AllFreeNovel
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“Everything.” He shakes his head before turning on his back. “Can we just not talk about it? I just want to lie with you and forget about everything but you and me.”
“It’s not that easy,” I tell him as I sit up and feel the bubbles from the champagne swirling around my brain. “And maybe now it’s easier to ignore what’s happening, but eventually there will be a baby you’ll be in charge of, and it’ll be harder to ignore a world outside of you and me.”
“Leighton—” He starts when his phone chirps from the nightstand on what has become his side of the bed. He ignores the first chime until it begins to ring. “God, WHAT?” he barks as he reaches for his phone. “Dave, what do you want? I’m with—wait, what? No, hold on.” He pulls his phone away from his ear and taps his screen a few times and his eyes immediately widen. “Son of a fucking bitch,” he growls, and I frown and try and lean over to see, but he taps out of it and puts his phone back to his ear. “Thanks for calling me, that’s bullshit, you know. Yeah…well, thanks.”
“What’s wrong?” I cock my head to the side, wondering what could have caused him to get so agitated with his best friend when he lets out a sigh.
“Alli…posted something. I guess at brunch. I didn’t even realize it.” He hands me his phone and I click on the Instagram story which shows her smiling for the camera and him looking down at his phone with the words “when bae won’t pay attention.” I frown and tap the screen to see a picture with only her and her parents that I’m assuming Everett took for them. I tap again. Pretentious pictures of their food. Tap. And then finally a video showing that the four of them were at brunch. Though again, it doesn’t seem like Everett’s even paying attention in the split second she showed him. “Say something.”
“She’s sending a message…to me, I’m sure.” I toss the phone down the bed and shake my head.
“I am so fucking pissed,” he growls and gets off the bed to pace back and forth. “I’m calling her.”
“To say what?”
“Well first, to take it the fuck down. I made it clear we weren’t together and her parents don’t think anything differently. This wasn’t some pretend Meet the Parents bullshit. I made it clear that this was an accident and we weren’t going to be together just because we’re in this situation.”
“And? What does that matter? Quite frankly her parents’ opinions are irrelevant. She’s making a fool out of me and you.” I wrap my arms around my body and speak the words that I don’t want but I need. “I think you should go.”
“Go? Wait…Leigh.”
“I can barely handle this; I don’t know what I’m going to do when she starts showing or tells people she’s pregnant. She’s not going to make this easy. She posted that so there won’t be any question of paternity when people learn she’s pregnant.”
“I sure as fuck can question it and will. She knows I’m requesting a paternity test. But aside from that, she can’t make me be with her.”
“No, but she can make it really hard for you to be with me.”
His eyebrows shoot to his hairline. “How? I…I would do anything to be with you.”
The words gut me because I would do anything as well, but it seems like breaking my own heart over and over again is what is required to be with him. I want better for myself. I deserve better. “I know.” I let out a sigh, grateful that I wasn’t more drunk when I saw her Instagram story for the first time because I probably would have broken something. “I’m drunk and tired and I really do think you should go.”
His cheeks turn red and he furrows his brow. “Leigh, are you breaking up with me?”
My lips form a straight line as I look towards my window and watch as the sun sets over D.C. creating an eerie, sad glow in my bedroom. “I don’t know.”
“Leighton, please…I love you.” His voice shakes and I can already hear the emotion building.
“I know you do.” I look up at him, and I can feel the tears forming in my throat and the back of my eyes. The tingle shoots through my chest and face, like when I’m about to break down in sobs. “But I just know myself.”
“I can’t lose you,” he whispers and when I don’t say anything, he drops to his knees in front of me. “Please,” he begs. “Don’t do this. Don’t break us.”
And just that quickly, I’ve gone from sad to furious. “ME?!” I shoot up to my feet so fast his eyes widen and he’s knocked slightly off balance. “I BROKE US?” I scream. I scream so loud I know Skyler and Peyton are probably already pouring the shots for when this is over. “YOU,” I point my finger at him, “YOU fucked some bitch the NIGHT we decided to be together.” He starts to speak and I put my hand up. “I AM TALKING,” I growl. “You fucked her, and I forgave you. We moved on. We were happy. I chalked it up to you being drunk and confused and maybe Alli manipulated you with some shit about being hurt that you’d cheated on her with me. I don’t know.” I put my hands over my eyes as I speak the ludicrousness out loud.
I made excuses for him.
I rationalized his mistake.
I let him back in when I should have closed the door on us forever because I thought that maybe he really hadn’t slept with her.
How could I have been so stupid?
“And THEN, she comes back and tells us she’s pregnant! And she’s vindictive and manipulative and wants you and HATES ME. She’s always hated me. You used some girl to make me jealous because you didn’t have the balls to tell me you had feelings for me. AND LOOK WHERE THAT GOT US! Now this girl somehow has feelings for you AND your baby inside her! And you have the audacity to say I broke us?” My chest is heaving, my eyes are wide and my throat is sore from quite literally screaming. “How dare you?”
“Leigh, I know, I fucked up and—”
“I never want to speak to you again,” I snap. You don’t mean that, my subconscious screams. Tell him you don’t mean that!
“Wh—what? No, Leigh, you don’t mean that.” He says, his eyes wide and full of worry. When I don’t immediately answer, he takes my hands in his and rubs his lips over them. “I need you.” He says quietly.
