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While Cora’s attitude made me want to disengage, Joey’s voice echoed in my mind. He told me I had to find a way to get her to stop rampaging on my life, and the only solution I could think of was being a decent guy. If all else failed, at least I could say I tried.
Reminding myself it was a good thing to do, I shrugged my jacket off, leaving behind a black sweatshirt. Handing it over to her, I just watched as Cora’s brows went up in surprise.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to be nice,” I mumbled, growing increasingly tired of her chattering teeth. “Take it, please.”
“But won’t you be cold?” She asked, surprising me with her concern.
I snickered. “I’m a shifter, remember? I don’t need it anyway.”
Cora gave me a long look for good measure, likely wondering what the trick was. In a sense, the only ruse was me trying to get her to be quiet and to stop suffering in the cold. Despite her hesitation, it seemed her need for warmth trumped her pride.
Finally giving in, she took the jacket in her grasp and muttered under her breath, “There’s a first time for everything.”
Bristling at her comment, I urged myself to keep it in. I had just done something kind, and creating a fuss about her ungrateful attitude was not ideal, especially not while we were manning a donation table.
I was tired of fighting anyway, and if conceding meant keeping the peace, then so be it.
“I’m not that bad of a guy, you know,” I said, testing the waters. I glanced over at her, watching as she slipped the jacket on. “Regardless of what you think of me, I’m not interested in fighting with you.”
Cora rolled her eyes and bundled up in the jacket, bringing the material closer to her rosy cheeks. Even if she tried her hardest to seem annoyed with me, she couldn’t hide how relieved she was from the warmth.
“Excuse me for being suspicious of any apparent ‘nice thing’ you attempt. You weren’t exactly nice in the past.”
There was a bite to her words, but more so than that, I could feel that lingering pain from her. The pain I caused when we were young and the reason she had been upset with me in the first place. In a way, it felt like she was holding it over my head for no reason, yet it seemed she hadn’t gotten over it herself for a reason.
It wasn’t up to me to decide what did and didn’t bother her.
Reining in my pride, I began as sincerely as I could muster, “I was an idiot as a kid. Most of us were. But I never meant any real harm by pestering you when we were younger. It was only teasing.”
As I spoke, Cora’s face gave away to that hurt, almost like it was still fresh.
It was hard for me to wrap my head around how she could’ve internalized that time in her life to such an extent and how time hadn’t healed that wound. Still, it was obvious I did a number on her without even realizing what I had done.
To make matters even worse, I never did intend to hurt her. I wanted her to notice me. To see me. My attention had been on her, but not in the way she assumed.
Cora took in a steadying breath as her eyes glimmered with those repressed emotions. “You humiliated me every day. I hated school because of you. I missed out on so much because I didn’t believe I deserved anything. You might not think it was a big deal, but it was to me. It still is..”
The hushed, visceral tone of her voice made a shiver run down my spine.
For a moment, I thought she was about to cry, but she reeled herself in and continued, “You weren’t the one going home and wondering what was so wrong with you to warrant that constant bullying. Wondering why out of all people, you were the one constantly being mocked and sneered at. You didn’t have to spend every year of your life after the fact picking up the pieces and trying to overcome it.”
I wanted to say something, anything to further explain myself, but I couldn’t. Her words had me pinned there, unable to look away from her. Even as the patrons walked by our table, I couldn’t think of anything other than the pain I caused her.
“The salt in my wound was thinking you had changed that night,” Cora said, voice losing its resolve as she went on. “But I was wrong.”
“But you weren’t wrong,” I interjected, unsure of where the need to defend myself came from. “I’m not a kid anymore, and I certainly don’t act like I used to.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Grappling for any opportunity to refute her claim, I came up short, only able to deflect instead. “I’m not the one trying to get involved in your past.”
When Cora met my eyes, they returned even more pain in my direction. “You still aren’t getting it, Liam. This is pointless.”
I didn’t know why I didn’t like the idea of her not believing me or giving up on finding some common ground between us. My chest ached at the thought of her choosing to hate me rather than meeting me in the middle.
“If we’re stuck together for this, then I think we should at least be cordial.”
