She tensed up at my words. “You hung out with Dante?”
“Yeah,” I said, leaning down to kiss her.
She turned her head to avoid my lips. “Last night?”
“Yeah,” I repeated slowly.
“Dante, Taye’s cousin?” she asked, sounding weird.
“That’s the one,” I agreed, not liking how she was acting. “What’s the matter, Gianna?”
She took a couple steps away from me, staring down at the ground. When she finally looked up, I almost flinched at her expression. “If I’m acting weird, Caleb, it’s because I don’t understand how you could’ve hung out with Dante last night when he was camping with us!” She screamed the last few words.
Oh shit.
Hailey decided to pick that moment to come out of my room. “Hey, Caleb, do you have any aspirin? I have a killer headache.”
Gianna blue eyes moved to where Hailey stood at the end of the hallway in nothing but one of my t-shirts. I could see shock and tears in her eyes when they returned to me.
I held up my hands, feeling panicked. “Gianna, it’s not what you think.”
Bitterly, she replied, “What a cliché you are, Caleb.”
Spinning around, she rushed out of the apartment. I saw her go through the door at the end of the hallway to take the stairs and quickly searched for a shirt, socks and shoes to put on.
Hailey ran her fingers through the knots in her red hair. “What’s going on?”
“That was my girlfriend and now she thinks I cheated on her with you,” I said agitatedly.
Hailey gave me a look of mixed disbelief and hurt. “You have a girlfriend?” Why was Hailey acting hurt? We were only friends and neither of us had ever wanted more.
Slipping on shoes, I snatched my wallet and keys. “Yes, I have a girlfriend, who I need to go catch up with to explain.”
Leaving the apartment, I ran down the stairs after Gianna. Out on the street, I didn’t see her anywhere. The parking garage was my next destination, figuring she’d probably parked there. Almost to the garage, I saw her Jeep pull out and turn in the opposite direction.
I didn’t have to be an experienced boyfriend to know my girlfriend finding Hailey like that was bad. How the hell was I going to convince Gianna I did nothing wrong?
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“Shame, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder.”
-Julie Burchill
GIANNA
Did that really just happen? I made a complete fool of myself over that cheating jerk! Obviously I wasn’t the only girl Caleb liked to have sleepovers with at his mom’s place. Why was I even crying? He wasn’t worth it and I should’ve known this would happen. Hell, everyone else knew it would. Caleb couldn’t change who he was. I was stupid falling for a guy like him. Had the whole thing been a game to him?
No wonder he hadn’t wanted to go camping. He’d had a whole different recreational activity in mind for this weekend. He must’ve been so happy to get rid of me so he could screw around with that slut!
He’d better just stay away from me at home, because I knew where that motherfucker lived. I could do all sorts of bad things to him in his sleep. Better sleep with one eye open, dirty dog. I shouldn’t have run away like that. I totally spazzed out and ran away instead of bitching him and her out. How pathetic! I should have stayed there and kicked his ass then yanked out both his nipple piercings.
It was smart to let the anger come. It was much better than the pain. Dammit, now they were just angry tears. I pulled my Jeep over to the side of the road because my vision was getting blurry and I didn’t want to cause a crash. That would really top off an astoundingly bad day.
I’d never cried over any of the other guys I’d dated. That was probably because they’d never made me feel as much as Caleb had. I really thought he cared about me. He was so attentive to me and protective about the whole Josh thing.
What started out as him being my annoying new stepbrother blackmailing me, seemed to turn into something more. He acted like he actually gave a damn about my happiness. He claimed to be bothered that my home and school life made me miserable. I thought he saw past my looks to the person I really was. Obviously, I was just another conquest to him. One of god knows how many stupid girls who fell for his handsome face and bad boy charm.
What an idiot he was, saying he hung out with Dante last night. I wouldn’t have even known it for the lie it was if Dante hadn’t gone camping with us and that skanky girl hadn’t come out of his room when she did. At least I found out now instead of later when I’d look like a bigger fool. Clearly, a player couldn’t change his manwhore stripes.