Page 175 of Make Me Mean It

“He told me to stay away from him,” I say slowly.

Marcus scoffs. “So?”

My brows pull together. “So?”

“Ignore him.”

A weak huff escapes me, something caught between a laugh and disbelief, and I drop my head back against his chest. “You literally punched him twenty minutes ago.”

“Yeah, well.” Marcus tightens his arm around me, apparently deciding that part isn’t relevant anymore. “I was missing some pretty fucking important information.”

“Like what?”

“Like the fact that you’re an idiot too.”

“Fuck off.”

He laughs under his breath, and I elbow him weakly in the ribs without actually moving away. His hand goes straight back to my arm afterwards, rubbing slowly over it, and the tiny bit of humour drains out of me almost as quickly as it came.

Because Theo still told me to stay away.

He meant it too.

I can still see his face when he said it. The way his voice broke even while he was trying to make it sound final. The way he pulled away from me every time I reached for him, like he knew if he let me touch him, one of us would cave.

“Now,” Marcus says, suddenly firmer, “how are we going to get your man back?”

Your man.

My chest fucking aches.

I rub both hands over my face, pressing my palms into my eyes until colour bursts behind them. “I don’t think there is any getting him back,” I rasp, and my breath catches embarrassingly halfway through, something dangerously close to a hiccup breaking out of me. “I really fucked up.”

And saying it out loud makes it feel even worse.

Because I did.

Theo gave me chance after chance to be honest with him. He practically fucking begged me for it, and every time things started to feel too real, I panicked and shoved him away again.

Marcus sighs, the breath stirring my hair as his fingers trace absent patterns against my arm.

“He’ll come around.”

I scoff thickly and scrub beneath my eyes before anything else can escape. “You have to say that. You’re my brother.”

“I really don’t.”

I glance up at him.

Marcus’s mouth twists as he looks down at me. “In fact, I’d rather my little brother stayed far, far away from my best friend.”

Despite everything, the corner of my mouth twitches.

Marcus catches it immediately.

The bastard grins and ruffles his hand roughly through my hair, messing it up even more than it already is.

“Fuck off.” I swat at him, ducking away as he laughs.