Damn it. Can’t he tell he’s fucking with my heart right now? His eyes are bouncing all over the place but never really focusing on me.
“You can’t deny we’ve formed a friendship, and now you’re taking it all away.”
“I didn’t. I’m just not interested in sex anymore.”
The fuck?
“You seemed interested three days ago when you couldn’t keep your hands, mouth, or dick away from me for long, huh?”
“Riles…”
“Don’t Riles me. What the fuck happened? I’m so confused.”
He sighs, lifting his gaze to meet mine now. Usually, I can read whatever expression is behind it—annoyance, lust, joy—but this one? I’ve never seen it before.
“We said until we could get it out of our systems, right?”
Holy shit. He’s for real. He was for real. I was just so stupidlynaïve, I thought that was just his way of giving himself permission to finally go for something he wanted. I was wrong.
So wrong.
“Right,” I reply.
“Then that’s what happened. You can still be my friend, though, right?”
Friend. Yeah. I can. At least I can say I have one of those.
“Yeah. Sure. I’m sorry I misread the situation.” I turn to leave, but he holds my hand, tethering me when all I want to do is float away.
“It’s not like that. I thought we were on the same page,” he says.
I nod, unable to turn to look at him. I don’t want him to see the way I’m feeling right now, because, unlike him, I wasn’t able to keep distance between my heart and his.
I fell.
Hard.
And now, all the broken pieces need to be put back together, and he can’t be there to see it happen. Not when, in his mind, nothing went wrong either way.
“We were,” I mutter. “I’m glad you’re okay. I have to go, though. Um, tomorrow is a big day.”
He lets go of my hand, and I keep walking, unable to look back, biting back tears until I see the familiar orange door to my cabin. And when I step through it, I fall to the floor, tears falling freely.
I’m too much, too fast, and I better learn how to live with that.
36IT HURTS AND I HATE IT
Riley
I hate this,the feeling of broken glass piercing through my chest with every breath I take. I hate walking around like a shell of who I am because it hurts to do anything in this place that’s haunted by my feelings for Dom.
I have zero chill, I know. I can’t believe I thought I could do casual. It’s all or nothing for me, and as much as I wanted to feel the same way about him, that was not the case. I went full throttle, only to be met with a stop sign halfway through.
“Open up, Wills!” I shout at my sister’s door. What is it with these two not coming to their doors when they’re being called?
Maybe the two of them got all the patience I didn’t. I’m ready to knock again when Willa opens the door, apron on, her freshly cut hair pulled back away from her face. I’m still shocked she came home, but I’m happy, nonetheless. I know it’ll be temporarily, just until she can pass that test of hers, one I have no doubt she’ll pass. She came running the minute Lilly needed her here when someone else quit and she was about to lose it over onemore thing going wrong. Now, she’s helping, and I love having her home.
“What are you baking, and did you make me some?” I step over the threshold and straight into the kitchen to find it an organized mess. When I cook, the kitchen looks like something exploded in it, Lilly’s looks like nobody’s cooking, and Willa’s somewhere in between. It tracks.
