    “I wasn’t saying you cared about pissing off Mika. But you should probably notice your girlfriend is missing at some point, otherwise you’re going to end up single.”
    My eyes slowly flutter shut, and I take a long, regretful breath. He’s right. I just really fucked up. It’s shitty that I don’t even care.
    Once again, Mika is in my head.
     

Chapter 14
     
    MIKA
     
    I almost feel hungover when I wake up. I’m not sure why I spent the night crying, but I did. Maybe it’s because I went to the carnival to make a friend and saw Blake and Chase were already friends. I felt like the idiot getting played. I should have known better than to think someone just wanted to get to know me.
    You look so familiar… Asshole.
    Clutching my aching head, I pull on a pair of exercise shorts with my free hand, awkwardly working them over my hips. Sluggishly, I head downstairs for coffee, since coffee is a good cure for crying hangovers.
    Just as I stumble into the kitchen, a small breath leaves my lips as my jaw tries to unhinge. Why the hell is Whit in my kitchen?
    She’s sipping coffee, regarding me intently as she sits at my bar.
    I look around, making sure I didn’t accidentally sleepwalk into the wrong home last night. Nope. Definitely mine.
    “Morning,” she says softly.
    My eyes drop to the white T-shirt covering her body, and my eyebrow arches. That’s definitely Aidan’s shirt.
    “We need to talk,” she tells me.
    “I think I need coffee first,” I mumble, moving over to the blessed caffeine beast and hurriedly making a cup before we start swapping questions.
    “Do I want to know why you’re in Aidan’s shirt?” I ask her, already dreading the answer. I can’t believe Aidan would do this. He’s hardcore against cheating, since he saw what having your heart broken did to me.
    I might have been a teenage drama queen, but it felt like my life was ending. That led to a very fucked up version of myself for longer than I care to admit. It’s probably part of the reason why Aidan is here with me now, probably worried it was all going to trigger something.
    I’m not that girl. Yes, I’m severely different and incredibly messed up, but I’m in control now. I couldn’t be the wild, careless party girl I became after that painful spring even I wanted to be.
    “I came here last night to talk to you,” she says on a sigh.
    I relax a little. When I got home, Aidan had just showed up, and I told him I was sick before disappearing into my room. So… Whit spent the night and needed something to sleep in? That’s better than cheating.
    “I feel like I should hate you.” Her words are matter-of-fact, not harsh.
    I look over at her and frown.
    “Why hate me? I’ve already promised I’m not here for Chase. I wouldn’t even be here right now if I’d known he still lived here.”
    “You could have called any shop in this town and asked if the James boy still lived here, and they’d have told you yes. You could have asked Chuck about it