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“Want to get a coffee?” I flicked my head to a street vendor.
“Sure.” Bryan stalked off in that direction, not bothering to wait for me.
He had every right to be pissed at me, but it didn’t stop the sting.
When I reached him, he’d already ordered for himself. I placed my order and we collected them and headed to an empty bench at the edge of the park.
“Just tell me one thing,” Bryan said, after an awkward beat of silence. “Do you genuinely care about her or is this just some… game to make you feel good about yourself?”
“It’s not a game, Bryan.”
“So you really care about her?”
“I do.”
There was no use denying what I already knew.
“I didn’t expect this to happen,” I added. “But sometimes you can’t stop these things.”
“She’s just been through so much… and you’re… fuck, I don’t know how to understand this.”
“I fought it, you know?” I confessed. Maybe it was because I needed to talk to someone about it, or maybe it was because of all the people in Rixon, Bryan knew Peyton. He knew how easy it was to be bewitched by her.
“You think I don’t know it’s wrong, that everyone will look at me and think I’m some kind of….” I couldn’t say it.
“Yeah,” he agreed, only making the knot in my stomach tighter.
“Peyton isn’t like other girls her age, Bryan.”
“Is that how you’ve justified it to yourself?” He let out a bitter laugh. “Because that’s some bullshit right there.”
“That came out wrong. I just mean… everything she’s been through; I understand what it’s like to carry so much pain.”
Bryan sipped his coffee as he stared out at the park. Fairy lights had been strung up in the dense trees, their trunks wrapped in huge silver bows. All we needed was some snow and it would be the perfect winter wonderland right in the heart of Rixon.
“She said something similar,” he said quietly, as if it hurt him to say the words. “Just promise me one thing,” Bryan finally looked at me again. “Don’t hurt her.”
I’d never imagined a scenario where I’d be taking advice from an eighteen-year-old kid, but here I was.
“I’ll try not to.”
Hurting Peyton was the last thing I wanted. If anything, I wanted to do the exact opposite. I wanted to make her laugh and smile and feel good about herself. I wanted to show her that life wasn’t always a battle, that even in the darkness there were flickers of light.
“I guess that’s all there is left to say then.” He stood up abruptly, looming down at me. Suddenly, I didn’t feel much like his elder. Under his narrowed gaze, I felt small.
“I promised Peyton I won’t say anything to anyone, but once the holidays are over, if you don’t come clean, I will.”
I gave him a silent nod. It was a threat, one I had no doubt he would follow through on if I didn’t do what he considered to be the right thing.
“If you care about her as much as you say you do, then there should be no problem telling everyone,” he said, before disposing of his coffee cup in the trash can and walking away from me.
I let out a strained breath. It had gone better than I expected. It wasn’t like I needed his approval or understanding, but he was Peyton’s friend, and I didn’t want to alienate her any more than necessary from the people she cared about.
Running a hand down my face, I drained my coffee before throwing it away. Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I made the short walk back to my truck, when an idea struck me.
It was Peyton’s birthday, her eighteenth birthday and I’d gotten her nothing.
It had seemed too soon in our relationship to commit to buying her something. But Bryan’s parting words played on my mind.
