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He watches them leave, still refusing to so much as glance my way.

And it’s not until a door closes upstairs and silence falls around us that I finally say something.

“I’m sorry.”

His entire body jolts at my words, yet it still takes a good ten seconds of unbearable tension before he finally moves his eyes to me.

“Not good enough,” he spits, his voice full of venom and hatred.

“I fucked up, Oak. I saw something that didn’t actually exist and latched onto it. I needed someone to hate, I needed someone to blame for the fact that my entire life had been a lie, and unfortunately it fell on her.”

“Still not fucking good enough. She did nothing wrong, Reese. Not a damn thing.”

“I know,” I say, lifting my hand to rub the back of my neck as shame burns through me. “Fuck. I know. But I couldn’t see that at the time.”

“You could have thrown it my way. Any fucking way but hers.”

I stare at him, not having any words for him. The air crackles between us, and my head spins with all the things I should probably be saying right now but am too chicken shit to allow out of my mouth.

“You’re gonna need to start talking, Reese. I need a solid fucking reason not to break your fucking nose this time.”

My chin drops, my lips opening and closing a couple of times.

“Spit it the fuck out,” Oakley barks, slamming his empty bottle down and marching toward me.

I take a step back, not really in the mood to let him lay into me again. I can hardly fight back—it’s not like he deserves the pain like I do.

His hands lift and he shoves me hard in the chest, forcing me to back up again. “Tell me, Reese. Tell me why I shouldn’t,” he begs. It’s almost as if he doesn’t want to hurt me despite the hunger darkening his eyes that tells me otherwise.

“Oak, I—”

“You what, arsehole?”

My back collides with the wall, my head ricocheting off, sending a bolt of pain down my neck.

Oak’s breath races over my face as he stares me dead in the eyes, daring me to lie to him, begging me not to open up so he has a reason to hurt me.

“Because I’ve fallen for her,” I whisper, barely able to believe I’m saying the words out loud.

“You motherfucker,” he barks, and I wince when he pulls his arm back and throws his fist forward. Only, it never collides with my face. Instead, he plants it firmly into the wall beside me. “You motherfucking, cock-sucking…” He continues spitting insults at me that I can’t decipher as he drops his head into his hands and backs up.

“Oak?” I question when he stops in the middle of the room and does… nothing.

His knuckles are split wide open again from that hit, drops of blood falling to the stone floor beneath his feet.

“You were never meant to touch her. She’s meant to be off-limits.”

I’m the one who falls silent this time.

Oak and I have been tight for as long as I can remember, but we’ve never really dived into anything as deep as this, as serious as this. In the past, any disagreement has been resolved by a fight or a battle on the Xbox. Never has it been like this.

The cavern that opened up when I left this summer is stretching wider as we stand here staring at each other.

“Do you love her?” he finally asks, his voice cracked with emotion.

“I… uh…”

“This isn’t the time to fucking hesitate, Reese,” he warns.

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