AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Are you going to say anything?”
My lips part and I want to give him something, anything. But the fact that I went out of my way for her last night … maybe that’s why. Maybe she knows I want her. The idea hits and steals my words from me.
“She’s a good person,” Tyler tells me as if that’s why I stay away from her.
“I love you, Tyler. God knows it. But you’re a fucking idiot.”
I should have kept my mouth shut, but everyone has their limits.
“She loves me and she’s not going anywhere,” he tells me with a confidence I’ve never seen in my baby brother.
My baby brother who’s oblivious to what we really are and what goes on here.
My baby brother who’s never been struck once by my father.
My perfect baby brother who wants to make everyone around him smile because he’s never known pain like I have.
“She only loves you because she has no one else who loves her.” My gaze pins him where he is as I say the words. “Remember that.”
* * *
Loneliness isa bitter pill to swallow. I know I’ve brought it on myself, but still. A sarcastic, humorless huff leaves me as I grab the bottle of whiskey and take a swig.
It must be karma.
I left Addison to her loneliness so I could survive.
Now she’s leaving me to mine to ruin me.
Touché, little love.
The whiskey burns as I take another heavy drink. And with it every possibility of where I lost her flashes in my mind. The times from back when we were younger and I held back so much, to only moments ago when I didn’t hold back a damn thing.
I lick my lower lip and then pick the bottle back up, but a timid knock stops me from chugging back more of the amber liquid.
“Daniel,” I hear Addison’s voice from beyond the door. Hope flickers deep inside of me, flirting with a darkness that’s nearly consumed me.
My heart pauses. So do my lungs. It’s only when I hear her again that they both decide to function again. She’s here.She came to me.
My blood buzzes as I stand up and make my way to the front door. All while I stride to the door the alcohol sets in, and I hear her call out again. “Please open the door, Daniel.”
She’s mid-motion of knocking again with her mouth parted and more to say when I pull the door open. She looks shocked and even flinches slightly.
“Daniel,” she says my name with a hint of surprise, but quickly her expression and tone change. “I wanted to explain.”
And that right there is why I didn’t let that hope grow. The coldness in my chest puts out the small flame. It’s hard to school my expression. It’s hard to hide it from her. But a part of me is screaming not to. To let her see what she’s doing to me. To make sure she knows she’s destroying me bit by bit.
“Explain?” The question comes out with a bit of anger and I have to readjust my grip on the door and look away from her for a moment.
“You don’t owe me anything, Addison,” I tell her and turn to walk down the hall, but I leave the door open. I let her come to me willingly.
When I hear the door shut and her following me inside, a smile slowly forms on my face. It’s only a trace of genuine happiness. But at least I know she can’t let me go as easily as she thinks she can.
“Daniel, please,” she says as she catches up to me in the living room, gripping my shirt and making me turn to face her.
“What is it you want to explain?” I ask her and almost call her little love. Almost.
“I didn’t think that you wanted anything but a good fuck.” God, she does something to me when she talks like that. When foul and dirty words come out of that pretty little mouth of hers.
