For Real (Rules of Love, Book One) by Chelsea M. Cameron Read Free Book Online

somewhere. I hope she gets home okay, and I ask Jett if he minds if we go back in to see if she’s okay.
    We get Javier into the car and lay him down on the backseat. He tries to grab my boob, but I slap his hand away and he sticks his tongue out at me and then falls asleep.
    “Good boy,” I say, patting his head as I shut the door.
    Jett and I wade back into the bar, but we can’t find the girl with the vagina-showing dress again, even when I go to the ladies’ room and check. She must have slipped out.
    “Okay, well I need to get him home and put out the hangover kit for tomorrow. Why do I let him do this to me?” He has clearly done this many times before.
    Why had I let my friends hold me hostage?
    I give him a sympathetic look. Javier mumbles in his sleep in the backseat as Jett drives me back to my apartment. I don’t want to go back, because I’m still pissed at Hazel, but I don’t have a choice. I’m pissed at all my other friends too, so I can’t crash at their places, and Amelia still lives in the dorms and has a roommate that is very strict about visitors.
    I don’t wait for Jett to open my door this time, but he comes around anyway. The lights are on in the kitchen, so either Hazel left them on for me, or she’s still up. I have no idea what I’m going to say to her. I have a tendency to avoid confrontation, but not this time.
    “Well, thanks for everything.” This is a weird way to end the evening, but it’s been a weird evening.
    “Yeah, anytime. It was great hanging out with you, even if the circumstances weren’t ideal.” They were far from ideal.
    “Yeah,” I say and we just stare at each other for a second. Then Jett reaches around me and rifles around in the glove box, pulling out a piece of paper. He folds it on the hood, tears it into a square and then keeps folding it until he has a paper crane. Then he takes one of the wings, writes something on it and holds it out to me.
    “I’d really like to see you again,” he says as I take the crane and realize it has his phone number on it.
    “The feeling is mutual.” We both sort of smile and then I finally turn to go upstairs.
     

     
    “Hey,” Hazel says as I unlock the door. She’d been sitting at our tiny dining table and smoking. I HATE that she smokes in the house, but she only does it when she’s seriously stressed.
    I don’t answer her. She stubs out the cigarette and pushes my phone across the table. Just being in the same room with her is making me pissed again. I should have asked Jett if I could stay the whole night because I can’t be around her right now.
    “I’m so sorry, Shan. Are you okay?”
    I snatch my phone and head to my room and slam the door. Being with Jett had dampened some of the rage, but now it’s back full force. I fall on my bed and wait. Only a few seconds later she knocks.
    “I know you’re mad at me, but can you at least tell me if you’re okay? I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you.” Yeah, now she cares.
    “I’m fine.” I say, but that’s all she’s getting. “Just go away, Haze.”
    “Please don’t be mad at me.” She sniffs and I can tell that she’s crying. “I’m so sorry.”
    One of the things that she and I have in common is messed up family situations. But mine is a cakewalk compared to hers. I wait for her to leave, but she stays there, sniffling on the other side of my door.
    “We’ll talk about it later, okay?”
    “Okay.” She shuffles away from the door and I get up and turn out the lights. It’s been a long night.
     

     
    I sleep poorly, and am up early the next morning. I go out into the kitchen and Hazel is there, looking like absolute shit. Even worse than I probably do. And she’s crying again.
    “Can we talk now?” I’m not trying to punish her, and I can’t bear to see her so broken up. So I grab a paper towel and hand it to her.
    “Yeah, we can talk.” I sit down across from her as she wipes her face. “Did