should be pissed that she never spoke up, but I'm not. The old me would have been – the immature kid with a chip on his shoulder – but the new me gets why she didn't. Her life is falling apart, her friends are assholes, and it's a cutthroat world that she's living in right now – I'm not about to rag on her for that.

Kino, on the other hand, is pretty cut up about it. He spends every second fixating on what Alyssa's friend said, and it makes me sick to my stomach. I don't know why gives them so much power over him. If there's one useful thing our father taught us, it's that people only have as much power as you're willing to give them.

Still, I try to be supportive, but every time I look at him, it turns the wave of guilt in my stomach into a tsunami. The kid has it bad, which means the second he finds out the truth about my relationship with Alyssa, he's going to hate me.

It doesn't help that she's avoiding me now. Maybe she figures I'm going to hate her for what happened, so she's beating me to it. Maybe she's busy. Maybe she's changed her mind about us and is trying to ghost me. Either way, it's the not knowing why that's driving me crazy.

I'm thinking about her twenty-four-seven. When I'm delivering packages, when I'm training on a heavy bag. It's like someone's switched out the old me and replaced me with a version I don't even recognize. A version I'm starting to hate.

Eventually, when I've had enough of playing games, I catch her one night during a training session with Maddie. The pair are busy sparring in the ring, but as soon as Alyssa sees me, she freezes like a deer in headlights.

All of a sudden, I'm pissed. Maybe I shouldn't be, but I am. I can deal with the high school drama, with the love triangle and all of the other bullshit she's brought into my life, but the one thing I hate is playing games. If she doesn't want to see me, she needs to tell it to me straight, not waste time avoiding me.

I walk toward them, my footsteps loud and menacing in the silence. I slip through the ropes and into the ring, folding my arms across my chest. "Hey, Maddie," I say, but it's Alyssa I look at. I nod at her and say, "Can we talk?"

She looks hesitant, and for a second I think she's going to say no, but Maddie looks between us, senses something is going on, and makes the decision for us. "I need to get going anyway," she says, taking off her gloves. "I'll see you tomorrow, Alyssa. Bye, Max."

Alyssa nods, and we silently watch as Maddie heads out. There's about a second where we continue to stare at the door, refusing to look at each other. Then, slowly, she turns to me.

The moment her eyes meet mine, the anger I'd felt disperses. She looks different, somehow. Less confident. I frown and step forward. "I didn't think you were the type to run away from an issue."

She doesn't look at me as she takes off her gloves. "I figured you wouldn't want to talk to me after the other night." She places them at her feet and straightens up, tilting her head to look at me.

"And instead of checking, you made the decision for me?" I ask.

She clenches her jaw, which irritates the hell out of me. If anyone should be pissed here, it's me. "Look," she says. "I knew once you saw the real me, you wouldn't stick around. I wanted to make it easier for both of us."

I raise an eyebrow. There are a thousand things I want to say to this, but instead, I stick with something easy. "That wasn't the real you."

"Yes," she says, glaring at me, "it was. That was me, Max. You keep telling me I'm nice, but I'm not. The girl you think I am isn't the real me. You think what Marnie said about you and Kino was bad? I've said far worse about people."

I run a hand along my jaw and stare at something behind her. I think I'm starting to get it now – why she's been avoiding me. She's scared as hell.

I take a step forward and pull her toward me by her waist. She refuses to look at me, so I wait until she does before I speak. "I know," I say, my voice low, "and I don't care."

I feel her body tense beneath my palm. Her eyes dart to mine, filled with disbelief and fear of rejection. But the truth is, she could tell me anything and I doubt I'd walk away. I'm in too deep now.

"How can you not care?" she asks.

"Because I like you," I say. "All of you. The good, the bad, the annoying." She frowns, and I suppress a smirk. "I'm here for all of it, Alyssa, but the one thing I won't do is play games, all right?"

She looks at me through her lashes, and the cutest smile starts to play on her lips. "Okay."

The second she says it, my mouth is on hers. After days of no contact, the taste of her lips is as sweet as anything, and I feel like a kid in a candy store, trying to devour everything at once. My hands roam her body, brushing her breasts and down her stomach, lightly skimming her hips.

She moans into my lips in a way that makes me hard everywhere. "Shit," I say against her mouth. I'm not exactly a blushing virgin, but she has this power of making me feel like a fifteen-year-old kid again, experiencing everything for the first time. I get nervous around her, my body fills with butterflies that I've never had before, and it's driving me batshit crazy.

I lock my arms around her and pull her in closer, closing the sliver of space between us. I want her so fucking bad that I can't seem to stop myself. My hands are everywhere, each touch just making me greedier for the next. I keep waiting for the moment she'll push me away, but she doesn't.

She stands on her tiptoes to reach my mouth better but lets her hand roam down my chest. I hold my breath when she gets to my sweatpants, and she pulls back a little, flashes me the filthiest look, then slips her hand into my boxers.

Every nerve in my body seems to vibrate at once. I bury my face into her neck as she starts to move her hand. Her fingers feel so good around me that my body feels weak, and I hold her for support. Her hand moves rhythmically as I suck on her neck, my hand slipping beneath her top to cup her breast. She lets out a little murmur in my ear, and I swear I'm about to explode.

The sound of the door swinging open commands my attention. We both jerk apart and look to where Maddie stands, her mouth hanging open and her palm covering her eyes.

"Oh god," Maddie says. "I'm so sorry. I just forgot my phone." She starts to waddle across the room, eyes still covered, and bumps into the equipment box. "Ow!" Her fingers spread slightly so she can see where she's going, and she grabs her phone from the floor and hurries out.

I take a deep breath and run a hand down my jaw, unbearably frustrated. When I look at Alyssa, she looks horrified for maybe a second or two, then bursts out laughing. It's this big, hearty sound that fills up the gym, and the way her eyes light up is so goddamn adorable that I can't help but laugh, too.

Still laughing, she wraps her arms around my waist, resting her head on my chest. What I want more than anything is to pretend like Maddie barging in never happened, but instead I lock my arms around her and bury my face in her neck.

"So, I have something to ask you," she says, and I pull back slightly to give her the go-ahead. "I have this dinner party that I'm being forced to go to, and I have to bring someone. Will you come?"

I tense slightly because I'd rather blow my brains out than spend an evening hanging around more Marnies and Justins, but I can tell from her expression that she needs me to be there, so I nod.

Her eyebrows fly up like she hadn't expected this. "Okay, you just earned yourself some serious brownie points."

I smirk and say, "What can I buy with these points?"

She slowly wraps her arms around my neck, her dark eyes seductive. "Whatever you want," she says, and she pulls back slightly to take my hand. "Let me know when you decide."

I'm grinning so hard as she leads me to the door that I'm surprised my lips haven't split. "I'm going to hold you to that."

Hey everyone!

I hope you're doing okay and staying safe. Thank you for all of your messages and comments, I know I've been gone for a really long time, and I'm sorry! 😢

I have some big projects I'm working on right now that I can't talk about yet, but please know I'm still here and I haven't forgotten about you guys! Things have just been hectic lately and I haven't had the time to update. I will try to update when I can, but I want to be upfront and say that updates will be random/infrequent for the next few months while I finish working on these projects. Thank you for being so patient, I know I suck but I love you guys! ❤️