AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tully was the weird, difficult child they couldn’t figure out with all her little “quirks” that her parents didn’t understand. Joliet was exactly what her parents wished Tully had been.
Tully never stood a chance.
Brown eyes never got as much as blue, and hair is only interesting if you can compare it to spun gold.
Rubbing salt into the wound was Joliet’s favorite pastime. She stepped forward, filled the space next to Erik, wrapped her arm around his, and wrote down her moral to this story with her eyes so only Tully could read it.
Look what I have and you don’t, it said.
“We might as well tell her, baby.” Joliet rubbed Erik’s arm like he was the one who needed comforting. Her voice had the sickening sweetness of cough syrup and Tully wanted to gag. Or maybe puke. She wasn’t sure which.
Erik pushed Joliet’s hand off him and stepped forward, desperate to hold onto whatever he believed Tully could offer him that Joliet hadn’t already.
As much as she hated to admit it, her heart squeezed painfully. She could easily let herself give in. Forgiving him and keeping those rosy glasses on is exactly what that pull in her chest wanted her to do.
Erik was her first everything. She had given a part of herself to him that was impossible to take back, so why not just stay close to those things she gave away?
But she couldn’t do that. Her mind and pride would never let her. Just because she wanted something, didn’t mean it wanted her.
“Babe—” Erik, so ready to defend and lie, reached out to her.
She raised a hand and stopped his advances. He looked like he was going to cry, watery lines growing at the bottom of his lids.
She took a deep breath. “No need to tell me. I understand perfectly.”
Without waiting for a response, she pushed past Erik and Joliet, resisting the urge to turn and slap either of them.
The small bells over the door rang as she walked out of Betty’s. It took an absurd amount of strength to keep her back straight and chin raised as she walked towards her car in the middle of the small parking lot.
A few seconds later, the bells jingled again and sneakers on the gravel caught up to her.
“Babe, wait.” Erik’s hand closed around her upper arm and spun her around. “You’ve got to believe me. She threw herself at me first. I really tried to resist, but you barely let me touch you, and I . . .”
Tully stared up at him. Ashamed heat buzzed through her cheeks. Six months. Six months coming to an end likethis, all because she didn’t like to be touched much.
In her mind, she imagined herself screaming, pounding her fists as hard as she could on his chest, and making sure he heard just how hurt she was. She would scream and shout and make him feel as horrible as she felt.
But she didn’t. She couldn’t.
I will not cry. I will not do anything.
So she smiled and laughed.
Erik, caught off guard, let go of her arm and narrowed his eyes.
“Thank you,” she said.
“What?”
“I feel so much better,” she sighed dreamily like a weight was lifted off her shoulders.
“You’re not mad?” he asked, apprehensive and searching her face for a sign of the anger she was hiding barely under the surface. She had to wrap this up, and quick before it shone through.
“What? You think you’re the only one who had some fun?” She laughed and rolled her eyes trying to push back the tears that still threatened to appear. “Be real,babe. It’s 1984. We all have needs.”
She turned and walked away. Her smile fell under the weight of the blatant lie. If she faced him for much longer, he’d be able to tell that it was false.
She’d never “had fun” with anyone else, but it felt much better to make him think so.
