Free Rival Dreams (Rival Love #3) by Natalie Decker Page B

off. This is my release to avoid the twisted knot in my stomach and the vise-like grip on my heart.
    Stacking books, I immerse myself in the task at hand. The door constantly chimes. Customers are flooding this place, in and out. It’s really busy, but I don’t care. Dealing with customers would be a bad idea. Dealing with books, not so much. Books can’t sense when there is something wrong. They can’t tell when there is a sob in your throat ready to release. They don’t ask questions. They don’t care about your day. They’re exactly what I need right now.
    My bubble of solitude bursts the moment a woman and a man kiss right in front of me. The sight of it makes my walls crumble and I hurry off into the nearest restroom. We have two, one for employees and the other for customers. I go to the public one. Probably not the best idea.
    A teen is in here patting her nose while chatting with her friend in a stall. I grip the sink and stare at my reflection. Christ, I’m a disgusting mess. Puffy face, pale skin, and red eyeballs. And Caleb looked so unaffected. He did dump me, but still. We were together for two years. That should count for something, right? Some fucking emotion? My anger is back, and oh my God, it’s practically boiling over.
    I notice the teen girl has stopped talking and is staring at me. Her friend pops the stall door open and stands beside her friend. “You didn’t answer my question about what I should do about Dillon.”
    The one girl is still looking at me. Her friend doesn’t seem to notice I’m here. I turn toward the girls. “Guys are nothing but a bunch of assholes. It only gets worse as you get older, ladies. You’ll think you can change a player into giving a shit about you, but you’re wrong. They never change. You think you can get an asshole to become a loving person? Well, you can for about a few years and then the prick will go back to what he’s really good at—being a total fucking prick. While he’s at it, he will steal the very core of you. Don’t go after Dillon or any other boy who has a past filled with one-night stands. He’ll ruin you. He’ll even be such a dick … that … he’ll … break up with … you on … Valentine’s Day. Who the fuck does that?”
    The girls’ eyes are wide. The brunette who was waiting for her friend elbows her blond bestie. Blondie looks at me for a second then digs through her purse. She pulls out some tissues and says, “Here.”
    I mutter, “Thanks.” I’m so completely embarrassed, though. How could lash out at those poor girls like that? God, they’ll probably go home and tell their mothers about the psycho who had a mental breakdown in the bathroom at Hodges and Hutch Bookstore.
     
     
    ***
     
     
    I run over to my dorm for a duffle bag of clothes and some essentials. Brie, thankfully, isn’t home. My room is like a shrine to him. Pictures of Caleb are all over this place. His stupid scent is embedded in my pillows. Okay, maybe it isn’t and it’s just my brain playing tricks on me. But I can’t stand it.
    It’s too soon to start grabbing up all my pictures. It’s too soon to start burning my sheets and buying new ones. And it’s also too soon to … my phone buzzes.
    Lidia, my sister from another mother, is calling. No, really, she’s my half-sister. I sigh deeply and answer it. “Hey.”
    “Hi. So … I have a proposition for you.”
    “Um … Liddy, do we have to do this now?”
    She huffs. “Not technically but …” I hear her suck in a breath. “I’d like to. Please? Just hear me out. I promise it’s good.”
    “What?” I toss some clothes into the small suitcase I use when traveling to New York to visit my dad, stepmom, and half-sister.
    “Tris and I are heading to the Bahamas for spring break. Anyway, since your break and mine are the same time, I was thinking that maybe … you’d like to come with?”
    “I promised Sam and Mikia I’d come visit them in New York, and visit with Dad, too